The Truth About ‘Socialism’ as Told by Scandinavian Leaders

But you don’t need to accept American publications’ words on the misconception surrounding the “Nordic model.” You can hear it straight from the Scandinavians themselves. Johan Hassel is a party official for Social Democrats, Sweden’s ruling party. He attended a Sanders rally this year in Iowa and was utterly unimpressed.

Intellectual Takeout  "It says a lot about the 2020 Democratic field when Michael Bloomberg’ defense of capitalism became a point of offense during his first presidential debate.
“ 'We’re not going to throw out capitalism,” Bloomberg said. “We’ve already tried that. Other countries tired that. It was called communism and it just didn’t work.”
"Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist, took umbrage with this historically accurate comment from the former mayor of New York. Calling it a “cheap shot,” Sanders insisted that Bloomberg focus on “democratic socialism, not communism.”
"Never mind that in the 1980s, Sanders publicly praised the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro. Never mind that he honeymooned in the Soviet Union, praised its housing prices, and denigrated America in enemy territory. Never mind that he praised Nicaraguan Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, a man accused of crimes against humanity not just during the revolution, but as recently as 2018.
"Never mind all that. Let’s honor Sanders’ request, and focus instead on “democratic socialism.”
"The problem is that the Nordic model Sanders points to as the ideal for democratic-socialism has fallen apart. Sweden ranked as one of the top 20 most market-oriented economies in the world in 2019, just behind the United States. This Scandinavian nation may indeed have been a socialist-leaning state in the 1970s and 80s, but the problems kept mounting. Entrepreneurs were taxed into fleeing the country, workers wound up making more money sick than working full healthy days, and there ended up being 151 people deriving their income from the government for every 100 who earned their money from the private sector.
"This changed in the 1990s when a wide-ranging set of taxes were either cut dramatically or eliminated entirely. The welfare system was reduced and Sweden’s top-notch marks for equality fell away. But the Swedes were happy to take that trade off.
"Sanders clearly needs to update his knowledge of Scandinavian economies by a few decades." . . .  Full article.