Long read........but worth it.
I have heard comments from people who thought Fjordman was from Sweden, because I write at least as much about Sweden as I do about my own country, Norway. There are several reasons for this. The most important one is that Sweden is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, country in the Western world when it comes to Political Correctness. Norway is pretty bad, Sweden is absolutely insane. Which makes it fun to write about.
The other reason is that Sweden is the largest and best known of the Scandinavian countries. When people in Canada or the USA discuss the Scandinavian welfare state, they usually talk about the “Swedish model,” not the “Norwegian model.” The Swedish welfare state was presented during the Cold War as a middle way between capitalism and Communism. When this model of a society collapses – and it will collapse – it is thus not just the Swedish welfare state that will collapse but the symbol of Sweden, the showcase of an entire ideological world view.
Besides, Norway is a special case in the Western world since it is the world’s third largest exporter of oil, next to Saudi Arabia and Russia. Norway’s considerable oil wealth will keep the welfare state artificially afloat for years to come. I will thus mainly concentrate on Sweden in my writings below.
Let me first say that there are positive aspects to the welfare state model. It would be hypocritical of me to say anything else, as I have enjoyed some of its benefits by growing up in one. It is also not entirely incorrect to say that it has worked better in Scandinavia than anywhere else. Still, my view is that there are critical flaws to this model. Although they may not bring the system down right away, they will do so over time. My bet is that we are approaching the point where the Swedish welfare state will cease to function.
Even if you consider a national welfare state to be a totally closed system without migration in or out and without international competition – which isn’t possible, of course – there are internal flaws that will, over time, weaken the structure.
Judging from the experiences in Scandinavia, the welfare state worked to some extent because it was based in small and ethnically homogenous nations, with a strong cultural and religious (Protestant) work ethic which had just experienced several generations of a booming capitalist economy. These traits kept the system afloat for decades, but the work ethic and the sense of duty slowly got eroded and replaced by a sense of rights, while the high taxation and the passivity bred by the system eroded initiative and the will to take risks. Again, these flaws are inherent to the model. They make time to develop, but they will, eventually.
The welfare state will also be subject to external pressures. International competition will make a welfare state economy less competitive because the high tax rates in the will stifle economic growth.
Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew points this out: “In the end, the workers, whether they like it or not, will realize, that the cosy European world which they created after the war has come to an end. [...] “The social contract that led to workers sitting on the boards of companies and everybody being happy rested on this condition: I work hard, I restore Germany’s prosperity, and you, the state, you have to look after me. I’m entitled to go to Baden Baden for spa recuperation one month every year. This old system was gone in the blink of an eye when two to three billion people joined the race – one billion in China, one billion in India and over half-a-billion in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.”
One study warned that Europe risks becoming a “second- or third-world region” within a generation because strict labor laws are preventing companies from restructuring properly. David Lewin, who co-wrote the study, said European countries were falling behind the United States because of a lack of investment in information and communication technology (ICT). Companies in Europe had to pursue a policy of “creative destruction” to change the way they do business and learn from the “hire and fire” culture of the US to compete with emerging Asian companies. Mr Lewin added: “It is all down to employment law. In the US if you are made redundant three or four times that is normal, but in Europe there is a stigma.”
Another factor is immigration, and welfare states tend to attract the “wrong” kind of immigrants, those who would be likely to piggyback on the system, while the most dynamic immigrants tend naturally to travel to countries where they pay less tax and thus receive more in return for their work and efforts.
A Danish think tank has estimated that the net cost of immigration was up to 50 billion kroner every year, and those were cautious estimates. A study found that every other immigrant from the Third World – especially from Muslim countries – lacked the qualifications for even the most menial jobs on the organized Danish labor market.
In Norway, social benefits and salaries for low-skilled workers are among the highest in the world. At the same time, the salaries for highly skilled workers are comparatively lower and the taxes are high. This compressed salary structure is the result of decades of Socialist policies in Scandinavia. It leads to attracting people with lower skills and little education, who tend to become a burden on the welfare state, but also makes the countries less attractive for researchers and scientists.
