Sweden Not a Socialist Success

[truth_seeker]

Sweden Not a Socialist Success

John Stossel

Published on Oct 23, 2018
! No longer available

[Applewood]

A couple of years ago, I was engaged in an occasionally heated debate online with a Bernie Sanders supporter who held up Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden as examples of socialist paradise.  So I did my own online research and found comparisons between the cost of living in those countries and the US.  In most cases, many basics such as food and rent cost more in these countries than in the US.  In a few areas such as health care, these countries seemed to have the advantage over the US.  But what the propaganda doesn't say is how much of the citizens' taxes subsidize the "free" or low cost services. 

I don't know of any country where socialism is a success.  The concept has plenty of downsides, all of which hit the average person in the wallet. 

[dfwgator]

In a relatively small homogenous country, where society frowns upon people who try to cheat the system,  Swedish-style socialism could have some positives.

But once Sweden started going multi-cultural,    it turns to poison.

[GrouchoTex]

I heard a radio interview with a man from Sweden.
He made a documentary, I think PBS may have played it.
Anyway, he said the Swedish Socialism is gone, but not 100%.
They could not sustain it.
When it started, they were one of the richest countries in the world.
Then, companies went bankrupt or re-located, and, you get the picture.
A wealthy pro socialist children's author eventually spoke out against it, when she was tax at a rate of 104%.
Yep, 104%, more than she had.
Now they have a flat tax and a VAT tax, and things are starting to come around again.
Still high, but better than the "Tax the rich, give to the poor" scheme, that socialism relies on.

[LadyLiberty]

I heard a radio interview with a man from Sweden.
He made a documentary, I think PBS may have played it.
Anyway, he said the Swedish Socialism is gone, but not 100%.
They could not sustain it.
When it started, they were one of the richest countries in the world.
Then, companies went bankrupt or re-located, and, you get the picture.
A wealthy pro socialist children's author eventually spoke out against it, when she was tax at a rate of 104%.
Yep, 104%, more than she had.
Now they have a flat tax and a VAT tax, and things are starting to come around again.
Still high, but better than the "Tax the rich, give to the poor" scheme, that socialism relies on.

We probably heard the same interview (Michael Berry?).

This is the book that they were discussing (written by the interviewee:  https://www.amazon.com/Debunking-Utopia-Exposing-Nordic-Socialism/dp/1944229396

[mountaineer]

I had a college friend from Sweden many, many years ago. She'd stock up on items like cosmetics in the US and sell them when she got home on break. She said the taxes were so prohibitively high, few could afford to buy such things. She made a killing, I guess!

[Frank Cannon]

I didn't think Sweden was socialist. It was just a big welfare state. The govt' doesn't own Volvo.

[truth_seeker]

Both the US and Sweden are "Mixed Economy" nations.

The main factors of production, are privately owned.

People and compnies pay taxes, to support the benefits.


In Sweden taxes and benefits are somewht higher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending

[Fishrrman]

Title:
"Sweden Not a Socialist Success"

It doesn't matter.
Within 50 years, Sweden will have become "an islamic success"...