Jim Geraghty explains at National Review Online why Americans cannot hope to duplicate public policies prevalent in Nordic countries.
1) The Nordic system kills innovation, and the United States’ adopting it would have dire consequences for the world economy.
As Daron Acemoglu, an eminent economist at MIT, wrote in 2013:
“In our model (which is just that, a model), U.S. citizens would actually be worse off if they switched to a cuddly capitalism. Why? Because this would reduce the world’s growth rate, given the U.S.’s oversized contribution to the world technology frontier. In contrast, when Sweden switches from cutthroat to cuddly capitalism (or vice versa), this does not have an impact on the long-run growth rate of the world economy, because the important work is being done by U.S. innovation.”
2) Most of what American progressives envy about the Scandinavian countries existed before they expanded their welfare state, and America’s voices on the left are mixing up correlation with causation. …
… 3) At its biggest, most far-reaching, and invasive form in the late 20th century, the Nordic model crushed startups and the growth of new companies. “As of 2000,” Johan Norberg writes, “just one of the 50 biggest Swedish companies had been founded after 1970.”
4) It’s easier to get people to buy into a collectivist idea when everyone has a lot in common. …
… 5) That collectivism is driven, in part, by taking away choices from people. In Finland there are no private schools or universities. As Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education’s Center for International Mobility, said in 2011: “In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all the same.”
6) Having all of your needs handled by the state does not cultivate a sense of responsibility, independence, motivation, or gratitude.
