{"id":35468,"date":"2016-08-09T22:56:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T02:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=35468"},"modified":"2016-08-09T22:56:32","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T02:56:32","slug":"socialism-works-if-it-delivers-wealth-and-real-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=35468","title":{"rendered":"“Socialism” works if it delivers wealth and real benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Backroads (the California company) took Michael and me on a one week bicycle trip — from Stockholm to Copenhagen. The trip involved biking (I did 295 kilometers), and shuttles by bus, boat and train. A friend asked my three strongest memories:<\/p>\n

+ Dark forests and glowing wheat and barley fields in Sweden and Denmark.<\/p>\n

+ The Baltic and the zillions of islands between Denmark and Sweden — as many as 80,000. The island scenery is stunning. It’s like Maine on steroids.<\/p>\n

+ Stockholm and Copenhagen. Great cities oozing with talent, history, culture, design and booming with new construction — more so in Stockholm. Big cranes everywhere. Copenhagen is the big dig. They’re putting in a huge subway system– though why I’m not sure. Around 65% of the people in town bike to their work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We were meant to be there on vacation. But I kept playing economist, mulling. These people pay among the highest income taxes in the world. Yet nobody is complaining. Everybody has a country house (on all those islands), a nice car and oodles of fun stuff — like boats and bicycles. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be under socialism, according to what we’re hearing in American politics. High taxes are a bar to progress we hear from our politicians. Why are these two countries different? I asked many — from our waitress (studying to be a forensic policeman) to the owner of a million dollar boat parked at a local dock.<\/p>\n

And the\u00a0universal\u00a0answer? Everyone seems to trust how their government spends their taxes. For starters (which everyone mentions first) free health care, then free education — with most university students actually receiving around 800 euros a month in allowance. Then there’s free childcare, free buses for the elderly,\u00a0and — wait for this — free ferries between the islands.<\/p>\n

You can’t call it “socialism,” because everyone talks about the “rich” people and points out their multi-million dollar homes and apartments. I learned that Sweden’s richest man is the fellow who owns Ikea and everyone seems proud of his accomplishments. I’m mulling what lessons there are for us in the good old U.S.A. Maybe this stuff only works for small countries?<\/p>\n

What’s impressive is that the free and universal education seems to work. I’m told there are more people who speak English in Sweden than who speak English now in England.<\/p>\n

Here’s Michael and Harry having biked for lunch to Frederiksborg Castle, which houses Denmark’s ultra-impressive Museum of National History — founded and financed (like most museumy things in Denmark) by a local philanthropic brewer. You will not believe the quality of the food in Denmark and Sweden until you’ve visited and tasted it. Salmon. Herring. Cream cheese. Cinanom buns. etc.<\/p>\n

\"FrederiksborgSlot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel Tips I just learned from my trip to Sweden and Denmark:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

+ In past trips, I’ve rented a personal hotspot gadget from XCom Global. They give you Wi-Fi access to the Internet, this is the gadget:<\/p>\n

\"XcomGlobal1\"<\/a> \"XcomGlobal2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I rented the gadget\u00a0for this trip,\u00a0but never used it. Every hotel has Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

Michael has a unlimited international data roaming package on his AT&T iPhone. He used it with Google Maps and that got us around faster than, God forbid, having to use paper maps. So if you want to use Google Maps on your next overseas trip, then rent one of the Xcom Global gadgets.<\/p>\n

+ You need a big, clunky converter plug like this. The little ones don’t always work.<\/p>\n

\"converterplug\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To buy, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ This is Bose’s latest and greatest. It’s called the Bose Quiet Comfort 35.<\/p>\n

\"BoseQuietComfort\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is noise cancelling at its best. It’s Bluetooth. Hence no wires. It has a microphone, so you can answer incoming calls and speak on them. You’ll be blow away with the comfort of the thing. I was.<\/p>\n

$349 from Amazon. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Take bars of soap. I can’t stand liquid body wash. I like soap so I always take some. I also take my Duxiana travel pillow.<\/p>\n

+\u00a0If you’re taking Apple stuff, carry genuine Apple cords and chargers. The stuff from China usually stops working at the worst time.<\/p>\n

+ Make sure you drop several business cards into all your luggage. This way you’ll have a better chance of getting it back.<\/p>\n

+ TSA Precheck works and saves huge time. Please enroll. Many credit card companies will pay the cost. I believe some airlines will also.<\/p>\n

Walmart is buying Jet.com (for $3 billion) to compete against Amazon. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve never used Jet. I wondered what could Walmart could see in Jet? I went shopping on Jet.com for my favorite travel camera, the Canon G5X:<\/p>\n

\"CanonG5X\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s how Jet sells it. Top black price is Canon’s list. $749 is the price Amazon sells it at. But Jet offers interesting options which Amazon doesn’t offer — yet.<\/p>\n

\"Jetpricing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Favorite Olympic Games cartoon<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"DopedUpRussianAthletes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0No jokes from Sweden or Denmark. They’re too busy making money. I suspect their ownership and understanding of stocks is far broader than ours.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\"HarryNewton\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Harry Newton who’s happy to be home and no longer answering questions about what IS going on in American presidential politics. There’s talk over there that if Trump is elected, many countries in Europe will start spending hugely on their military. I wonder which of our defense stocks could boom? LMT?<\/p>\n