Xtrophic and Tastyvixen the ultimate GSP love story? *laughs*
Don't worry Tasty, unless I'm mistaken Sweden is similar to Norway (although Sweden is part of the EU) so the majority of Health/Doctor/Dental stuff costs are handled by the social security system or whatever it's called in English only a small fee need to be paid (% of total)
Ditto with education (correct me if I'm wrong peeps), free education too, although the there are private schools, the public ones are pretty good, and if you got a ok job the book costs aren't that bad. Not sure about going to Uni though, that should be free too (not counting books)
And most younger citizens know English pretty well, at least enough to be understood. Good English classes etc too.
Public transport coverage in urban areas are pretty much close to 100% so not having car is not that much of an issue.
Best of all, Cops don't carry guns normally, guns are only allowed in gun clubs and are police regulated, military home defense might have guns, but no ammo at homes. So street shootings and school shootings don't really exist here. (compared to USA etc)
TV and media and entertainment in general is more normal, less puritan, less censorship. Violence is considered worse than seeing naked boob to put it that way. (like Mass Effect having 12+ or such rating around here rather than 17+ like in the states)
Freedom of speech is much stronger here. (sorry USA, blame your own politicians for messing that one up
)
Sweden is the border neighbor to Norway (along almost the entirety of both countries), Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland etc. So dragging the family for a quick trip to a foreign country to get some culture is rather easy.
Very good Internet, better than Norway even, and much cheaper.
Norway and Sweden are two extremely stable countries, they are unlikely to ever have issues with each other, nor their other neighbors.
Politicians are still morons. (good luck finding any nation where this is not the case. *laughs*)
What else. Ah yeah. Xtrophic may need to confirm of the stuff in this post but...I think Sweden is just like Norway when it comes to other stuff too.
Drinking Tap Water? Just fine! You won't see much need for bottled water, except if you are walking outdoors, not that many drinkable "streams" in city areas actually. *laughs*.
A bit picky about food, so expect the quality of food to be pretty damn great.
Norwegian icecream is better than the Swedish though, unless you pay attention and make sure to find icecream that has real cream, for that really lush soft ice.
Hmm! What else. Ah. Norway and Sweden does not do much dubbing, so expect most movies and TV series and computer/console games to be in it's original language but with you know Swedish subtitles. So having the kid fluent in both Swedish and English won't be an issue
There are workers unions (that go on strike now and again) here too,
but you won't be left out in the cold if your not in a union either. The government should have strict rules on employer-employee rights.
Unemployment and Social Services systems are pretty good and free,
the government here in Norway and probably Sweden too issue yearly budgets for things like special projects and paid classes that the unemployed can take for free... Etc. Social Services has several similar programs too, like computer classes for senior citizens etc.
Hmm, ah! Taxes on salary, services and goods are a bit high. The government takes a cut of pretty much everything so does the local counties and sub-counties.
But looking at the stuff above one might understand why there is so much taxes and the high costs.
Having trouble thinking of anything else, Xtrophic I'm sure you got plenty errors to point out and things I forgot to mention. And you'll prolly argue about the icecream but as far as I know Swedish icecream is a bit watery. (although there are a few brands in Norway that are watery too, must are very creamy)
I don't know what to say!
I am the Goddess of my Destiny and Bringer of Love.
