Do you support the Scandinavian tax rate?

Our economy would collapse if no one was a multimillionaire? I don't even have the knowledge needed to say whether that's true or not, but I'd like to see some studies on that.

Also, it occurs to me that there is definitely a cap on how much poor people can have to qualify for assistance to help them lift themselves out of poverty (there are plenty of people who don't make enough to, say, rent an apartment or home, but make too much to qualify for assistance to get to that amount, and hence are stuck in chronic housing insecurity, or housing projects that are full of crime, desperation, and mental illness), so why would it be incredible to suggest that there also be some kind of cap at the other end?

It seems that the standard answer has something to do with innovation (e.g., they wouldn't be incentivized to innovate, and hence the economy would stagnate), which has never really made sense to me when so many of today's largest and wealthiest companies like Apple and Amazon were proudly started in somebody's basement, garage, or individual office space for well under $2 million (Jeff Bezos started Amazon in the garage of his rented home in Bellvue, Washington with $250,000 invested by his parents). Not to mention that caring about who will come out with the newest i-Phone or erectile dysfunction medicine or whatever seems a little strange when set against the economic reality of many millions more who are on the edge of homelessness and starvation in American society. What are our priorities, and should we/how can we maybe change them to be more responsive to the actual needs of the majority of society? Isn't the economy supposedly made up of individual people, and supposed to be responsive to their needs?

Maybe having new iterations of things that already exist can wait. Maybe we don't need more multimillionaires and most people should be able (and happy) to live on $1.9 million.

Again, I'm not claiming to have stats to back this up, so maybe this is all wrong, but I know what I see every day (I live in a not super-great area at the moment), and it's pretty soul-crushing. If this is the American economy working as it should, then maybe looking to other models, or some kind of mixed American-European model, would not be such a bad idea.

Mountainmanbob said:

Well on second thought I guess it works well if one wishes to make America a third world country.

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Are the Scandinavian countries that this thread is supposed to be about third world countries? I've never been, but my best friend married into a Norwegian family, so he and his wife have been over there I think a few times, and it seems to be very nice. Clean, safe, well-run...not what I think of when I think of the third world.

Does a person need to be considered wealthy for some reason? I was talking about actual needs like housing. The accumulation of wealth to the point of reaching some threshold whereupon a person is considered 'wealthy' is a different discussion.

Can you tell me a reason why there shouldn't be a cap on the wealthy if there is already definitely one on the poor (that actually helps to keep them in poverty and addicted to welfare programs by penalizing saving money)?

John Bowen said:

Why don't the Swiss people demand and end to the Swiss banking system ? A safe haven for organized crime , dictators , criminals , elites hiding their $$$$ is it cause its a major source of income for the country ?

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Interesting that you bring Switzerland up in the context of this thread. Switzerland is not in Scandinavia. Many people do confuse Sweden with Switzerland though.

Radagast said:

You might find this comparison interesting. Notice that Sweden spends much less than the US on healthcare.

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I find this chart most intriging. I wonder where the figures come from. And what year was it - if it purports to be based on an annual Budget. The item I question most seriously is medicare and health. The problem of making these kinds of comparisons is that the divisions of expenditures in the two countries are not the same; and it is not clear (from this graph) whether this is all public sector expenditure (local, state, and national/federal) or only national/federal level expenditure. Also, is everything covered - for example, in the graph above, where does justice, law and order, border security, migration, and prison administration fall? What does "international Affairs" include - diplomatic missions, contributions/dues to international organisations, foreign aid, etc.?

Monna said:

I find this chart most intriging. I wonder where the figures come from. And what year was it - if it purports to be based on an annual Budget. The item I question most seriously is medicare and health.

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I quoted the chart with no endorsement of its accuracy. A better one would be good.

But on medicare and health, the US does spend a lot of money. It's just very wasteful, and doesn't cover everybody. Sweden is much more efficient.

Monna said:

Interesting that you bring Switzerland up in the context of this thread. Switzerland is not in Scandinavia. Many people do confuse Sweden with Switzerland though.

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They're both in Europe. They both get very cold in winter. They both start with "S." Isn't that close enough?

dzheremi said:

Does a person need to be considered wealthy for some reason?

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Well, if you want company workers, you need company owners.

Sweden is a success in large part because of companies like Ericsson, Electrolux, Volvo, SAAB, and IKEA.

Radagast said:

Sweden is a success in large part because of companies like Ericsson, Electrolux, Volvo, SAAB, and IKEA.

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Not to mention Scania (North Americans miss out on this truck - a favourite in other parts of the world), Atlas Copco (mining equipment), ABB (electricals +), SKF (ball bearings), Alfa Laval (Agric equipment/ industrial machinery + liquid separators - invented the first cream separator), AstraZeneca (Pharmaceuticals), H&M (clothing +), Autoliv (car safety), Hasselblad (cameras, including those that Apollo missions used on the moon), Oriflame (cosmetics), Sandvik (engineering equipment), Tetra Pak (food packaging), Spotify (music streaming), Skanska (construction). Skype was created by a Swede, the computer mouse was invented in Sweden, as were a number of other computer components. IMHO, Sweden has not been particularly good at developing good companies based on their innovations, and getting sufficient SWEDISH financing to keep them Swedish - many front edge small companies get bought up or bought out by larger international companies. Skype is an example. MySQL (software) is another, and who owns Minecraft now?