They have lower corporate tax rates. And Denmark scores fairly well on the index of Economic Freedom, only one tenth of a point and one place below the US. Its taxes and spending are high, but its regulatory burden isn't so bad (at least in relative terms), its pretty open to trade, and it has good protection for property rights (except from taxes). And a number of the countries you mention have extensive school choice.
Also your cherry picking a few small countries (most of witch are poorer than the US anyway). Include Greece, and countries even more socialist than Greece in your equation and see where that takes you. Alternatively cherry pick the richer American states or cities and they will be well above any of the countries you mention. Or you can look at ethnic Scandinavians, in the US and see that they are richer than their counterparts in "the old country".
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2. Second, let us compare the production of American States with European countries.
  
If France were to became an American state, it would be the 50th poorest, below Arkansas.
The EU.15 as a whole, which Krugman presents to his readers an economy as dynamic as the US, would be the 49th poorest state, below Alabama
...
The GDP per capita for Americans from EU.15 is $53,000, compared to $33,500 for E.U15 itself. Those of European descent in America on average produce 58.6% more than they do in Europe.
In absolute terms, the $19.600 per capita wealth gap between Americans of European descent and Europe is as large as the gap between the Europe (the EU.15) and Turkey. In percentage terms the gap is almost large as the one between western Europe and Hungary.
super-economy.blogspot.com
The graph is income per capita in Sweden and the U.S (for Americans with Swedish ancestry) for 10 income groups, based on official Swedish statistics and census data. I define you as American with Swedish ancestry if the main ancestry group is Swedish. Americans with Swedish ancestry have a 55.8% advantage in income compared to people in Sweden; very close to the figures I estimated using similar underlying numbers and a somewhat different methodology (is a good sign).
The results of the comparison is striking.
Swedes under the American small-government system beat Swedes in the Swedish welfare system for almost 90% of the income distribution. Among the first 10th percentile the Swedes in Sweden do better. By the 15th percentile or so the Swedes in the U.S have caught up, and vastly outperform Swedes in Sweden for the rest of the income distribution.
Here is the same exact picture with income differences filled in.
The median is 42% higher for the Americans compared to the Swedes.
Overall, the middle 60% of the population earn 46% more in the American Super-Economy versus welfare state Sweden.
super-economy.blogspot.com |
