Face It, Nordic Countries Aren't Socialist

Mises Institute ^ | June 8, 2018 | Daniel Lacalle

[Mollypitcher1]

healthcare and retirement.
.............................................
My husband was Swedish who moved to America. When he fell ill in his 80’s he told me many times that if he was still in Sweden when he had a heart attack in his 70’s, that he would have never lived to see 80. Socialized health care is a disaster. Take a look at England’s waiting lists for everyday, ordinary problems. Besides they recently condemned a child to death and wouldn’t let the parents decide the child’s future. It wasn’t the first time. There are a lot of horror tales regarding socialized medicine.

[L,TOWM]

That is another completely valid point and one that the US based commies get really nervous about when it is brought up...

[Revolutionary]

The Nordic model: The dems must all be racists, since those countries are almost all white. They want to kill all the blacks, not just 50% in the womb and however many they can get to kill each other.

[Jacquerie]

<>If you have an issue with the major parties on immigration...you go to jail.<>

So true. The word from daily Gatestone Institute and Robert Spencer postings is one of galloping sharia in the UK, Germany, and Sweden.

It appears that one can have economic freedom as long as one accepts muslim rape gangs.

Barf. Not buying it. Fake news.

[SunkenCiv]

Expropriations, massive tax increases, appropriation of savings and subordinating the growth model to political control is what populists defend. The same as Venezuela, which all of them praised -- from Bernie Sanders to Owen Jones or Corbyn and Chomsky -- until it collapsed.

Only a moron considers massive tax increases, appropriation of savings, expropriation of private assets, and subordinating the growth model to political control to be populist.

[Tzimisce]

Karl Marx called for:

Open borders
High income taxes
high property taxes
complete control of the media
Complete control of education
“equalization of labor”

Does that sound like the Nordic countries?

Cause it does to me.

[colorado tanker]

Heritage Foundation's 2018 Economic Freedom Index bears out the article's thesis. The Scandinavian economies are bunched around the U.S. Note that three former Soviet Republics have freer economies than the U.S. Both Canada and Australia have much freer economies than the U.S. The UK, weighted down with universal health care and PC run amok, has a freer economy.

This did not just happen during the Obama regime. This took many years with the active complicity of RINO's like McCain and Flake to encrust our economy with needless regulations. Remember when McCain blocked drilling in ANWR?

Some of the most important work the Trump Administration is doing is rooting out the regulations and tax burdens that have been holding back the American economy. The judicial appointments will also help restore the rule of law and limit baseless attacks on businesses by the regulatory state and lawless tort lawyers.

1. Hong Kong
 2. Singapore
  3. New Zealand
 4.  Switzerland
 5.  Australia
 6.  Estonia
 7.  Canada
  8. United Arab Emirates
 9.  Ireland
  10. Chile
  11. Taiwan
  12. United Kingdom
  13. Georgia
  14. Luxembourg
  15. Netherlands
  16. Lithuania
  17. United States
  18. Denmark
  19. Sweden
  20. Latvia
  21. Mauritius
  22. Iceland
  23. South Korea
  24. Finland
  25. Norway

[Mariner]

“Only a moron considers massive tax increases, appropriation of savings, expropriation of private assets, and subordinating the growth model to political control to be populist.”

Thank you for saying that.

Thomas Jefferson is on your side.

[Mariner]

Oh my.

And this from the Mises Institute.

It’s apparent, now, they cannot maintain philosophical continuity and avoid hypocrisy.

They should be discounted henceforth.

[Mariner]

“There is nothing Socialist about the Nordic Nations.”

All one must do to judge this proclamation is measure the tax rate there and the percentage of GDP which comes from the government sector.

[dfwgator]

I wonder how their property taxes compare to here.

[Truthsearcher]

Problem with that approach is that it’s not an equilibrium. Eventually the government programs will grow bigger and bigger and choke off the private industries.

[hinckley buzzard]

The fact is that during the 90s The Nordic countries differentiated themselves. Norway did well, flush with oil revenues. Sweden’s economy basically crashed and burned, and led to a serious return to some semblance of sanity. Finnland tried the free money gambit is now enduring the hangover of its drunken episode.

So the first thing to realize is that while they remain socially ridiculous, they are becoming by necessity economically responsible.

That’s good news btw, so no reason to be trashing them on this count, at least.

[Bryanw92]

>>That’s good news btw, so no reason to be trashing them on this count, at least.

Not trashing the countries. They are what they are. I’m trashing the ridiculous idea that there is a checklist of items that must be completed before a nation is declared Socialist. It is a continuum with each item weighted. Not a checklist. That’s what I’m “trashing”.

[Bernard Marx]

Sadly, it reminds me as much of the U.S. as the Nordic counties.

[Hugin]

True. My point was that “socialist” no longer means the government directly runs all major industries as the author contends. Even China’s ruling party has embraced Blair’s model while still proclaiming itself “Communist”. Whether it can be sustained remains to be seen.

[ZULU]

Come again? Ridiculous. Europe is controlled by plutocratic oligarchs and the countries are all socialist hell holes.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. No wonder the writer couldn't figure out that the characteristics of socialism indicate socialism. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

It's worth remembering that in 1801, when Jefferson became president, the US national debt was around $100 million, about 10 times annual federal revenues. This was literally "the cost of freedom," and would correspond today to a national debt around $30 trillion. Since our actual national debt is $13+ trillion, the government is in better financial shape today than it was in Jefferson's time. And at the time, Jefferson's number one priority was paying down the national debt. So, how did he do it? How does ANY wise government ever increase its revenues? Yes, that's right! JEFFERSON REDUCED GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND CUT TAXES.-- BroJoeK

Thank BroJoeK, and for that matter, thanks President Jefferson.

[samtheman]

Interesting post #18.