Rats Invade Sweden!

Be very careful deciding what you want from your government.

Sweden is generally credited for having established a functional and economically friendly recycling program... until you talk to the Swedes themselves. As one such Swede says:

The structure works the way all centrally planned structures work: it increases and centralizes power while the attempted (expected) results do not materialize. In this case, the structure works: people do sort their trash in different bins — they have no choice. Also, government garbage collection companies do not have to do as much work while getting paid more than ever before.

A recent problem with the garbage-collection centers is that the containers aren't emptied very often (a typical example of government "savings") and thus remain full, which means that people's garbage piles up next to the overflowing containers while the government contractors sit idle: they are only paid to empty the containers on schedule, not to pick up the trash sitting next to these containers. The result? Disease and rats. Newspapers have been reporting on a "rat invasion" in Stockholm and in other Swedish cities in recent years.

If we consider the costs in monetary terms, in terms of wasted time, and in terms of increased emissions from automobiles, this is hardly environmentally friendly. Adding the annoyance and the increased risk for disease, Swedish recycling is at least as disastrous as any other government scheme.

So what we have here is another example of a government responding to what the people think they need... kind of like healthcare. Except that there is a disconnect between what the people want and what the people get. The Swedes wanted to help the environment. What they got was rats and frustration. The thing that is supposed to bridge the gap is a nifty little thing we've lost faith in: The Free Market. Market forces provide the connection between cause and effect, supply and demand, public desire and private enterprise. Imagine the mess we'd have if our government had been tasked with getting a cell phone into each and every one of our greedy little hands. Lucky for me and my Samsung Blackjack II, such was not the case.

If we're going to elect a president who believes it is government's job to use our money to accomplish... well, whatever the hell it wants in the name of the greater good, then we better be laying out the traps. The rats are on their way, and good luck trying to get them to recycle.