Everyone wants to bring up Venezuela but not Denmark, Norway or the other relatively successful socialistic states around the world.
They have toilet paper and a standard of living equal to the US.
We need a more nuanced argument than 'socialism bad'.
RE: Everyone wants to bring up Venezuela but not Denmark, Norway or the other relatively successful socialistic states around the world.
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The belief that the Scandinavian countries are socialistic in the sense Cornel West, Bernie Sanders and their ilk want America to become is a MYTH.
They are FAR from being Venezuelan.
Let’s get this straight: Social Democracy Is Not Democratic Socialism
In the Scandinavian countries, like all other developed nations, the means of production are primarily owned by private individuals, not the community or the government, and resources are allocated to their respective uses by the market, not government or community planning.
While it is true that the Scandinavian countries provide things like a generous social safety net and universal healthcare, an extensive welfare state is not the same thing as socialism.
What guys like Bernie Sanders and his supporters confuse as socialism is actually social democracy, a system in which the government aims to promote the public welfare through heavy taxation and spending, within the framework of a capitalist economy. This is what the Scandinavians practice.
FURTHERMORE, The Scandinavians embrace a brand of free-market capitalism that exists in conjunction with a large welfare state, known as the “Nordic Model,” which includes many policies that democratic socialists would likely abhor.
For example, democratic socialists are generally opponents of global capitalism and free trade, but the Scandinavian countries have fully embraced these things.
The Economist magazine describes the Scandinavian countries as “stout free-traders who resist the temptation to intervene even to protect iconic companies.”
Perhaps this is why Denmark, Norway, and Sweden rank among the most globalized countries in the entire world. These countries all also rank in the top 10 easiest countries to do business in.
Oh yeah, How do supporters of Bernie Sanders feel about the minimum wage? You will find no such government-imposed floors on labor in Sweden, Norway, or Denmark.
Instead, minimum wages are decided by collective-bargaining agreements between unions and employers; they typically vary on an occupational or industrial basis. Union-imposed wages lock out the least skilled and do their own damage to an economy, but such a decentralized system is still arguably a much better way of doing things than having the central government set a one-size-fits-all wage policy that covers every occupation nationwide.
What about EDUCATION?
Yeah, what about it? In a move that would be considered radically pro-capitalist by young Americans who #FeelTheBern, Sweden adopted a universal school choice system in the 1990s that is nearly identical to the system proposed by libertarian economist Milton Friedman his 1955 essay, “The Role of Government in Education.”
In practice, the Swedish system involves local governments allowing families to use public funds, in the form of vouchers, to finance their child’s education at a private school, including schools run by the dreaded for-profit corporation.
Tell that to socialist sympathizers like New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio.
So, enough about bringing up the Scandinavians.
Remember this, and it is worth repeating -— SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IS NOT DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM.
Good post. It seems to be cultural. Look to where people want immigrate, lawfully or not. They aren’t flooding into Venezuela, they love getting into the Scandinavian countries.
Freegards
Scandinavia has largely backed away from Socialism.
Islam? Not so much. Troubled timez ahead.
They are not socialist states. They all have a very healthy
capitalist private sector to support their welfare states.
Sweden for example has a 20% corp tax rate. It is the individual who pays draconian tax rates to support the welfare state.
We need a more nuanced argument than ‘socialism bad’. <<<
EXACTLY!..Which country do you think will collapse first?
BONUS QUESTION:....Why ??
Because those two countries are populated predominantly by highly civilized Danes and Norwegians!
Says someone who is 1/4 Danish and 1/4 Norwegian.
Regards,
Except Denmark, Norway, and other successful “Socialist” states are not so very “socialist”.
They are mixed economies with lots of capitalism involved.
Their corporate taxes are less than that of the United States.
Norway, for example runs most of the state on the profits from its enormous oil reserves. As I recall, it also nationalized German properties after WWII.
The Scandinavian countries also get a boost by being under the U.S. and Nato military umbrella.
Mixed economies run out of other people’s money slower than complete socialist economies.
The U.S. is also a mixed economy, more toward the capitalist end than Norway or Denmark.
We might as well ask: “Where has capitalism been tried?”
The Western world from about 1870 to 1915 would be the answer. It was a golden age.
Denmark, Norway, and I would add Sweden... all relatively small (populations of less than 10 million), homogeneous (at least until their recent opening of doors to refugees), where there was a cultural ethic to abide by the system and not abuse it. Here we have a polyglot population of almost 350 million over a vast highly differentiated geography. It will not work here.
Denmark, Norway, and I would add Sweden... all relatively small (populations of less than 10 million), homogeneous (at least until their recent opening of doors to refugees), where there was a cultural ethic to abide by the system and not abuse it. Here we have a polyglot population of almost 350 million over a vast highly differentiated geography. It will not work here.
Norway has about 4 million people and is one of the largest oil exporters in the world. Nice gig if you can get it.
As for Denmark and Sweden, they have moved away from Socialism for one thing.....check out their corporate tax rates. They have long been WAY lower than ours. For another, if you look at the period when Sweden grew rapidly, it was before they imposed all the socialist policies. Their economic growth slowed way down after they did that. That’s why they rolled back some of the socialism. No country has ever gotten wealthy through socialism. They only places where it has not been as bad were places that had already become wealthy - via free market economies. Even then, their growth rates came way down once they imposed more and more socialism.