The lesson for the UW and Washington State is that Sweden, a country the size of WAstate, is competive on a worl scale. How do they do that? An essay at the Berkeley Blog brings these Swedish Ideas into phase with our own economy:
Worried about where we go from here? Well, you are not ALONE! I am just back from quick trips to Europe and Asia — and the question is the same everywhere. Sluggish economies, unemployment, weak banks, weaker currencies…. everyone is uncertain about where we go from here. The exception, and the answer, is right here in our back yard. While it may be trite, it is still true; the innovation and entrepreneurship evident at Berkeley and throughout the Silicon Valley ecosystem is a refreshing and fundamentally sound. So while the bipartisan commission appointed by President Obama tells us that the future will be challenging, with government spending less and taxing more, we can be confident that our economy will not succumb to “the British Disease”. We won’t be able to rely on our export of natural resources [like our friends in Australia and Norway], nor low cost manufacturing [achieved though under compensation of labor and disregard for the environment]. Rather we will rely on the ability of our innovators and entrepreneurs to create new items and experiences of value and convert them into economic and social goods. It is refreshing to be home!
The answer is simple, their economy don’t depend on consuming, they just pay takes proportional to their income, that support health care and outstanding education.