No, the erst-while Hijackers and Extreeeemist were the ones cast to the side by the elections outcome, per the thread......something Consumer Advocacy and Government Oversight someday should make unnecessary.
"Ikea developed strong links with the communist state in the 1970s, opening a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which, according to Stasi records discovered by . . . WDR, used political prisoners to construct sofas," Britain's The Telegraph has reported. The factory in Waldheim stood next to a prison, and inmates were used as unpaid labour, it has been claimed. "Jails in the Democratic Republic housed significant numbers of political prisoners, with some estimates indicating they made up at least 20 per cent of the entire prison population." "Quoted in a Stasi file, Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea's founder, said while he had no official knowledge of the use of prison labour, if it did indeed exist 'in the opinion of Ikea it would be in society's interests'." Ikea says the company "had no knowledge of the use of prison labour, but was sorry if it had occurred", The Telegraph said. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/10204713/ikea-slave-labour-reports/
Just got a new IKEA Book Shelf and entertainment stand for my office. I'm watching Fox News on the TV that's on it right now!
Of course, the US is a much poorer country and as such the wages there are lower. That's how the world works, if it is a poor country, the average wages are lower. You can bet that everything else is cheaper in the US as well compared to Sweden. Not sure what the point is in comparing wages in a first world country to a second world country, of course there will be a difference. Just compare the salaries of McDonalds in Sweden compared to the US. The McDonalds minimum wages in Sweden are almost double ($13 compared to $7.5) and the Swedes also have 5 weeks payed vacation (because it is required in Sweden) and very little overtime (because you are only allowed a few hours per month by law). So why not boycott McDonalds or any other company for that matter? Feels like you lack an understanding of how the world outside the US works, there are plenty of countries that have a much higher standard of living.
They Sweden will still make money by outsourcing manufactoring to poorer countries with a cheap labour force, such as the US or China. Iron isn't the biggest source of export in Sweden, lumber is. And lumber is renewable. It is also one of the largest exporters of vegetable oil, which will only become a larger industry as pretty much any diesel car runs on it and the fossil oil supplies are running out. As the world population doubles every 35 years, fertile land becomes the most valuable commodity, and Sweden has plenty of that.
The point is, all of Sweden's economic success depends solely on exports; iron, wood and energy. Once those exports are no longer in demand, what then?
Timber, iron and energy has been in demand for 4 000 years, I doubt that will change anytime soon, if anything the demand just keeps increasing. Especially as there is less and less places to grow timber on due to the world population doubling every 30 years. As for the biggest exports of Sweden, the #1 is Medicinal, dental & pharmaceutical preparations. Sweden is very unlikely to crash, you don't have to take my word for it. You can check the currency index. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_most_stable_economy_in_the_world Sweden has the second most stable economy in the world, after the Vatican. What you should be worried about is the massive unemployment in the US, the extremely high national debt that keeps increasing every day with no interest in doing anything about it. Just check http://www.usdebtclock.org/ It's falling like a deck of cards. The US is dying, it is extremely unstable and no one wants to invest there anymore. The only investments are for their cheap labour force with poor working conditions but even that China and India does better. If you had any sense, you'd stop loaning money, cut down on expenses and raise taxes, but apparently you don't want that (why in gods name not I cannot even begin to comprehend). Instead, you will be screaming "freedom", and "no one messes with my American way of life!!1" on your way to becoming a third world country.