Ah, understood. OK, not so much disagreement.
I wouldn't call Sweden - or anywhere in Europe outside the Balkans/ex-USSR - socialist. If anything I'm trying to point out the difference - social-welfare <> socialist. But, certainly, the more socialist-inclined policies were being harmful to the economic wellbeing of many W.E. countries from ~1950-1990 - no question about it.
Norway did suffer some in the war, BTW - Sweden didn't much, and Finland mainly on the borders (German ally... sigh). Also, none could import/export much, and they had major trouble with resources... All suffered rather more than the US, less then the UK, and far less than Poland, Holland or indeed Germany. So I'm not sure I see the point there.
On PPP... I suspect I see why there's a discrepancy. Sure, the things that you buy are more expensive (i.e., your salary buys less): this may well be because of sales taxation and/or taxes further up the supply chain. But, those high taxes pay for well-run, efficient and very high-quality services... and if you have free (or very cheap) healthcare, education and childcare, there's a lot more salary to buy things with.
Seriously, Stockholm is an expensive place to live - but people live very well there. |
