A little anecdote from a Brazilian [adversarial societal model] perspective...
Our Brazilian story-teller moved to Sweden for a year to work on a project. Other than the physical cold he had to deal with some serious nonsense of the following kind...
His co-worker picked him up every morning and drove them to work, where they were always early. The huge firm had a huge car park and his colleague always parked at the beginning of the car park, at the furthermost point from the entrance. Although he could choose any place he always chose a place very far away from the entrance. It was very odd, to say the least, since it was always almost empty when they arrived, some half hour before the shift. Namely, he normally did that - start early - just in case, as they had to drive for a while to get there, so to make sure - to allow for all eventualities...
Anyway, the first day the driver's guest kept his mouth shut. The second day, too. The third day also. But as they got to know each other a bit better he decided it was time to ask the awkward Qs and risk a bit... being silly or... whatever...
So, he pops the Q: every morning we're early. Every day the car park is empty. Every morning when we arrive it's bloody cold. So, why on Earth would you park so far from the entrance and we have to walk for so long, in the morning cold?
And his driver said, "Wouldn't you think that people who will be here late[r than us], for whatever reason, would need to be able to park closer and not waste time on walking a long time to the entrance?"
You know, when you see people in suits, the city-types, going through garbage bins in the street and "recycling", in the middle of the day, in full view of everyone else, out of their own, free and obviously good will - it makes you think quite hard...
Some 68% of their GDP goes to public spending; most recipients are women, working for the state; they have high taxes and they are not complaining - quite the opposite is the case, as they are proud of the community they created - and no party goes into elections with such a motto ["we're gonna lower your taxes"]; half of the MPs are women; children are protected properly, not just legally; women, too; minorities are taken care of pretty well; most people in Sweden think "one can trust the other" [the highest in the world]; some 80% of Swedish workers are unionised; sustainable, environmentally friendly forestry policies are in place; the highest developmental [and similar solidarity with the "third world"] funds are provided for [like "democratisation", "civil society", NGOs, human rights, women's rights developing/enhancing/strengthening projects] etc. etc. etc. and so on and so forth....
[...Sweden is mother, Sweden is father, Sweden is God!!!
]
