Rule Five Socialist Sweden Friday

OK, so the title is a bit misleading, as national treasure John Stossel explains to us that Sweden is not a socialist country, and that proponents of socialism should stop pointing it out as an example.  Excerpt:






Even socialistic Swedes complained about the high taxes.



Sweden’s regulations on business are much less onerous than those in the United States, even after a round or two of Trump-era deregulating.  Their schools, pension programs and mass-transit systems have been privatized.  They do run a substantial welfare state, but they are able to do so because of their free market policies, not because of socialist ones.

Words mean things.  Here’s what “Socialist” means:





None of those apply to Sweden; they do apply to Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.  They applied to the old Soviet Union and to East Germany.  Now take a look at the standard of living in those places.

People who want to apply socialist policies to the United States are advocating for economic ruin, whether they realize it or not.

Here’s an extended lesson on why socialism always fails:

At the moment aspects of the U.S. economy are being dragged in the direction of socialism; you have, even in the halls of Congress, nitwits like the soon-to-be-seated Ocasio-Cortez advocating for “democratic socialism,” which is a contradiction in terms; you can’t have government control of an economy and any level of citizen control over government at the same time.

It would be damned nice if our elected leaders employees had the same level of economic understanding as Mr. Stossel.