Strong Arm Of The Law

So we once again turn into the depths of Swedish politics as next year is election year. Lines are being drawn in the sand between the parties and the only thing that actually differs the two sides is that the red-green want to heighten the taxes while the blue ons want to lower them. *Enter Sarcasm mode* This means there will be a really inspiring debate *exit sarcasm mode*. Seriously, that's what next year big issue gonna be? The problem is that I have a hard time buying the Social democrats idea that we need to heighten taxes to secure our welfare and not become a "low-tax country" like everyone else (it's unfortunately in Swedish, I might update it if I get my hands on an English version). We still pays the 2nd highest taxes in the world just after Denmark (excluding the two countries I've never heard of and seems to have taxes between 90% and above 100% however that's possible in the long run). I wonder where all the money goes to. Frankly I believe much goes to feed a bureaucratic tower of Babel and we could possible save in some money before increasing taxes. On the other hand there's a big chance that somewhere in that tower my workplace will be so I wouldn't like to shoot myself in the foot on this one. And just to remind everyone, I still believe that we shall heighten taxes if it's necessary and try to keep a budget stable, but this crisis changes the rule.

On the other hand the Alliance is not the perfect ruling platform that I would wholeheartedly support. Mostly because I have some issues with some of the parties in it. Especially the Christ Democrats, religion has nothing to do in politics and shall not be used to shove morals down your throat. So the Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask and a Kd member have today announced a new law where the citizens have to act if someone is in need (Swedish again). Now this probably make me sound cold-hearted but the consequences of this law could be really dire. It states that after everyones possibilities we must act if we seen someone in need. Many questions pop up like how do you judge if someone did to little for another person? What is the consequences if you break the law and how can a court judge if someone did to little? Also, is a civilian with limited understanding of the dangers associetad with intercepting some mischief really right person to risk his/her own life/health and others around them? Picture this scenario: Two people suddenly attack one lonely person. What should you do?Which side should you take? With this law you are obligated to help that one person as that's the one in need. But what happens if those two others were polices incognito? What happens then? And don't say it's highly unlikely, it actually happened to Ozzy Osbourne in his early career. He spent one night in jail for that, but with conflicting laws, which is more important? Some comments said that it should be better to foster us to believe in those values which I believe is wrong in another way as the state shouldn't force it's morals upon the people *cough* like the church *cough*.

Also, if the state can't protect us, do we get lower taxes? See, one of the states prime obligation is to protect it's citizens and therefore we pay taxes to uphold the law, but if it gets the citiziens responsibilities, then we should not pay so high taxes. We only pay for what we get. Of course, the good thing is that is should spring a very timid nation to action, but I don't think that the law will become reality if they make a thoroughly check upon the consequences. It smells just like a law to make Kd happy before the election so it seems like they actually have anything to say in the government. Where can I get a button "Vote Kd out of the Riksdag 2010"?