Great article!
As a European and a Scandinavian (Sweden) I can testify to the truth and validity of these facts and comparisons. I've seen it with my own eyes.
I lived in the UK for one year as a child, in 1979-1980. At that time, the nation was beginning to wake up after decades of unionism and fruitless government actions aiming at keeping doomed, unproductive industries alive by artificial respiration.
Sorry to say so, but Britain of those days probably made the impression of a third world country to most visitors from countries like the US, Sweden and Switzerland.
Around 1975-1980, my Sweden adopted the policies that, so severely, had failed for decades on British soil. The result? Sweden quickly went from being a leader in the GDP growth area among the OECD countries to a bottom position.
In the beginning of the 1990’s most Swedes had became aware we had to choose a different path in order to restore economic growth. Since then, the development in all fields of the economy has been marvelous.
Sweden's closest neighbors, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Norway - the other Nordic countries - all share our insights in the department of what really makes the economy grow.
Some interesting facts about the Nordic countries in the light of these issues (Scandinavia + Finland):
- The five Nordic countries are FIVE of the world's NINE richest countries measured by nominal GDP per capita
- The combined Nordic GDP is 125 % that of Russia's and 50% that of China's
- If the 25 million inhabitants of the Nordic countries are viewed as one single economy it constitutes the 9th largest economy on Earth
- Income taxes are lower than in most parts of the US
- Corporate taxes are lower than in the US and very low compared to Germany (a nation that, just like France and Italy has suffered from very slow growth since the early 1990’s)
- National debt is very low or non existing (as in the case of Norway)
- Norway boasts the highest number of dollar millionaires per capita in the world
- In Sweden and Norway many families own two houses
- In Sweden, a country that has about the same number of cars/capita as the US, the average car is a Volvo V70, a $32 000 car. On top of that, public transport is efficient and very affordable.
- The Nordic countries together have 69 companies listed on the Forbes Global 2000 list. Germany (population 82 million) has a mere 57.
This illustrates the benefits from steering away from Socialism. It could, of course, be viewed as the words of someone who enjoys bragging about the economic performance of our his corner of the world, but I prefer to call it bragging about economical sanity.
