Treason Season??

[Rajvik]

Neither a pure socialist, nor a pure capitalist system ever works.

I don't remember where i heard or read that but i do believe its true BA. Capitalism without regulation turns into Oligarchy and Socialism without free business dies the death of Stalinist communism that said, i do not think the Nordic model would fly in the United States for several reasons, but these two strike me as non-starters for pretty much everyone, especially the whole flat tax idea, (which i can stand behind) which has been shot to hell by both sides of the aisle.

Overall tax burdens (as a percentage of GDP) are high: Sweden (44.1%), Denmark (45.9%) and Finland (44.1%).[24] The Nordic countries have relatively flat tax rates, meaning that even those with medium and low incomes are taxed at relatively high levels

Sweden at 56.6% of GDP, Denmark at 51.7% and Finland at 48.6% reflect very high public spending.[22] One key reason for public spending is the large number of public employees. These employees work in various fields including education, healthcare, and for the government itself. They often have greater job security and make up around a third of the workforce (more than 38% in Denmark). Public spending in social transfers such as unemployment benefits and early-retirement programmes is high. In 2001, the wage-based unemployment benefits were around 90% of wage in Denmark and 80% in Sweden, compared to 75% in the Netherlands and 60% in Germany. The unemployed were also able to receive benefits several years before reductions, compared to quick benefit reduction in other countries.

First a flat tax, which has been a non-starter for both sides for years, (the liberals because it goes against their class warfare political model and the right because the big business guys know they aren't going to get any deductions while the little guy "knows" that regardless he's going to be footing the bill) and then with either that tax rate or as i figure it, the higher one that would be required to pay the national debt that has built up (note, not service the debt, pay it off in a reasonable amount of time) would put the US's tax rate with this model probably somewhere north of 50% which means that all those companies are going to leave for cheaper pastures.

Second, the population is already bitching because our government is spending 21% of our GDP where if we suddenly, (or even gradually) went to this model, we would be spending probably somewhere close to 95% GDP on our social programs.

Now, the question is, why do these countries feel they can get away with spending so much on their social programs? The answer is simple, they have had the US footing the bill for their defenses at least since the end of WWII,

Finally, look at the Criticism, it points out that the model is heavily dependent on redistribution, which fails in the face of the "lazy man" argument (re: Lazy man argument boils down to this: Why am I going to kill myself to do a good job, when this other guy is as useless as teats on a turtle and gets paid the same as me to do practically nothing. This last is especially true when said idiot gets the same or more due to connections and not hard work)