The kingdom was very happy with their king. Prosperity flowed abundantly. There were no beggars; there was no squalor. After the king died his son became the new king. He wanted to improve his father’s kingdom. He sought the aid of a very clever merchant who showed him how he could make the kingdom richer.
The merchant told him of another kingdom that was very poor. They have very little wealth but they had a lot of people who were willing to work for slave wages.
The merchant advised the king to take all the industry of his kingdom and move it to the poorer kingdom so that its poor people would have jobs, but earn much less than the people of his own kingdom. This way, the merchant advised the king, a huge profit could be realized from the gold saved by not having to pay his own people decent wages which, for many generations, they had enjoyed.
The new king thought that this was a marvelous idea. He did as the merchant advised. But then something unexpected eventually happened, the people of his kingdom began to use up their savings to purchase the things they needed that were made in the other kingdom he had sent his kingdom’s industry to.
As a result, the people of his own kingdom borrowed a great deal of gold for they no longer had real employment of any savings. But nothing seemed to work to make the kingdom prosperous. Making matters even worse, the new king kept sending more of the kingdom’s industry to the poorer kingdom while only a few people benefited from this, mainly, the merchant and his close relatives.
Within twenty-years the kingdom had gone from prosperity to penury. The only person who was wealthy was the merchant and his relatives. In addition, the previously poor kingdom was now a rich kingdom. Then the merchant decided to leave the young king to his miseries and go to the former poor kingdom, which was now prosperous, to speak with its king. He wanted to sell this king on the same idea that left the previous kingdom in penury. He called his idea ‘free trade’ which would guarantee much gold, an increase in employment, and many more miracles.
The moral of this story: What is good for a greedy merchant is not often good for the people and the kingdom.
Swedes arent "cultured" any moreso than those in San Francisco are, and bemuse themselves to be.
Having lived in San Fran for a year, and myself knowing MANY Swedes, they’re both the same type.
Pseudo-intellectual morons who, with their many museums etc etc, and their social monuments to "Tolerance" think the rural schmuck is an uncouth loon.
These unwise fools are fond of sniffing their own flatus, and sticking their noses in the air, fully assured of their own self-superiority to the rest of the USA, or in the case of the Swedes, the rest of the world.
My wife is Swedish, and of the 9 Swedish immigrants I know, they all said they wanted to ‘get the hell out of that socialist Disneyland, Svierge!” .
As to saving Sweden’s ass in WWII from becoming a Nazi wonderland..., ………”youre welcome”
Posted by: Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack | February 06, 2009 at 06:17 PM
I agree with Anthony Bourdain, TV host to "No Reservations" who recently said after visiting Sweden-- "well, its gonna be a cold day in hell before we go back to Scandanavia for a program snoozefest".
Non-bodhi comments: Sure, he (myself) buys "made in China" at Mao-mart to support corporations that outsource and destroy jobs here in America.
Wal-mart is the anti-christ, i wont shop there even if it were free.
I dont care about jobs destroyed in the USA, i am self-sufficient in everyway... metaphysical 'folks' arent worried about the political climate.
I must be a "hillbilly redneck".... surely there are lots of them like myself who have 1000s of books on philosophy, listen to classical, and like fine wine. (meaning,..there are none).
Or as Admiral Patrick once said of the 'american roughneck'..."Everyone in Europe who had a set of testicles, left the homeland, and came to the USA prior to the 1900s"
Posted by: Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack | February 06, 2009 at 06:07 PM
I speak 6 languages, can write in three, understand 8. The average swedish child froma an age of 10 speaks and understands 3 languages. The military service is 9 months and not mandatory anymore. The swedes learned to love knowledge, diplomacy and wisdom since the King Gustaf III whom wanted more culture, art and math for his people and no war (the military assainated him for that later) but his legacy remained and sweden became one of the most well educated nation on this planet with a recorded illeteracy of only 0,3% (due to recent immigration of slavic and asian ppl).
Having fought countless wars for almost 1000 years, the swedes decided to cease and refuse participating in any war after the napoleonic wars during 1800. Instead the country focused on peace keeping troops and strong international diplomatic interventions on various continents. It seems historically that the chinese especially like the swedes because the ppl as such are very alike in character and intellect. The first contact was established during the eastindian company in sweden that established a deep and long lasting cultural and trade exchange with the chinese. The sinology department in stockholm is probably the best in the world when it comes to ancient chinese scriptures, culture treasures and education in chinese. East asian ppl like Vietnamese are very well liked and sweden made many protests against the US during the vietnam war.
The only ppl swedes have difficulties with seems to be the americans whom are considered crude, artificial, illeterate (especially in languages, geography and religion).
Swedes prefer Canadians before hill billy americans due to the similar temperament and voidness of mental diseases which tend to flourish in the states (LOL).
Anyhow, with ref. to bodhiratnas comment I agree that although the author spoke about something completely different, I couldnt abstain from responding to this low life, drug chewing hill billy troll from kentucky fried chicken state.
He represents in a way the current mental state of an entire nation. Much like ancient Rome, on its way to implode completely in a black cloud of greed, fear, hate and ignorance, sparing none however innocent they might be.
Posted by: anonymous | February 06, 2009 at 02:41 PM
The article did not discuss taxation in Sweden or how socialism is going to destroy America (according to Rush Limburger's redneck like Ken Wheeler who visits this forum).
Obviously the troll lacks the reading comprehension skill to see that the author was discussing the demise and damage that "free trade" has caused to nations and world economy.
Sure, he buys "made in China" at Mao-mart to support corporations that outsource and destroy jobs here in America. Then he wears that US flag pin and then he calls himself a 'patriotic' American, LOL.....some ain't right with that boy :)
Bodhiratna
Posted by: Bodhiratna | February 06, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Goodness, only 33%, and 2 years mandatory military service........and and and and and .......
And lets forget that sweden almost fell off the cliff some years ago, economically that is.
All hail Svierge!
You should have moved to Norway, where the taxes are even higher. *with love* ~ flapjack
You said "national illeteracy level of whopping 14%"
~~~ Sorry but i dont count illegal aliens and the dark-skins as part of "the nation"
I know 5 languages, you?
Sweden, during WWII bent over and took it up the backside for Dear Adolf.How noble.
Posted by: Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack | February 06, 2009 at 12:44 PM