Quote:
Originally Posted by bahbahmickey
The two articles I read (I knew nothing about Scandinavian socialism prior) both point to the fact that the scan countries are more free in many ways to the US. Pointing out things like: business freedom, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, freedom from corruption, labor freedom, property rights and trade freedom scores.
They both side noted that while the US is used as a bench mark to the "free country" it is not the best in the sense of being the most free (both listed countries in the top 10 of GDP per capita PPP as better examples of free countries).
Yeah, Scandinavia gets a bad rap for its governments. There are a lot of safety nets, but a lot of freedom in other ways. A lot less corruption as well. Plus the oil money from Finland helps them. Taxes are higher in some ways, lower in others.
There is an automatic assumption that safety nets = lack of freedom, and while that's true on a micro basis, looking at all the military spending the US does in its place, drug war, etc..., you can see why they might be even freer than the US in many ways. And in many ways, their versions of taking away freedom is far less offensive than ours.