01-29-2020, 03:14 PM
(01-29-2020, 12:59 PM)David Horn Wrote:(01-28-2020, 06:26 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(01-28-2020, 02:11 PM)David Horn Wrote: Pick any Scandinavian country. Given the lousy weather and limited resources (Norway has oil, but that's about it these days), they all do very well. Are there discontents? Of course -- they're everywhere. The big difference: most of the country is OK with high taxes for great benefits. I don't see the Norwegians running the social democrats away so they can go hard capitalist. The same applies in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.
I don't see the social Democrats in those countries allowing their people to have the freedom do that either.
Based on what? What freedoms do they lack? Here's an article by two Americans who moved to Finland for work and decided to stay.
People are not going there for the sunshine, mild winters, or the easy language to learn. (It is cold, winter nights are long, and the language has fifteen cases).
Finland is an easy country to leave.
Fear of a boss who can fire you without reason isn't freedom. Hunger isn't freedom. Being heavily in debt for a college education that might allow one to remain in the middle class isn't freedom. The risk of going bankrupt and losing everything due to medical costs isn't freedom.
High taxes, high wages, and good services? That certainly beats the Land of Cotton.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.