There’s quite a bit of snickering going on the Right Blogosphere today about Tim Worstall’s latest article at Tech Central Station. In the article Tim analyzes price parity-adjusted incomes in Europe (mostly the Scandinavian countries) with those in the United States and finds that a certain amount of the huffing and puffing is misplaced.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned how different we are from the Scandinavian countries. There’s our size, of course. Our population is 30 times that of Sweden, the largest Scandinavian country. Even with their recent immigrants the Scandinavian countries are significantly more homogeneous ethnically, culturally, and socially than we are in the United States. That has political implications.
It’s tempting to attribute the issues to plain old racism but I think that trivializes them. In countries with homogeneous populations there are common assumptions about what constitutes a good way to live, what’s right and just, the role of government, the role of the individual, and so on. There are countries that are so homogeneous that quite literally the visceral reactions of the people to events are similar. Consensus building is incredibly easier.
So it’s also a lot easier to build a consensus around issues like education, health care, and so on and to make them stick over time.
When people say “we should be more like Scandinavia†what do they mean? And how do they think that’s politically possible?
Good points. Let’s not forget about immigration policies either.
None of the Scandinavian countries have U. S.-style birthright citizenship, for example.