Saturday, 4pm the center of Malmo, everything is “dead”
Both Ft. Lauderdale, where I am living now, and Malmo, where I lived before, are small cities, and I guess it is the only similarity they have. On the one hand, I like the convenience and the variety of services available in Florida. The fact that all stores are open from 9:00am until 10-11pm every day makes shopping more enjoyable and fun. In contrast, in Malmo, everything is dead closed at 6:00pm. During the weekends, the stores in Malmo are open part of the day are partly open, and in many areas of the city, they are not open at all. Even though I am from Europe, I am pleasantly surprised by the variety of merchandise and products in any store in Ft. Lauderdale. To be more objective on this aspect, I attribute this to service-minded traditions in the USA and not just in Ft. Lauderdale. I also find the variety of designer clothing and shoes is very limited in Malmo. The stores are boring and the service is poor, because store staff do not receive any bonus for selling more merchandise. And the biggest disadvantage in shopping in Malmo is the incredibly unreasonably high prices. You can’t negotiate nor ask for a discount in Sweden while in the US it is quite common.
Saturday, 2pm Ft Lauderdale's beach
The night life and restaurants are also much better here. To have dinner out with the family or just have a drink with your fiends is more affordable and convenient here. On the contrary, having a family dinner out in Sweden is considered to be an expensive activity. In addition, people have a “logistic” problem, because drinking and driving is not allowed in Sweden, not even after one glass of wine. A penalty or fine for this misdemeanor is really high, and sometimes you can lose your drivers license. Taxis are also incredibly expensive in Sweden. Sometimes the cost of one way, for example from my house to the center of Malmo, is the same as you would pay for going out to a restaurant, which discourages us from having dinner out.
The biggest and most essential difference between the USA and Sweden it is the health care system. Generally speaking, there are two different government systems, two different societies, and two different ways of treating people. In Sweden, the heath care is free. You can have a doctor appointment in your local hospital and you don’t need any insurance for that. You just need your personal number and must be resident of Sweden. All surgeries and dential care for kids under 18 are for free too. A bill for every visit in Sweden, like in Florida, is $20. However, I feel like the administration and bureaucracy in the Malmo health care system are offsetting the advantages. Furthermore, many people, especially newcomers from foreign countries, are misusing the system which makes the situation worse. The health care system in Sweden is recognized as a “paradise” system, but taxpayers are paying a price for this “paradise” in the form of high taxes. While in the USA people have really low taxes. Nevertheless, I have had some discussions about this subject with my American friends and it turned out that, in general, the tax difference between the American and Swedish system is just about 10-15%. The money saved by American’s taxpayers by paying less taxes does not cover the expenses of health insurance, school, child care, and pension which are taken care of by the Swedish government. I think that this is darkest side of life in the USA. I enjoy living here but I am terrified just by the mere thought that I wouldn’t be able to provide my child with the necessary health care if I were unemployed, and any simple illness of my child could result in economical disaster.
Ft Lauderdale, USA
I have lived here since March 2009, and I feel more and more settled as days go by. I often ponder my life experience here and in Sweden, and I still can’t make a decision about which society is better. Let me put it this way, if you keep everything as it is in the USA, but change the health care system to Swedish one, the USA would be the greatest Paradise country in the whole world. I would be proud to be American, and I would pay my taxes with a big smile. But so far, it is a country of pure business, where everything is gauged by profit and money, where the health care of people is just a mere profit for already rich insurance companies and medical hospitals, which makes me sick. And here I am still looking for the perfect country.
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