Last weekend, I went to a wedding and while telling everyone my new found-love of Denmark, I heard from a Swedish woman who told me that everything I had heard about Denmark was true and that Denmark was a wondrous country full of shiny, happy people with not a care in the world as they lived on the Happiest Place on Earth. Even compared to Sweden who, despite the fact ABBA came from there, were a little bit more prone towards melancholy and sadness.

I am in love.

This made me think about why I've become feeling so socialist these days, more so than I usually am. And here's why-- I've been laid off at least three times in my life. How's that American Style capitalism working for me?

The other day, I was sitting in the jacuzzi at the Y and eavesdropping on a fifty-something guy talking to somebody else about his plight. He got a Masters in Computer Electronics when he was in school and has been a computer engineer all of his life. He recently got laid off from Microsoft and now he's basically looking for work, plowing through his savings, and coming close to running out unemployment. When the guy he was talking to asked what he was going to do, the man, with a barely disguised tone of disgust and despair in his voice, said that all the experts and politicians says he needs to go to community college to either sharpen his skills or learn something new. This man was in his 50's, had about thirty years of experience and a good education and now he was staring at the reality of having to go back to school to learn something new so he can get a lower-end job that would probably pay him at least half of what he was making before.

How's American style capitalism working for him?

Then there's this story, about how in order to survive, companies are cutting salaries, health care benefits, and 401K payouts. Somebody commented in the story about how he took a 10% pay cut in order to keep his job but was now slowly coming to realize that it'll probably take him 3-4 years before he can ever get enough in raises to get back to the salary he had before. On top of that, he's now paying more for health care so his expenses have gone up and he's earning less for retirement which means he either has to take more money out of his salary for retirement or retire later in life. Or work at Safeway.

So, how's American-style capitalism working for him and all the other people in the same boat?