Ya Sweden, A Gemstone For Socialists

If you ask a socialist for proof that socialism works one of the countries they will happily point to will be Sweden (although not a total socialistic country). Sweden does have a huge socialistic handout program but they also rely on a capitalistic infrastructure to support all those social programs - socialism can not exist long without some form of capitalism.

The Wall Street Journal (February 22,1990) editorializes:

The reality of today's Sweden is the lingering myth of a cradle-to-the-grave Welfare Paradise. The myth is based on an enormous system of subsidies - from food consumption to having children and even reaching old age. Savings are non-existent and investments are flowing abroad. That the gravy train is sputtering can be seen in the degradation of services, particularly medical care, and increasing poverty. Conditions in Sweden, of course, are still a far cry from those in Eastern Europe. But since the economic problems of both arise from the same socialist theory, countries trying to escape the grips of a statist nightmare have little reason to emulate Sweden's welfare system.

In the 1970s, things began to fall apart. Restive labor unions who saw their members' salaries eaten up by inflation, and employers who saw their share of social costs rise to 40 percent of workers' salaries, began to chafe at the tax burden. Unprecedented absenteeism by workers who collected 90 percent of their salaries from their first day off (without the need for medical certification) priced Swedish exports out of world markets.

The workers of Sweden are mostly unionized (a requirement for socialism). So how do these union workers enjoy their workplace? From the CIA fact book:

Swedish workers report in sick more often than other Europeans because of generous sicktime benefits.

Hakan Gergils, a member of the Swedish Civil Rights Movement and an adviser to Swedish industry, noted in Economic Affairs (October/ November 1989) that:

This development has created a new class of poor people. The number of Swedes in this category increased to 600,000 last year, which means that around 10 percent of the adult population in Sweden cannot earn their living by working. They have to rely on public support for housing, food, clothing, etc. The most astonishing thing is that the new class includes a large number of well-educated people. A great number of full-time working men and women with, under normal circumstances, an acceptable income, have been trapped into dependency by the progressive tax system.

They rely on public support - I fear that social programs in the USA are turning more and more into this same socialistic reliance. Thus is the wonderful world that socialists promise the people - make people less dependent on themselves and more dependent on the government. Take from the productive and give to the unproductive. Goran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden, in response to the economic comparison of his country to capitalistic USA:

We will not replace the US. It is not possible.

To support this heavy socialized society high taxes are required. So as a healthy hard worker trying to live within your means with perhaps two children you can be happy knowing your flipp'n the bill for someone that doesn't desire to work as hard, has all sorts of health problems because they chose to eat like a pig and smoke, and with perhaps 6 or 8 kids. From Wikipedia:

The welfare state requires high taxes, but the population is generally affirmative of this. Sweden has a two step progresive tax scale with a municupal income tax of about 30% and a high income state tax of about 50% that kicks in when you earn more than about 500,000 SEK (approx. $64,000 USD). On top of that a national MOMS tax of 25% is added to everything bought by private cititsen including the food.