| Some clarification on the comments on unemployment in the Nordics . The nordics arent really as inviting, socialist and helpful as many US interweebs might think. Sweden and Denmark will only pay unemployment if you have unemployment insurance. Called A-kassa.
It is very expensive and you have to have paid it for a year to be able to claim benefits.
If you don´t pay A-kassa you will have the pleasure of having them spam you to reel you on 3-4 times a week. The Swedes and Danes have the highest taxes in the world but are using the US medical insurace as a model for unemployment. Really not the welfare system these two countries claim they have. The benefits you get from the A-kassa are extremly low. Less than average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment. You can buy another really expensive insurance to get a little higher amount. And even if it's an insurance you have paid for you will get hounded to get any job, the Danish authorities may send you to do pretty much menial job they demand to get you off the benefits. The Swedish are not as bad as the Danish in that regard. The way to live unemployed in Denmark and Sweden is to get into the medical system. Get a doctor to sign you have some illness. Stress is probably 90% of the cases in Denmark. Then you get a small amount montly, it has been pre covered by your tax money so you dont need to pay the extortionate A-kassa (unemployment insurance) and no one will hound you to take some excruciating job no one wants to do. This setup btw benefits the ruling parties in Sweden and Denmark as they can claim unenployment is at an historic low.
No one counts the people on, I suppose it could be called, disability. Iceland is a little different. Unemployment is covered in your tax payments, it's not a private (it's not supposed to be profitable, but trust me, for the A-kassa it truly is ) insurance like Denmark and Sweden. In Iceland you have to show proof that you are actively looking for work and you will be cut off from benefits for an x number of months after an x amount of time.
Do not remember the exact setup. Bizarrely the Icelandic system is a lot more fair and less cruel than the Swedish and Danish.
All three pay out a very very very low amount of money though. Now, coming from a point of bitterness.
This medical loop is exploited as you wouldnt beleive in Sweden and Denmark.
I have people in my vicinty proudly admitting they are on "stress" leave because some employer said something mean to them they didnt want to hear. So the working dane and swede has to pay minimum 44% taxes of their salary to keep this sham going. I pay an exruciating amount of taxes in the Nordic countries. Sweden and Denmark are the highest. Iceland a little less. It pisses me off royally to see the tax money gamed in this way and this has turned me to voting for parties I never thought I would. Social democrats are a poision, maybe they were useful 50 years ago but today they do enourmous damage to countries that offer tax payed welfare. tldr; You need savings in the Nordics too if you are going to quit your job.
If you can get a doctor to sign a medical paper that claims you had to leave work because of stress, you can game the system and let the taxpayers pay for your hobbies for a few years. |