3 ms·

As a Norwegian I know I am supposed to say something nasty about Sweden, but hey Go Sweden! Good job! They earned it, they have gone through a long difficult ti

As a Norwegian I know I am supposed to say something nasty about Sweden, but hey Go Sweden! Good job! They earned it, they have gone through a long difficult time of some tough changes. Almost a generation of young Swedes have ended up working in Norway due to the difficult times in the past. But now with the oil price crash and Swedish tech sector so hot, it might look like things are going to go in reverse. Anyway it is great to be able to show the world that high tax welfare states, like the Nordic ones can be just as innovative if not more than the free wheeling capitalist ones. I think there is positive message here that says you can be nice to your people and still have a strong, innovative and growing economy.

adventured 11y ago
Sweden's recent good years are courtesy of substantial pro-market reforms they made after several lost decades in which their over-sized welfare state had caused stagnation. Don't take my word for it, here's their recent finance minister explaining what they did and why: "Like many societies, we went too far in our welfare-state ambitions" ... "If you’re working yourselves upwards in taxes and deficits, we’re working ourselves downwards" http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0803/international-invest-guide-obama-sweden-public-downsizing.html http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0803/international-invest-... [2001] "By 1991 the voters had had enough. They threw out the Social Democrats for the first time since the war and installed Carl Bildt’s Conservative government. Bildt set about liberalizing important state-monopolized or dominated markets, notably telecommunications and banking. As competition in telecoms cut telephone and internet access charges, Sweden became a hotbed of technology experimentation, with some of the highest penetration rates for mobile phones and internet access." "Bildt cut back Sweden’s confiscatory taxes. His 1991 tax reform package capped national taxes on personal income at about 50%; before 1991, rates could go above 90%. Bildt’s tax reform also established capital gains, dividend and net interest income as special income categories, taxable at 30%. Corporate income tax: 28%." http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0319/034.html http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0319/034.html That said, I'm not aware of any free-wheeling Capitalist nations except perhaps Singapore. The US for example is a highly regulated welfare state with upper-mid tier taxation among nations. Meanwhile, Finland is in a depression [1][2][3], with their economy shrinking year after year, while they refuse to cut their own stagnation-causing over-bearing welfare state. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/12001895/Finlands-depression-is-the-final-indictment-of-Europes-monetary-union.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/12001895/Finlands-depress... [2] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35c8560c-c62f-11e4-add0-00144feab7de.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35c8560c-c62f-11e4-add0-00144... [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/the-new-sick-man-of-europe-has-an-aaa-credit-rating http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/the-new-si...
- alkonaut 11y ago
  > Meanwhile, Finland is in a depression [1][2][3], with their economy shrinking year after year, while they refuse to cut their own stagnation-causing over-bearing welfare state. Finland and Sweden make the perfect natural experiment: one entered the Euro and can't set their own interest rates, the other did not. I don't think Finlands welfare state is the cause of stagnation, but they will have to cut it none the less. Finlands slump grew into a depression mostly because they are tied to the same interest rates as a number of other countries, which is the great failure of the Euro experiment.
  - Systemic33 11y ago
    How do you then explain Denmark, which has had their currency locked to the Euro (and before that; DM)?
  - oblio 11y ago
    You're forgetting (ignoring?) Nokia.
  - nickik 11y ago
    I generally agree with you, montary policy dominates (I would argue that you take to narrow of a view calling it "setting interest rates" but thats a different subject). However I think long term suppy side difficulties do have an impact. Finland is worse of then one would expect purly based on that.
- TulliusCicero 11y ago
  > The US for example is a highly regulated welfare state with upper-mid tier taxation among nations. IIRC the US is a freewheeling capitalist state among developed, non-tiny countries. I mean, there's still substantial social welfare, but it's significantly smaller than most of our compatriots.
  - protomyth 11y ago
    What is your measure (e.g. spending as % of GDP) and what do you consider "our compatriots"?

adventured 11y ago

Sweden's recent good years are courtesy of substantial pro-market reforms they made after several lost decades in which their over-sized welfare state had caused stagnation. Don't take my word for it, here's their recent finance minister explaining what they did and why: "Like many societies, we went too far in our welfare-state ambitions" ... "If you’re working yourselves upwards in taxes and deficits, we’re working ourselves downwards" http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0803/international-invest-guide-obama-sweden-public-downsizing.html http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0803/international-invest-... [2001] "By 1991 the voters had had enough. They threw out the Social Democrats for the first time since the war and installed Carl Bildt’s Conservative government. Bildt set about liberalizing important state-monopolized or dominated markets, notably telecommunications and banking. As competition in telecoms cut telephone and internet access charges, Sweden became a hotbed of technology experimentation, with some of the highest penetration rates for mobile phones and internet access." "Bildt cut back Sweden’s confiscatory taxes. His 1991 tax reform package capped national taxes on personal income at about 50%; before 1991, rates could go above 90%. Bildt’s tax reform also established capital gains, dividend and net interest income as special income categories, taxable at 30%. Corporate income tax: 28%." http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0319/034.html http://www.forbes.com/global/2001/0319/034.html That said, I'm not aware of any free-wheeling Capitalist nations except perhaps Singapore. The US for example is a highly regulated welfare state with upper-mid tier taxation among nations. Meanwhile, Finland is in a depression [1][2][3], with their economy shrinking year after year, while they refuse to cut their own stagnation-causing over-bearing welfare state. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/12001895/Finlands-depression-is-the-final-indictment-of-Europes-monetary-union.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/12001895/Finlands-depress... [2] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35c8560c-c62f-11e4-add0-00144feab7de.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35c8560c-c62f-11e4-add0-00144... [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/the-new-sick-man-of-europe-has-an-aaa-credit-rating http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/the-new-si...

alkonaut 11y ago
> Meanwhile, Finland is in a depression [1][2][3], with their economy shrinking year after year, while they refuse to cut their own stagnation-causing over-bearing welfare state. Finland and Sweden make the perfect natural experiment: one entered the Euro and can't set their own interest rates, the other did not. I don't think Finlands welfare state is the cause of stagnation, but they will have to cut it none the less. Finlands slump grew into a depression mostly because they are tied to the same interest rates as a number of other countries, which is the great failure of the Euro experiment.
- Systemic33 11y ago
  How do you then explain Denmark, which has had their currency locked to the Euro (and before that; DM)?
- oblio 11y ago
  You're forgetting (ignoring?) Nokia.
- nickik 11y ago
  I generally agree with you, montary policy dominates (I would argue that you take to narrow of a view calling it "setting interest rates" but thats a different subject). However I think long term suppy side difficulties do have an impact. Finland is worse of then one would expect purly based on that.
TulliusCicero 11y ago
> The US for example is a highly regulated welfare state with upper-mid tier taxation among nations. IIRC the US is a freewheeling capitalist state among developed, non-tiny countries. I mean, there's still substantial social welfare, but it's significantly smaller than most of our compatriots.
- protomyth 11y ago
  What is your measure (e.g. spending as % of GDP) and what do you consider "our compatriots"?