Monday, August 19, 2019

Is Sweden Socialist?

Its not even close:
...while people like Bernie Sanders use Sweden as a talking point of socialism, “most of the world would look up at Sweden and say that they are way more capitalist than we are.”

They seemed to have been headed that way when reality set in:
“In 1960 the United States and Sweden were about the same level of income and had about the same size of government. And what happens is 1960 is both governments got bigger, but Sweden’s got really big and Sweden’s growth rate really started to suffer,” he said.

As things now stand, Lawson said Sweden has much less income than the United States, and the high cost of its social services has shown its negative impact. “Maybe it’s a price they’re willing to pay, but the vitality of the Swedish economy has slowed and not kept pace with the rest of Europe—and certainly not with the United States.”

3 comments:

  1. This is weak confirmation bias. Sweden has far lower corporate tax rates, but much higher marginal rates that kick in at lower brackets. Under a Swedish income tax scheme many Americans might even see lower taxes. Of course VAT is 25%. No analysis of the overall tax burden = cherry picking data. In addition, less income then the US how? After adjusting for transfers (including those like college and the need not to purchase a car)?

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