September 10, 2019
Swedish Democratic Socialism?
Timothy Birdnow
I was surfing online and came on an article about electric cars. The article itself was uninteresting, but the comments all waxed poetic about the joys of democratic socialism and the wonders of Sweden. I wearied of the whole matter quickly, but thought I'd make the followig points about Swedish and Nordic socialist ideas.
There are only nine and a half million people in Sweden, and a fifth of them are immigrants. Ever wonder why? Native born Swedes are incapable of actually running their own countriy, because they have no enterpreneureal spirit or work ethic. That's what democratic socialism has bequethed them.
And Sweden had to institute austerity measures to cut spending back in the 90-'s, cut spending in order to bring in more business from outside. The Swedes have slowly been moving away from Democratic Socialism, even while the Democratic Party in America has been moving toward it.
Oh, and they don't really have to protect themselves; we do the job for them. That saves them billions of dollars. Meanwhile they get to enjoy a nice pool of oil which brings in lots of foreign capital.
The Scandanavian countries only prospered because they were largely kept out of the Second World War and managed to avoid military expensess by having the U.S. do it for them. Their low populations, abundant natural resources, and willingness to breed themselves out of existence via high immigration levels have worked to make their socialist utopia survive for a long time. But eventually you run out of other people's money.
That is why most Scandanavian countries are very business friendly and have reasonable taxation where business is concerned; they know they can't kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
John Stossel argues Sweden isn't socialist. According to John:
Sweden's ex Prime Minister agrees with that assessment and has called out Bernie Sanders for his stupidity.Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. said the same thing.
He tolld students at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
And pro-market, pro national attitudes have only increased; the Swedes saw their right wing make big gains in last years elections.
In the end, the Scandanavian countries are in many ways more capitalistic than the U.S. They tend to have lower corporate taxes and a much more business friendly system. And while their life expectancy is higher, it is not because of socialized medicine; they were much higher prior to the institution of state run medicine, and those numbers have dropped relative to the rest of the world since.
If you want to use Sweden or any other Scandanavian country as your model for what America you need to learn more about them - and realize that we could never do things their way anyway. We really shouldn't want to, as they are disappearing under the weight of immigration and regulation.
In the end, they will learn the lesson of Margaret Thatcher, that socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
I was surfing online and came on an article about electric cars. The article itself was uninteresting, but the comments all waxed poetic about the joys of democratic socialism and the wonders of Sweden. I wearied of the whole matter quickly, but thought I'd make the followig points about Swedish and Nordic socialist ideas.
There are only nine and a half million people in Sweden, and a fifth of them are immigrants. Ever wonder why? Native born Swedes are incapable of actually running their own countriy, because they have no enterpreneureal spirit or work ethic. That's what democratic socialism has bequethed them.
And Sweden had to institute austerity measures to cut spending back in the 90-'s, cut spending in order to bring in more business from outside. The Swedes have slowly been moving away from Democratic Socialism, even while the Democratic Party in America has been moving toward it.
Oh, and they don't really have to protect themselves; we do the job for them. That saves them billions of dollars. Meanwhile they get to enjoy a nice pool of oil which brings in lots of foreign capital.
The Scandanavian countries only prospered because they were largely kept out of the Second World War and managed to avoid military expensess by having the U.S. do it for them. Their low populations, abundant natural resources, and willingness to breed themselves out of existence via high immigration levels have worked to make their socialist utopia survive for a long time. But eventually you run out of other people's money.
That is why most Scandanavian countries are very business friendly and have reasonable taxation where business is concerned; they know they can't kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
John Stossel argues Sweden isn't socialist. According to John:
For years, I've heard American leftists say Sweden is proof that socialism works, that it doesn't have to turn out as badly as the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela did.
But that's not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says in a new documentary and Stossel TV video.
"Sweden is not socialist—because the government doesn't own the means of production. To see that, you have to go to Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea," says Norberg.
"We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily. And that's the period in Swedish history when our economy was going south."
Per capita GDP fell. Sweden's growth fell behind other countries. Inflation increased.
[...]
Yet even those high taxes did not bring in enough money to fund Sweden's big welfare state.
"People couldn't get the pension that they thought they depended on for the future," recounts Norberg. "At that point the Swedish population just said, enough, we can't do this."
Sweden then reduced government's role.
They cut public spending, privatized the national rail network, abolished certain government monopolies, eliminated inheritance taxes, and sold state-owned businesses like the maker of Absolut vodka.
They also reduced pension promises "so that it wasn't as unsustainable," adds Norberg.
As a result, says Norberg, his "impoverished peasant nation developed into one of the world's richest countries."
Even socialistic Swedes complained about the high taxes.
But that's not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says in a new documentary and Stossel TV video.
"Sweden is not socialist—because the government doesn't own the means of production. To see that, you have to go to Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea," says Norberg.
"We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily. And that's the period in Swedish history when our economy was going south."
Per capita GDP fell. Sweden's growth fell behind other countries. Inflation increased.
[...]
Yet even those high taxes did not bring in enough money to fund Sweden's big welfare state.
"People couldn't get the pension that they thought they depended on for the future," recounts Norberg. "At that point the Swedish population just said, enough, we can't do this."
Sweden then reduced government's role.
They cut public spending, privatized the national rail network, abolished certain government monopolies, eliminated inheritance taxes, and sold state-owned businesses like the maker of Absolut vodka.
They also reduced pension promises "so that it wasn't as unsustainable," adds Norberg.
As a result, says Norberg, his "impoverished peasant nation developed into one of the world's richest countries."
Even socialistic Swedes complained about the high taxes.
Sweden's ex Prime Minister agrees with that assessment and has called out Bernie Sanders for his stupidity.Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. said the same thing.
He tolld students at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
"I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.â€
And pro-market, pro national attitudes have only increased; the Swedes saw their right wing make big gains in last years elections.
In the end, the Scandanavian countries are in many ways more capitalistic than the U.S. They tend to have lower corporate taxes and a much more business friendly system. And while their life expectancy is higher, it is not because of socialized medicine; they were much higher prior to the institution of state run medicine, and those numbers have dropped relative to the rest of the world since.
If you want to use Sweden or any other Scandanavian country as your model for what America you need to learn more about them - and realize that we could never do things their way anyway. We really shouldn't want to, as they are disappearing under the weight of immigration and regulation.
In the end, they will learn the lesson of Margaret Thatcher, that socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:46 AM
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1
The donkeys who are using "Scandinavian Socialism" as their supposed model to try and fool us are doing just that: trying to fool us. What they really have in mind is Venezuela, with themselves in the Presidential Palace of Maduro and the rest of us in the street trying to find stray dogs to eat. They want all the goodies and have no intention of sharing them with Deplorables of either party.
How else to explain the crazed ravings of O'Rourke, Sanders, Warren, Harris and others of their ilk?
How else to explain the crazed ravings of O'Rourke, Sanders, Warren, Harris and others of their ilk?
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at September 10, 2019 07:23 PM (uRBJl)
2
You're right. I believe Bill Ayers said that the "Revolution" would have to "liquidate" at least twenty six million people to be secure. THAT is where these people will lead us. Oh, the Democrats may honestly think otherwise, but their hatred of Middle America will lead them there.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at September 11, 2019 08:01 AM (3Y+ie)
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