System of a Whatever

American research published recently cast some interesting light on the importance of political systems. It shows for instance that the about 1.2 million Swedes who immigrated to America experienced the same amount of poverty as the Swedes who stayed in the homeland, this despite very different health and socioeconomic conditions in the two countries. About 6,7 percent of Swedish-Americans lived below the poverty live, and the exact same number was shown for domestic Swedes when putting their economic situation in an American context. Stunningly enough similar things were shown when comparing Swedish and American life expectancies over time. 50 years ago the average Swede lived 2,7 years longer than the American. 2010, the difference remains at 2.7 years despite diverging directions over the past half century of the nations' health-care systems and income disparities within the publics. Does this mean that it simply doesn't matter which political system you incorporate? American limited government with private sponsored health-care, laissez-fair capitalism, individualism -or Swedish active government, extensive welfare state, and collective solutions seem to give the same results. So what's the point?

An important distinction is of course that Swedish life expectancy is still substantially higher than the American; especially considering we are talking about two Western countries. Another point, which was also made in this cited research, is the difference within the two nations. Whereas life expectancy in Sweden remains fairly similar across different socioeconomic strata, in the US big differences are present. Asian-Americans are expected to live a stunning 16 years than African Americans on average (89 years compared to 73; the number for Caucasians is 78 years). Reasons are of course to be found in the huge segregations of American society, where Asian-Americans have been able to gain higher level of education and start own enterprises, raising standard of living and thus life expectancy. African-Americans are on the other hand much more likely to experience poverty, crime, and gun violence.

We should of course have expected to see these differences between Sweden and America's political and economic systems. It follows what we have always been taught and told, and Americas system of fend-for-yourself-equality-of-opportunity have always yielded huge differences between people. Despite all the talk of the United States being the land of opportunity where everyone can live the American Dream, you are six times (count 'em) more likely to move upwards socioeconomically in Sweden than in the US. It is clear that the direction and color of our politics will continue to matter greatly.