Should America be more like Scandinavia? (wage, health care system, compared, education)

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by zombieApocExtraordinaire

On a small level it works all the time. On a large country like the USSR it's not going to work very well.

A form of socialism is working well for the Chinese.

We were talking Communism. I know of nowhere it works for long on any level.

[Greatday]

Why should someone be guaranteed, by the government, a vacation of ANY length?

[zombieApocExtraordinaire]

Originally Posted by pknopp

We were talking Communism. I know of nowhere it works for long on any level.

Tribal people are essentially communist. A family unit in this country is run according to a communist model.

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by ScandicA

Should America be more like Scandinavia? How would it look like if we were?

I suppose 7 out of 10 people would be blond.

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by zombieApocExtraordinaire

Iceland too.

No, Iceland and Finland are nordic countries, but technically not scandinavia.

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by zombieApocExtraordinaire

Tribal people are essentially communist. A family unit in this country is run according to a communist model.

O.K., if you have little to nothing it sort of works. A family unit is trying to hard to make an example.

[kidkaos2]

Originally Posted by ScandicA

Should America be more like Scandinavia? How would it look like if we were?

What do you think?

* 5 - 6 weeks paid vacation for all workers
* Very long paid maternity/parental leave (18 months in Sweden)
* Less working hours
* Small gap between rich and poor
* Very low poverty
* Free national health care
* Free school/college
* High GDP per capita & low unemployment rate

Etc.

Salary and standard of living - SWEDEN.SE

"Should" doesn't really enter into it at this point. We have a constitution that doesn't allow for America to be more like Scandinavia.

That being said, still no. American geography, industry, culture, demographics, etc - none of those are like Scandinavia, so why should our social policies be like theirs? If the society isn't the same, then the success of Scandinavian policies in Scandinavia does not predict their success in America.

[zombieApocExtraordinaire]

Originally Posted by pknopp

O.K., if you have little to nothing it sort of works. A family unit is trying to hard to make an example.

The reason it doesn't work is there is no love or trust for a big population. But when you intimately know the people around you, you can sacrifice your specific greater good for the greater good of the unit. Otherwise, you're just looking for loop wholes for your greater good.

[zombieApocExtraordinaire]

Originally Posted by Finn_Jarber

No, Iceland and Finland are nordic countries, but technically not scandinavia.

Technically the Finns are not Nordic (their language is not Germanic).

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by zombieApocExtraordinaire

Technically the Finns are not Nordic (their language is not Germanic).

Being Nordic is not related to the language being Germanic, or even the Austrians would be Nordic, but of course Finland has two official languages, and the other one is actually Germanic.