Unemployment in Sweden

McKinsey says Sweden's "real unemployment rate" is about 15 percent. As Tyler Cowen points out, you might expect a lot of libertarians and economists to be happy about this number. After all, how could a welfare state maintain such high employment and economic growth over the years?

But this brings up an interesting problem with comparing employment rates between countries. Definitions of unemployment can vary. McKinsey included more than those who want to work and are actively seeking a job (the BLS definition used in the US employment numbers).

McKinsey reached its conclusions by including those who want to work and those who could do so, meaning people on government programmes as well as those on prolonged sick leave.

If you included those people you would likely obtain a much higher number for unemployment in any country.

Who are the Commenters?

Seth Godin, a marketing author, consultant and blogger, allowed comments on his blog for exactly one post and then took them away. He explains why in a post entitled "Why I don't have comments". There seems to be something of an uproar about this in and marketing blog community. The general opinion seems to be that comments are almost a requirement for a serious blog. Some are even questioning whether a blog without comments is even a blog. This seems strange to me because up until recently most of the blogs I have read do not allow comments, especially the ones with a higher levels of traffic.

Disallowing comments does not mean the author fails to engage the community. Trackbacks and linking to other blogs in the same sphere is universal. The commentless blogs I read often quote emails and reply to questions or challenges posted on other blogs.

I think Seth makes a great point in his explanation post in pointing out that the audience for his blog is not represented by those who leave comments. He says

...it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commentary.

Some have taken this to mean he ignores his audience, but they fail to realize that the vast majority of readers will not be commenters. Readers and commenters may differ in some fundamental ways. So are comments really the best way to hear what your readers have to say?

Another thing that critics of Seth don't consider is that comments don't necessarily add value. Comments tend to be of low quality. I can leave a comment in 5 seconds with no regard for how the comment reflects on me. If I comment about your ideas on my blog I am responsible for my opinions. My post reflects the quality of my blog and my readers will judge me for that whether I am anonymous or not.

Some bloggers will want to foster a community of readers. They dream of people coming to their blog and spending time communicating with other readers and the author. Others create blogs because they want to become a part of a larger community of thinkers on a topic. They want to join the discussion and have a voice. For these people comments can be an unnecessary hassle.

A blog without comments is simply a blog without comments.