Daniel Schatz is a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and an International Security Program fellow at New America. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.
Posted on 03/15/2020 4:47:36 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Bernie Sanders has placed ”democratic socialism” at the center of his presidential campaign and his vision for a better America. For proof, he points to Scandinavian countries like Sweden.
Sanders’ argument takes as its starting point the perception that the Scandinavian “third-way” economic model of democratic socialism - combining the wealth creation of capitalism with the safety net of socialism - works well, and that the U.S. could reach the same socioeconomic outcomes and prosperity by expanding the role of government.
But as a Scandinavian political scientist who has studied Nordic politics, economy and history in depth, I do not feel the Bern. The Vermont senator has embraced an urban legend; his love affair with Scandinavian socialism gets it all wrong.
Contrary to the prevailing narrative, the success of Nordic countries like Sweden - as measured by relatively high living standards accompanied by low poverty, with government-funded education through university, universal health coverage, generous parental-leave policies and long life spans - precedes the contemporary welfare state.
In fact, when we examine Nordic politics, economy and history as exemplified by Sweden, we find that the Northern European success story was not achieved thanks to a welfare model funded by high taxes, but perhaps despite it. It is high time Sanders stops misleading his followers on this score.
Rather than persistently suggesting that the American Dream can be realized by expanding government or raising taxes, it is time for Sanders and his comrades to go back to school and study history. The true lesson to be learned from the Scandinavian experience is that the Nordic-style welfare-state models haven’t worked nearly as well as American democratic socialists like to pretend.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Daniel Schatz is a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and an International Security Program fellow at New America. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.
At some point in the mid-1970s, Sweden came to realize that their doomed taxation and government attachment to extreme socialism had failed. A lot of Swedish economic experts talk about this period, and the remarkable exit of companies to other European countries because of the taxation rate. The whole system was revamped, and what you see is a socialism-lite type program, with taxes drastically cut compared to what existed in the early 1970s.
Maybe a lot of Bernie-characters did come over in the 1960s and up to the 1970s to observe the program and still believe the same attitude exists today.
And to think that just a couple of weeks ago we were all wacked out about Burny. Ahhh..the good ol days.
Someone at NBC was asleep otherwise this article would not have been published on their site.
-——He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.———
Visiting scholar programs are boondoggles...... essentially scholar welfare
Problem is their followers are lazy a##es who believe what is fed them and do not question it
But...but free stuff.
I used to live in Norway:
They have more oil than Saudi Arabia and giant pipelines everywhere. Bernie is against drilling, pipelines and using oil.
Prior to Trump, their corp. taxes were lower than the USAs. Bernie if for extremely high corp. taxes.
Lutherans teach “protestant work ethic” in schools. Without even checking, I’m sure Bernie is against that.
They have closed borders. Bernie wants open borders.
etc. etc.
It’s almost like Bernie supports the opposite of everything a “northern european socialist country” does.
“Someone at NBC was asleep otherwise this article would not have been published on their site.”
No. The media elite, at the request of their DNC masters, have chosen Biden.
>>”The media elite, at the request of their DNC masters, have chosen Biden.”<<
There is little difference between Bernie and Joe and this make both look wrong.
LIBERALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both cows, slaughters them for their own food,
and taxes you to death for worthless social programs, for having
the animals originally.
PROGRESSIVISM
You have 2 cows.
Progs advocate for advancements in science, technology,
economic development and social organization, but they’re so full
of bullshit, nothing ever changes.
You still have 2 cows.
SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State forces you to give one to your neighbor, shoots the neighbor
and forces you to milk them both, giving all milk back to the state.
The State gives you a cup of sour milk.
LEFTISM
You have 2 cows.
The State terrrorizes the animals until they can’t produce milk,
beats you and your wife to death, and puts your daughters & sons
into the Pedophile Nation, for the Epsteins, Weiners, Clintons etc.
MARXISM
You have 2 cows.
The government takes both and tosses you into a hog pen, where you’re
devoured and never found.
COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you nothing.
They shoot your family and put you in a gulag.
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, promises more free cows, lets you vote and gives you sour milk.
FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.
NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots your wife and kids.
ANARCHISM
You have 2 cows.
The State shoots the cows, you and your family.
CRONY CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
The State takes both, milks, slaughters them, and makes a tidy profit from the sale of choice meat cuts and fresh milk.
You get some lousy hamburger and a jar of sour milk.
BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, hires a sub-contractor to milk the other, and then throws the milk away.
CONTEMPORARY WALL STREETISM
You have two cows.
You sell one, bundle the other with a goat, a mule, and two dry cows.
You pile into the derivatives market, buy a Gulfstream
and when it all comes down around your ears...
You go to the government for a bailout.
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.
Who wouldn’t choose the last one? A lazy ass leech.
It used to surprise me that so many people could make so many bad choices, but as I get older, I’m not surprised anymore, after seeing and hearing them.
Comparing Sweden and the USA is foolish. Sweden, until about 50 years ago, worked. Swedes are intelligent, non-violent and hard working. They voted themselves some benefits in return for high taxes. It worked for a while, but then the Swedes became soft, and they allowed into the country people who were not any of the three adjectives that I just used to describe the Swedes.
It all fell apart.
What once worked in Sweden no longer works there, and would never work in the USA.
Bernie, go to Cuba and stay. Or to iran. You have been cozying up with them. I’m sure they’d welcome you.
It’s not surprising the old white, socialist, former mayor of the whitest town in the whitest state admires state socialism only when it is implemented by majority white nations. Black socialists, brown socialists, and Asian socialists just can’t get socialism right.
“Democratic socialism”.
Same as “Peoples’ choice command control”.
Is it not oxymoronic? Is it another “IQ test phrase” of the left — if sheeple accept the phrase without question, you own them?
“.... this article would not have been published on their site.”
Bernie’s con man theory on government has been under attack in the lib efforts to get Biden into the yoke for a while. This was planned. Very little of what the lib supporters put out isn’t. This is why they are in so much danger in an open debate as they would have to think for themselves and their message is so out of kilter, even they don’t understand it. But they are inventive on some occasions, accidentally. Look at Joe, he’s renamed God.
rwood
FROM NBC!!!!!
THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD
The free stuff meme...perfect! Sharing that!
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