Posted on 06/09/2018 2:37:04 PM PDT by Mafe
One of the most common fallacies of the new populists is to say that their model is the “Nordic” one and that those countries are successful examples of how “socialism works”. When I mentioned it to the Finnish Finance Minister Petteri Orpo at a recent ECR dinner, he could not believe it.
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. Then they moved on to the fallacy of “the Nordic model”. Do you know what interventionists forget about the Nordic nations?
They are leaders in the economic freedom index (Heritage) and ease of doing business according to the World Bank.
Private property is guaranteed by law and citizens’ savings are fully private and free of government control. All Nordic countries have been lowering the tax wedge and — until the recent US tax cuts — had lower corporate tax rates than the US.
The state does not dictate or impose schooling and healthcare (most have co-payment schemes). It simply administers and promotes choice between private and state-run services.
They are leaders in private banking, which finances the vast majority of economic activity (80%).
They are leaders in attracting capital, guaranteeing legal security and private investment. Nordic countries are also leaders in the privatization of inefficient state-owned entities and applying world-class private company corporate governance and defending shareholder interests in semi-state owned companies (Statoil, etc).
The public sector does not dictate the growth pattern or the way in which the economy should be run, it is generated from the private sector, which finances more than 60% of research and development, and government applies private-sector best practices of efficiency and transparency in the management of public services. In addition, public officials do not have a life-long position. The opposite of the political control these populists defend.
Nordic countries have carried out successful privatizations of state sectors, from telecommunications to electricity generation and distribution. Even the postal service and some forests were privatized. They have a labor market that is among the most flexible in the world.
In these countries, private education is encouraged through school vouchers, not forced state-run schools. There is also the fact that it is virtually impossible to copy in the US a model used in countries with fewer inhabitants than New York, but the most important difference is that choice, freedom and private initiative are the cornerstone of Nordic nations, pillars of a society that none of the populists want to implement.
No, socialism is not the model of the Nordic countries. And the interventionists that use these countries as their “model” have a completely different system in mind. State control.
I recommend you read Scandinavian Unexceptionalism by Nima Sanandaji or “The Secret of their Success” in The Economist.
The success of the Nordic countries has been to take pro-market measures, privatize inefficient sectors and guarantee private property, wealth creation as well as legal and investment security.
The Nordic countries know that there is no welfare state without a thriving private sector, economic freedom, and private investment and that the public sector is there to facilitate, not absorb the country’s economic activity. They know that there are no tax revenues without a flourishing private sector. And they know, because they made the mistake in the past, that multiplying state intervention only leads to failure. That’s why they rejected socialism.
There is nothing Socialist about the Nordic Nations. Being leaders in Economic Freedom, free enterprise, defense of private property, leaders in private banking and entrepreneurship promotion is the opposite of socialism. Interventionists willingly want us to confuse a welfare system in a capitalist society with socialism. Socialism is the political and economic theory which defends that the means of production, distribution, and financing should be owned or controlled by the state. Nordic countries are NOT socialist. They are capitalist societies with a welfare state, like most capitalist nations have, by the way. The US as well. And they are the first ones that understood what we all know: socialism never works.
healthcare and retirement.
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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.
That is another completely valid point and one that the US based commies get really nervous about when it is brought up...
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.
<>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.
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.
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.
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
“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.
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.
“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.
I wonder how their property taxes compare to here.
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.
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.
>>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”.
Sadly, it reminds me as much of the U.S. as the Nordic counties.
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.
Come again? Ridiculous. Europe is controlled by plutocratic oligarchs and the countries are all socialist hell holes.
My pleasure. No wonder the writer couldn't figure out that the characteristics of socialism indicate socialism. :^)
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.-- BroJoeKThank BroJoeK, and for that matter, thanks President Jefferson.
Interesting post #18.
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