There are evenings when life feels pretty simple. You've eaten, maybe read something, maybe exercised, maybe watched a bad movie that was still pretty good. Then there are evenings when your whole life suddenly opens up like an old linen closet and everything falls out onto the floor at the same time. Then you can start to think about how…
Category: Mental illness
Relationships alone are not enough – happiness requires a holistic perspective
Relationships important but no miracles Good relationships are crucial for well-being. A long-term Harvard study with that message, the New York Times recently highlighted. The research supports it. People with warm, stable relationships live longer and happier on average. Isolation, on the contrary, can be as harmful as smoking. More time with family and friends actually increases…
Debt settlement too difficult to obtain
The fact that over-indebtedness is sky-high in Sweden is not just a personal tragedy for hundreds of thousands of people – it is a systemic failure that reveals something deeply immoral in our economic system. In the fall of 2025, collection requirements will decrease slightly, but that is because people are too poor to even borrow. Private debt mountain not necessary We live in a…
The school's lack of results is due to cutbacks, lack of performance, municipalization and independent schools
In SvD, Henrik Dalgard raises important points about how a culture of adaptation and lowered requirements in teaching affect students and pupils. But it is crucial to place the problem in a larger context. The deteriorating results in school and students' reduced ability to write and analyze is not an isolated phenomenon. They are consequences of…
Wage gaps in business not productive
The report "Reining in CEO Compensation and Curbing the Rise of Inequality" by Dean Baker, Josh Bivens and Jessica Schieder shows how the increase in executive pay since the 1970s has widened income gaps in the US. High salaries for company leaders lead to other senior managers also being paid more, while the salaries of the employees in the middle and at the bottom…
How neoliberalism breaks us down
The oil crisis gave rise to neoliberalism. I believe that the oil crisis of 1973 was largely based on misinformation and exaggerated fear, something that both Clara E. Mattei and Sven Grassman have highlighted. Mattei describes how the crisis was used to legitimize austerity policies and neoliberal reforms, while Grassman showed how Sweden manipulated its national accounts. The bourgeois government painted a…
Social benefits and mental illness
Reduced social benefits coincide with more mental ill health Why do we feel so bad when we are doing so well? Social benefits have been falling in value since 1985. Economic decisions have had a profound impact on both social and mental health problems in society. In 1985, a single person with two small children received 4,270 kronor a month according to…
Ichi-go, Ichi-e – to be fully present in every meeting
Ichi-go, Ichi-e (一期一会) is a Japanese expression that roughly translates as "once, a meeting" or "once, a meeting". This expression has deep cultural and philosophical roots in Japan and conveys the idea that each encounter is unique and can never be relived exactly the same way again. Therefore, one should value and…
Private property a social construct
Property and the Origin of Wealth At the outset, it is important to understand that property, as we know it today, has not always existed. In early human history, land, resources and property were common assets, without fixed boundaries or personal ownership. The concept of private property has developed over time and is not a given; it is rather a social…
Government: Create more low-wage workers
Tidölaget's strategy is to, after a short time, lower the unemployment fund by 5% every 100 days until it reaches a bottom of SEK 8030 before tax per month. This contrasts with the needs of the long-term unemployed. These are often functionally varied often functionally varied or long-term ill and cannot cope with the low-wage jobs the government advocates to solve...