“Their liberal markets are what enable them to accommodate massive social-welfare spending.”
Well, don’t forget petrowealth. Countries that are sitting on large petroleum and natural gas reserves can afford to be wasteful with their spending. Also, even with those factors taken into account, the taxes are so sky-high in Scandinavia that there is a booming black market economy of “off the books” labor, because that’s the only way most people can escape the crushing taxes and actually save a little money to improve their station.
Good grief! Just compare the freeloaders we have to put up with here. The entire Scandinavia, ie Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland,Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands total a population of 25,251,000.That’s 2 million less than the state of Texas. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark together total about the same figures as Florida.