Are these Nordic countries really examples of socialism?
Consider some of these features in their economies.
No universal minimum wage:
Instead, minimum wages are decided by collective-bargaining agreements between unions and employers; they typically vary on an occupational or industrial basis.
Vouchers for education:
. . .the Swedish system involves local governments allowing families to use public funds, in the form of vouchers, to finance their child’s education at a private school, including schools run by the dreaded for-profit corporation . Far from being a failure, as the socialists thought it would be, Sweden’s reforms were a considerable success. According to a published by the Institute for the Study of Labor, the expansion of private schooling and competition brought about by the Swedish free-market educational reforms “improved average educational performance both at the end of compulsory school and in the long run in terms of high school grades, university attendance, and years of schooling.”
Rankings near the top on economic freedom:
Denmark (12) and Sweden (15) are above the US (18).
Who is at the bottom? Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea (178, 179, and 180)
Are Denmark and Sweden really examples of socialist countries?
Or is their prosperity really a result of free enterprise?
Are Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea true examples of socialism?
Some of the largest corporations in the world are based in Scandinavian countries. To call them socialist in the sense of Cuba or Venezuela being socialist is nonsense and part of the misuse of the term “socialism”. More likely they should be called heavily into social welfare.
I’m not even that concerned about the pure thing. People can diss dialectics all they want, but that approach sure as hell doesn’t lack nuance. “Nordic socialism” is just maintenance capitalism. Every attempt at “socialism” outside of Europe is immediately discarded in favor of praising the north. Bernie is guilty of this.
Shockingly, every attempt at something even remotely socialistic in South America and Africa meets hiccups.
In contrast to Sweden and Denmark, Norway is ranked somewhat lower than the US on the index of economic freedom.
If social democracy means school vouchers instead of tax-supported state monopolies, then it sounds good to me. I doubt that was why Bernie Sanders was praising these countries.
Economic freedom is closely tied to prosperity. An obvious example is the comparison between North Korea and South Korea.
Another example is Venezuela compared to Chile. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. It should rolling in money, but instead its economy is collapsing.
Chile lacks Venezuela’s oil but as a free economy. Its economy is doing very well with a per capita GDP that is roughly five times that of Venezuela.
