Week of 8/30-9/3, Post 3

This week I got some political mail in my student dorm mailbox. I opened it to see if I would be interested in finding out what it said and it looked so cheesy! I translated some of it, and it was a local effort in getting people to vote in the elections so that Uppsala can continue to be what they described as being the best place in the world. Obviously they are targeting the students because they want the younger crowd to be involved in where the future of Uppsala is going. A paragraph of the mailer described how in Uppsala, there is a guarantee that your future is secure and that you can go whichever path you would like in your life and the economy and town will stay at a quality in order to do so. They also stress that if you are ever feeling like you aren't sure about your future, Uppsala is a place where you shouldn't have to worry too much about feeling unstable. This is a very Swedish viewpoint and relates a lot to what Sweden does on a national level for its people. Uppsala is reinforcing the fact that all its citizens are taken care of and given a safe and happy place to live in hence the title of the paragraphs, 'arbete, välfärd, och trygghet'. It reminds me of America's favorite, 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. It is a small way of making each citizen feel as though they are individually cared for and nurtured for by their land as they should be. It seemed a little too good to be true that nobody can fall on the fringe of the system, but it gives a promising future to the target market of students getting this mailer that if they simply vote they can secure themselves what Sweden claims they deserve. This differs greatly from political advertisements that I am used to in America because they are always focused on saving money. Most of the time it is about taxing and that if we could just keep more of our money than we can live better. Here, it is all about the environment that the government and local economies can provide for its citizens. It seems to be similar to a family that chooses to buy their children a large amount of material goods versus a family that provides a warm, loving home for its children to grow up in.