People aren’t listening to your arguments like I pointed out before. They are just listening to their emotions. Somehow they feel that a small country like Sweden or Norway (both with populations less than 10 million) are somehow a threat to the US model if they are somehow doing better in some economical aspect. This is silly. The US is an enormous country with many diverse economies. The economy of New Jersey with a $57K household income has little in common with the economy of Montana with a $34K household income. This doesn’t mean the Montana model is flawed with respect to a much more left leaning New Jersey. Nor does it mean that the US economy as a whole is flawed with respect to the Scandinavian countries.
- I get your point, although I wouldn’t say it’s that bad.
“Somehow they feel that a small country like Sweden or Norway (both with populations less than 10 million) are somehow a threat to the US model if they are somehow doing better in some economical aspect. This is silly.”
- The Scandinavian countries, just like the US, view themselves very much as ‘model’ societies and often you hear people from other countries expressing admiration of countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the US. This is not a mere coincidence. Undeniably, life IS good in both parts of the world. Our standard of living is indeed very high and so is the standard of living in the US.
However, instead of looking to the SIMILARITIES between Scandinavia and the US, most journalists, politicians, economists and other people tend to argue that the ‘American Way’ is better than ‘Swedish Model’ or the other way around for this or that reason. Often they do so out of other motives than trying to promote genuine understanding of economic matters.
My conclusion is that Protestant work ethics and a basic belief in Capitalism, Democracy and well functioning societal institutions has a lot to do with the prosperity of both the US and Scandinavia. Differences between the two societal concepts like those concerning social security and the position of the unions don’t matter much in the context of overall economic growth.