Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
How well are Norway, Sweden, and Finland doing these days?
I'm not being snarky, btw. Those countries are often considered the poster children of high taxation/high spending Western socialist democracies, so I'm curious to know how well they've done in the recent global economic crisis.
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Quite well, Norway especially which has its oil money to help them out, they've barely felt the global crisis.
Its interesting how often I hear from conservatives that socialism is a failed experiment, so we need to follow the US lower taxes, less regulation, etc.. Boy come to EU and live in places like Germany, France, or any of the Nordic nations, minus Iceland we're still kinda pooched.
I think people just don't get how nice it is to live in EU, minus a few countries. The benefits you get with slightly higher taxes is enormous, powerful and practical unions (maybe minus France) help people out here live top quality lives with excellent benefits, healthcare, education, road systems, etc..
They do almost everything better than the US, all so a few % of the US populace can be super rich, while the middle class in the US would envy the middle class lifestyle of the EU nations. Mind you your house would be smaller, your car would be more efficient, but you have way more vacation pay, your wife can stay home for a year with her newborn baby, you get to actually life a good life without being shackled by too much or too little government.
And by the way, Canada is much much closer to a socialist EU nation than it is to the US, so I find it very interesting Canadians want to mock the EU when you have so much in common with them.