In their diatribe against Sen. Bernie Sanders’s “democratic socialism”, the editors of the Wall Street Journal provide a capsule description of Sweden, frequently used by those touting socialism as an example of their aspirations:
Sweden’s corporate tax rate is 21.4%—close to the U.S. rate of 21% that Mr. Sanders calls an abomination and wants to raise.
Sweden has no inheritance tax, while Mr. Sanders wants government to tax just about everything you have at death. Or perhaps Mr. Sanders doesn’t want voters to figure out that Sweden, like most European cradle-to-grave welfare states, imposes a 25% VAT that soaks the middle class.
Like other universal government-run health care systems, Sweden rations care. But at least people can utilize private care if they choose. Mr. Sanders recently said there would be no exceptions for Americans to his Medicare for All plan. Sweden also offers universal school vouchers, which may be why its students outperform those in the U.S. Mr. Sanders wants to ban charter schools and force kids into union-run public schools.
Sweden’s GDP growth rate is the same as ours. Our two countries are 27th and 28th, respectively, in the prevalence of suicide. We have roughly the same rates of alcohol abuse. Our rate of drug abuse is significantly higher than Sweden’s.
We have more than 30 times the population of Sweden. Our per capita GDP is 20% higher than Sweden’s (however measured). Sweden is much more equal as measured by Gini coefficient than the United States.
Sweden set up its former cradle-to-grave welfare state when it was much more prosperous and had been so for some time and when it was much more homogeneous than it is now. Until rather recently Sweden was more than 90% ethnically Swedish and at least culturally Lutheran. Roughly 70% of the people in Sweden are still ethnic Swedes. Political support for its welfare state eroded as its population became more diverse.
That was an educational comparison and contrast between Sweden & the US.