- As a European (I’m Swedish), I’d say this goes for all of Europe, not at least the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe.
The kind of European Socialism represented by (French Socialist Party leader) Royal and (former German chancellor and German Social Democratic Party leader) Schröder doesn’t have the support of ordinary people anymore. It’s(hopefully) becoming a thing of the past.
However, there is a kind of suspiciousness towards Capitalism in Europe that I, personally, think will take a long time to get rid off.
In the US, people in general admire entrepreneurs and ‘self made men’. To a large extent, the American public views free market Capitalism as a game everyone is free to enter on more or less equal terms (although this competition sure produces losers as well as winners among participators).
In Europe, on the other hand, Capitalism is associated with the ‘ruling elite’ and European animosity towards the ‘ruling elite’ goes deep.
Why?
One basic explanation to this attitude towards the rich/the upper class/the ruling elite is the oppression they exposed ordinary people to during the Feudalistic era. The European system of villeinage/serfdom was hardly a much more humanitarian phenomena than American slavery.
Paradoxically enough, European opposition towards oppression and yearn for freedom has produced BOTH:
- The immensely successful European ‘colony’ that today goes by the name of United States of America
AND
- European Socialism and Communism, which admittedly, is not as successful as the US
However, US Americans often make the mistake of confusing high tax levels and generous welfare systems with typical ‘European’ problems like poor productivity development and slow economic growth.
In fact, evidence exists there are few necessary connections between these two economic factors.
The Scandinavian economies are even stronger than the American one (although Norway is the only part of Scandinavia that boosts a higher GDP/capita by ‘Purchasing Power Parity’ level, in the ‘nominal’ GDP/Capita department Scandinavia is at par with or ahead of the US). The Scandinavian countries are also more ‘Socialist’ than the US and also more ‘Socialist’ than other European nations, if you by ‘Socialism’ mean high taxes and social security.
I claim the reasons to the success of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland in terms of economy are
- Loyal, highly skilled workers
- Capitalist and investment friendliness and low corporate taxes (although income taxes and especially sales taxes aren’t particularly low)
- A tradition of concord and team work between workers, unions, government, universities and corporations
- An awareness of the fact that small nations have to be more effective in the field of international competition than larger ones
- The preservation of Lutheran work ethics (- In contrast to a lot of continental Europeans, few Scandinavians object to working 8 hours a day or more)
- Governments devoted to ‘budget discipline’
The key issues here are Capitalism, competition, mutual trust and a belief in law and order.
Another explanation to Scandinavia’s success is perhaps the fact that Scandinavian Feudalism never was as strong as its continental counterpart.
I appreciate your insights on this thread.
I believe Winston Churchill said it best:
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery".