tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22559435.post116672699857938784..comments2023-10-18T01:07:41.698-07:00Comments on Capitalism and Freedom: NORDIC MODELS - ADMIRE THE BEST BUT FORGET THE RESTRok Sprukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06002832007011239363noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22559435.post-40447896100112486122006-12-24T10:34:00.000-08:002006-12-24T10:34:00.000-08:00Merry Christmas to you as well!
There are also tw...Merry Christmas to you as well!<br /><br />There are also two articles about Nordic issues coming out soon.<br /><br />Yeah it's true what you're saying. If Sweden were a state in the U.S. then it would exist as one of the poorest ones in the whole country. Its standard of living would be equal to the one in Alabama or Louisiana. This has also been empirically underpinned.<br /><br />Of course Nordic region indeed has some admirable features but those features present a small minority in the vastness of socialistic features while solely those features are goals of "social-welfare" policymakers in Europe. Slovenian government, for example, has declared its Scandinavian orientation, several times.<br /><br />As to education system - the best Finnish university is ranked 74th on a global scale. Consider a soccer team ranked 74 on the FIFA scale and then imagine if a soccer analyst put that country as "the best" while top 10 countries were left out. It would be hilarious:)<br /><br />Liberatarian free market reforms are vastly needed, also in Nordic countries. I think that rapid economic transformations in Chile, Estonia, Ireland, Singapore and partly Switzerland as well as their free-market policies could be a great example for the Nordic group of countries in order to learn how to avoid long-term economic stagnation. Why particular activists from Nordic countries are trying to tell other countries what to do? I think they need some more economic education if take into account that economic policy of Sweden for example is mostly a "neosocialist experiment" or in a direct sense - a way to going down - a way to long-term stagnation and recession.<br /><br />Mr. Carl Bildt has given a nice picture of Nordic positivism while a bulk of the remaining measures should be immediately forgotten when policymakers in certain countries are setting up a framework for the mainstream of their economic policy.<br /><br />In fact, it is a sad story if policymakers ignore scientific improvements in the field of economic sciences and rather consider a group of countries to be a "guideline" in their economic policy. Decisions in modern economic policies are based upon the contemporary economic theory and empirical studies in certain situations while any kind of deviation from this particular rule is a road to discretionary system of decision-making while we alread know how painful is the legacy of gradual economic policy in countries such as Slovenia.<br /><br />Thank you for the comment and I wish you a Merry Christmas from Slovenia to Barcelona!<br /><br />Regards, RocksRok Sprukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06002832007011239363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22559435.post-90394318610489705522006-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:002006-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:00A great Catalan economist, Xavier Sala-i-Martin (s...A great Catalan economist, Xavier Sala-i-Martin (see www.columbia.edu/~xs23) wrote recently an article called "Sweden: Mirror or Mirage?". It pointed out an interesting fact: Sweden is the fourth richest country in the EU, but if it was an American State, it would be the seventh poorest.<br /><br />But in Europe it is a dogma that Nordic models are better than the American.<br /><br />Thanks to people like you, these dogmas are falling. Merry Christmas from Barcelona!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com