Bernie Sanders: U.S. should turn into socialist Scandinavia – does he know the facts?

Independent Vermont Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wants to turn the United States into a democratic socialist state, much like the countries found in Scandinavia.

Sanders, who has said some pretty outlandish things in the past, spoke with ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the issues and his presidential campaign. However, it seems that his comments about transforming the U.S. into Scandinavia is garnering more attention than his other remarks.

Here is what Sanders told George Stephanopoulos, who had asked if he had any chance of winning a seat in the White House:

“In countries in Scandinavia like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries,” Sanders said. “Voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people; college education and graduate school is free; retirement benefits, child care are stronger than the United States of America. In those countries by and large government works for ordinary people and the middle class, rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class.”

Scandinavia the Socialist Paradise (for now?)

Now that places like Venezuela have turned into hellholes because of their socialist structures, individuals similar Sanders now cite Sweden, Norway and Finland as beacons of socialist success. These countries have established the Nordic Model:

• An expansive welfare state that is funded through very high taxes.
• A great deal of public and/or private spending on child care and education.
• An extensive set of rules in the labor market, such as labor unions and over-generous unemployment benefits.

Sounds great, right? Everyone must be dancing in the golden streets with bottles of champagne, everyone must be geniuses and everyone must be affluent. Poverty does not exist in Scandinavia. Well, not quite.

First, here are some very interesting statistics coming out of Scandinavia (courtesy of the Mises wiki):

• The incomes of the poorest 10 percent of the population have grown six to eight times faster in Ireland and Great Britain than Sweden.
• Long-term unemployment levels remain quite high, though short-term joblessness are lower than in the United States. Sweden, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, has a real unemployment rate of 15 percent.
• One reason for lower joblessness numbers is because more than one-third of the Scandinavian population have jobs within the government.
• Public officials and politicians have a great deal of influence over the allocation of resources, and policymakers consider political ramifications instead of economic factors.
• Most of the Scandinavian countries maintain higher personal tax rates, while employing lower corporate tax rates (surely, those who advocate for a Scandinavian system would also want lower taxes for corporations!)

Second, much of these Scandinavian countries, except the oil-rich Norway, aren’t really all that prosperous. Denmark, Finland and Sweden have a debt-to-GDP ratio between 41 and 58 percent. A lot of the population have lower disposable incomes and maintain higher levels of private debt.

Moreover, Swedish group Timbro released the results of a study that compared GDP of an array of European nations to individual states in the U.S., and the results were interesting. If Denmark, Sweden and Finland were a part of the U.S., they would be ranked 10th, seventh and eighth poorest states.

Third, due to the nation’s generous welfare system, Sweden suffers from the “sickest workforce in the world,” writes Kevin Williamson, author of the book “Political Incorrect Guide to Socialism.”

Here is what he opined:

“Sweden has the “sickest work force in the world,” reports Swedish Journalist Ulf Nilson. And Monday is the “sickest day of the week.” “Another way of describing Svenska sjukan (the Swedish Disease) is to say that around one million Swedes of working age (of whom there are some five million) are not going to work today,” he writes. “Or tomorrow. Or the day after. In other words, some 20 percent. Every fifth [working-age Swede]. In spite of everything being said the disease does not strike old women…worse than any other group.” To the contrary: according to the report, the sickliest Swedes are young men, generally believed to be among the healthiest specimens on earth.

“At which point you might say: Oops, there must be something fishy here.”

Indeed, there is.

“…Most of the young men, thousands of them every day, lie when they call in sick. The same goes for thousands of young women. And older people, too. They call in sick, without being sick—and why? Because it has become a habit. And because—very important this!—given the idiotic tax system, you lose very little by not working.”

In addition, supporters of the socialist model often allude to high employment rates in Sweden, but this is erroneous due to the fact that it’s “based on deceptive employment statistics that count as employed many who have been on long-term sick leave or in some other way on the receiving end of transfer payment programs, even though they don’t actually work.”

Fourth, any type of global economic growth as of late is only temporary because Sweden, for example, has grown its money supply base by nearly 12 percent, more than the 8.9 percent of the eurozone. Similar to what has been occurring in the U.S., any type of moneyprinting produces short-term stimulus, while creating long-term destruction.

Final Thoughts

Indeed, many of the Scandinavian states have still employed many tools of the free market, which have contributed to the success of places like Norway or Sweden. Also, they have stayed out of major war conflicts. However, government bureaucrats and politicians have gradually eroded the free market principles embraced by Scandinavian states since the early 20th century.

Akin to any other country that has embraced socialism, time will be the force to destroy these nations. Socialism is never a long-term policy because it’s an unsustainable model. When this occurs, some other Che Guevara worshiping protester will say these countries never fully welcomed socialism and will then point to another socialist state and claim it to be a paradise.

Socialist countries that have scattered pockets of capitalism accomplish gradual prosperity, while capitalist countries that open up to socialism degrade themselves to gradual poverty.