In arguing for socialism, Progressive/Socialists often refer to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark as examples of socialist success. There are, however, several key problems with that.
First, these countries are not technically socialist. By the YDSA’s
definition, socialism entails a centrally planned economy with
nationalized means of production. Although these countries have high
income taxes and provide generous social programs, they remain
prosperous because of their free-market economies.
Denmark ranks as the 10th most economically free country in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom,
which cites free-market policies and regulatory efficiency as reasons
for the high standard of living. Sweden is ranked 15th and Norway 23rd,
both with similar descriptions of thriving private sectors and open
markets.
These three countries are clearly not operating under centrally
planned economies, or their economic-freedom scores would be
significantly lower.
Second, the success of these countries is clearly based on a
capitalist foundation, and it predates
the expansion of social programs.
Sweden, for example, became a wealthy country in the mid-20th century under a capitalist system with low tax rates.
Social programs and high tax rates were not implemented until the
1970s, which caused the economy to significantly underperform and
unemployment to rise.
In recent years, Sweden has been privatizing socialized sectors, such
as education and health care, cutting tax rates, and making welfare
less generous. Even though tax rates and government spending remains
comparatively high, open-market policies generate the revenue to support
the spending.
Finally, these countries are largely homogeneous and have a culture
that is conducive to a large welfare state. Scandinavians are described as hard-working citizens with extremely high levels of social trust and cohesion.
By contrast, America is a much larger country with lower levels of
social trust, and therefore, a comparison is difficult to assess.
Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are not democratic socialist countries that
the U.S. can be accurately compared with, and could be better described
as “compassionate capitalists.”
As such, the “democratic socialists”—as they define socialism—are
left with no successful examples of their vision, only disastrous ones.
Text: By Anthony Kim in the Daily Signal.
