Reason TV brings us an interesting report on Sweden. The country that for decades has been used by America’s left as an example of the benefits of a bloated welfare state is on a path to free market reforms.
In Sweden, parents can use vouchers to send their children to private schools something that has been blocked in America by powerful teacher unions.
The country’s rise from its poverty in the late 19th century was due to a healthy free market. Once it reached a high level of wealth, Sweden’s welfare state socialism caused decades of stagnation and now Sweden is moving in the direction of lower, less progressive taxation and free market reform.
Sweden still has high taxes and a lot more government programs than we would like to see in the U.S., but it is changing. The report also points out that policies that do not cripple a free market in a culturally homogeneous country of 9 million people aren’t a good model for the United States with a population of over 300 million people and a culturally diverse population.
The example in the video of the responsiveness of the Swedish postal service to a request for a conveniently located mail box illustrates this point. With a small population the postal service appears to have a lot less bureaucracy and is able to respond to request in a way unimaginable from the US Postal Service.
All this is also a great argument for experimenting in the United States with public policy at the state level where government programs can be more manageable. By allowing fifty states to experiment there is natural competition and ideas that work can be copied by other states while ideas that don’t work cause only limited damage. The success of a program on a smaller, state-level scale does not mean that the same program would be successful if imposed by the federal government.
I am still skeptical about getting too enthusiastic about learning from Sweden, but Reason TV’s report shows that the real lessons that can be learned from a country like Sweden are not at all what America’s Left claims.
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I am swedish living in Florida. When you call your Swedish insurance company or your power supplier they answer, you don’t talk to a machine. When you call your mobile operator they actually talk back, live!!. I can’t claim my T-Mobile payback since I never recieved my 4 digit pincode. When I call they say I must give my code. If not, no service. When you talk about freedom you talk as if you invented freedom. I must give my contact details to take a piss in US. Sweden has for the last 150 years been a market economy with free elections. Not with 2 partys but more. In sweden college is free, your kids actually get some 120 USD / month when attending college. Need a new heart, pay 30 USD after surgery performed. Do you need to pitch in money so kids can get dental? No, it is free for everyone. Day care for small kids? max fee is 120 USD / month. Daycare is available for all, by law. Now tell me what US got that make their people happier. Freedom to get nothing because you don’t want your parliament to interfer with your lives. By the way, in Sweden police can’t provoke a crime by pretending to be criminal. It violates the rights of the people,…..
Know what you talk about before putting out opinions and faking to know!!!!
Did you read what I wrote about Sweden? The article you are commenting on focuses on positive aspects of government in Sweden. I cite examples of how the Swedish government is more responsive than our federal government and is moving in a direction that is direct opposite of where we are headed under Obama. The fact that Sweden is able to move away from socialism after being ruled by socialist governments for many decades is a sign of hope for all of us. You refer to all the benefits you can get in Sweden, yet you live in Florida. May I ask why? The heavy tax burden in Sweden has caused people from Sweden to move to countries where the fruits of their labor are not taken from them. I am an immigrant from Central Europe where socialist Sweden was hailed as paradise during the 1970s. I do know what I am talking about.
I appreciated the article and video. I’m married to a Swede, who came here to attend college in the 80s. I often think of Sweden as doing many things right and took your article to say that. The point I got from your article was that it is not realistic for a country as diverse and large as the US to be able to implement a Swedish model. Too much mistrust, too many hands and ulterior motives…as a public school teacher, I see this way too much. The money generated doesn’t always end up where it should.
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