danielpalos
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #321
Our welfare clause is General not Common. All of our social policies should be Pareto Optimal.Yep,U.S. National Debt Clock : Real TimeA common response from the left is that socialism (or democratic socialism) works just fine in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. It is certainly true that Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark are notable economic successes. What is false is that these countries are particularly socialist.Citizens are treated more fairly.
Norway Is Far More Socialist Than Venezuela
Venezuela and Norway both have abnormally large oil sectors, nationalized oil reserves, and nationalized oil companies.
In Norway, the surplus from the oil boom has been used to build a $1 trillion collectively-owned capital fund with the return on that capital going to finance general government spending, including the country’s large welfare state. This capital fund is even colorfully described by the Norwegian government as “the people’s money, owned by everyone, divided equally and for generations to come.”
In Venezuela, the government appears to have used the surplus primarily to finance current social spending. This means that, on the thing most remarkable about the two countries, Norway comes away as more socialist. Norway uses its oil sector to build an enormous stock of collectively-owned capital, which then goes to fund social spending while Venezuela skips the middle step. Insofar as socialism is about collective ownership of the means of production, an objective observer would have to declare Norway the more socialist of the two.
Norway’s edge on Venezuela goes beyond the different ways the two countries have handled their nationalized oil sectors. Although Venezuelan data is a bit hard to come by, it is hard to imagine based on what information we do have that the Venezuelan government owns one-third of the country’s domestic corporate equity like Norway does. And the Venezuelan government for sure does not own 60 percent of the national wealth like Norway does. Even on indicators that are not strictly socialist but that people often conflate with socialism — such as government taxes, revenue and expenditure — Norway dominates.
Norway Is Far More Socialist Than Venezuela
Sorry Bernie Bros But Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist
Another example of socialism bailing out capitalism. Capitalists love to privatize profits and socialize losses.
Socialist entitlement programs dominate this country’s debt and spending... Nothing else is even close