The Western European welfare states thus get crushed by two opposing forces of globalization: The success of the Asian countries, which push us out of global markets, and the failure of Africa and the Islamic world, which send much of their excess population to us and push us out of our own cities.
A welfare state such as the Swedish one will thus experience a long, slow decline due to its inherent flaws, and a faster and more dangerous disintegration with the introduction of mass immigration of persons who do not share any group loyalty with that nation state and do not have the cultural background necessary to uphold the welfare state. The natives will, at the same time, become less willing to pay huge sums if this is seen as supporting other ethnic groups, and may eventually decide to leave the country. A welfare state can only work in an ethnically homogenous society with high levels of mutual trust. Immigration will remove much of this trust.
Nima Sanandaji, an Iranian who has lived for some years in Sweden, describes how during the 1870s Sweden was an impoverished nation. All this changed as capitalism was introduced in the country. “Free markets, property rights and the rule of law created an environment where the Swedish people could achieve a long period of rapid economic development.” After WW2, the Social Democrats initiated a large-scale expansion of the welfare state. Income taxes doubled between 1960 and 1990, rising from approximately 30 to 60 percent.
“P.J. O’Rourke once wrote that no American would work if they lived in a system such as the Swedish welfare state, where government is ‘generous’ with benefits to the unemployed, those on sick leave and those that have retired. What makes Sweden interesting is that for a long time people were very reluctant to take advantage of the system. The Swedish population had a strong tradition of entrepreneurship and hard work and continued to work hard even though they now had the option to live off government. But people do adapt their morality to maximize their benefits in the economic system in which they live, although this might take a generation or so.”
“According to the Institute for Labour Policies the average salary of a person who has studied at a university for three years is only five percent higher of somebody who is uneducated. [...] The European welfare systems have functioned because of strong work ethics that made people reluctant to exploit them,” according to Sanandaji http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=0614055
.
....continued.....
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1234
I have heard comments from people who thought Fjordman was from Sweden, because I write at least as much about Sweden as I do about my own country, Norway. There are several reasons for this. The most important one is that Sweden is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, country in the Western world when it comes to Political Correctness. Norway is pretty bad, Sweden is absolutely insane. Which makes it fun to write about.
The other reason is that Sweden is the largest and best known of the Scandinavian countries. When people in Canada or the USA discuss the Scandinavian welfare state, they usually talk about the “Swedish model,” not the “Norwegian model.” The Swedish welfare state was presented during the Cold War as a middle way between capitalism and Communism. When this model of a society collapses – and it will collapse – it is thus not just the Swedish welfare state that will collapse but the symbol of Sweden, the showcase of an entire ideological world view.
Besides, Norway is a special case in the Western world since it is the world’s third largest exporter of oil, next to Saudi Arabia and Russia. Norway’s considerable oil wealth will keep the welfare state artificially afloat for years to come. I will thus mainly concentrate on Sweden in my writings below.
Let me first say that there are positive aspects to the welfare state model. It would be hypocritical of me to say anything else, as I have enjoyed some of its benefits by growing up in one. It is also not entirely incorrect to say that it has worked better in Scandinavia than anywhere else. Still, my view is that there are critical flaws to this model. Although they may not bring the system down right away, they will do so over time. My bet is that we are approaching the point where the Swedish welfare state will cease to function.
Even if you consider a national welfare state to be a totally closed system without migration in or out and without international competition – which isn’t possible, of course – there are internal flaws that will, over time, weaken the structure.
Judging from the experiences in Scandinavia, the welfare state worked to some extent because it was based in small and ethnically homogenous nations, with a strong cultural and religious (Protestant) work ethic which had just experienced several generations of a booming capitalist economy. These traits kept the system afloat for decades, but the work ethic and the sense of duty slowly got eroded and replaced by a sense of rights, while the high taxation and the passivity bred by the system eroded initiative and the will to take risks. Again, these flaws are inherent to the model. They make time to develop, but they will, eventually.
