[CliffFletcher]

The countries that have managed to foster more egalitarian societies - I mean have actually done it, not theorized about socialist utopias on reddit or twitter - have a fairly straightforward model.

* Attract private business with a healthy and educated workforce and moderate corporate tax rates.

* Tax the population working for these business with high income taxes across the board and high sales taxes.

* Use the government revenue generated from those taxes to fund strong public education and healthcare systems.

The key is high taxes across the board. The 1 per cent are too small in number to fund high levels of services. Taxes have to be high at all income levels to raise the kind of money Scandinavian public services cost.

That approach has never been pursued in the Anglosphere because our politics are more divisive, and the left tell people they can have dramatically better lives if only the rich would pay their share. Nobody has the courage or honesty to run on a platform of higher taxes for all. The whole collective ethos of the Northern European approach is missing.