The welfare state will also be subject to external pressures. International competition will make a welfare state economy less competitive because the high tax rates in the will stifle economic growth.
Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew points this out: “In the end, the workers, whether they like it or not, will realize, that the cosy European world which they created after the war has come to an end. [...] “The social contract that led to workers sitting on the boards of companies and everybody being happy rested on this condition: I work hard, I restore Germany’s prosperity, and you, the state, you have to look after me. I’m entitled to go to Baden Baden for spa recuperation one month every year. This old system was gone in the blink of an eye when two to three billion people joined the race – one billion in China, one billion in India and over half-a-billion in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.”
One study warned that Europe risks becoming a “second- or third-world region” within a generation because strict labor laws are preventing companies from restructuring properly. David Lewin, who co-wrote the study, said European countries were falling behind the United States because of a lack of investment in information and communication technology (ICT). Companies in Europe had to pursue a policy of “creative destruction” to change the way they do business and learn from the “hire and fire” culture of the US to compete with emerging Asian companies. Mr Lewin added: “It is all down to employment law. In the US if you are made redundant three or four times that is normal, but in Europe there is a stigma.”
Another factor is immigration, and welfare states tend to attract the “wrong” kind of immigrants, those who would be likely to piggyback on the system, while the most dynamic immigrants tend naturally to travel to countries where they pay less tax and thus receive more in return for their work and efforts.
A Danish think tank has estimated that the net cost of immigration was up to 50 billion kroner every year, and those were cautious estimates. A study found that every other immigrant from the Third World – especially from Muslim countries – lacked the qualifications for even the most menial jobs on the organized Danish labor market.
In Norway, social benefits and salaries for low-skilled workers are among the highest in the world. At the same time, the salaries for highly skilled workers are comparatively lower and the taxes are high. This compressed salary structure is the result of decades of Socialist policies in Scandinavia. It leads to attracting people with lower skills and little education, who tend to become a burden on the welfare state, but also makes the countries less attractive for researchers and scientists.
The Western European welfare states thus get crushed by two opposing forces of globalization: The success of the Asian countries, which push us out of global markets, and the failure of Africa and the Islamic world, which send much of their excess population to us and push us out of our own cities.
A welfare state such as the Swedish one will thus experience a long, slow decline due to its inherent flaws, and a faster and more dangerous disintegration with the introduction of mass immigration of persons who do not share any group loyalty with that nation state and do not have the cultural background necessary to uphold the welfare state. The natives will, at the same time, become less willing to pay huge sums if this is seen as supporting other ethnic groups, and may eventually decide to leave the country. A welfare state can only work in an ethnically homogenous society with high levels of mutual trust. Immigration will remove much of this trust.
Nima Sanandaji, an Iranian who has lived for some years in Sweden, describes how during the 1870s Sweden was an impoverished nation. All this changed as capitalism was introduced in the country. “Free markets, property rights and the rule of law created an environment where the Swedish people could achieve a long period of rapid economic development.” After WW2, the Social Democrats initiated a large-scale expansion of the welfare state. Income taxes doubled between 1960 and 1990, rising from approximately 30 to 60 percent.
“P.J. O’Rourke once wrote that no American would work if they lived in a system such as the Swedish welfare state, where government is ‘generous’ with benefits to the unemployed, those on sick leave and those that have retired. What makes Sweden interesting is that for a long time people were very reluctant to take advantage of the system. The Swedish population had a strong tradition of entrepreneurship and hard work and continued to work hard even though they now had the option to live off government. But people do adapt their morality to maximize their benefits in the economic system in which they live, although this might take a generation or so.”
“According to the Institute for Labour Policies the average salary of a person who has studied at a university for three years is only five percent higher of somebody who is uneducated. [...] The European welfare systems have functioned because of strong work ethics that made people reluctant to exploit them,” according to Sanandaji http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=0614055
.
....continued.....
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1234
