/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>14248804
>>14249077
Socialism worked because the Scandinavian countries were homogeneous, high trust societies that had strong shared cultural values of co-operation/teamwork/protestantism and had natural resources and industry that didn't get flattened during WWII which gave their economies a head start on the larger industrial countries in Europe after the war. Now the countries are no longer homogeneous (demographically, culturally, values), public trust no longer exists, the industry has all been outsourced, the companies have left for countries with a lower tax burden, and people are in more debt than ever. The conditions for successful socialism/social democracy were there in the mid 20th (which is when wages in these countries peaked historically iirc), but those conditions no longer exist and Scandinavian countries' living standard (especially Sweden) are increasingly held up by huge private debt.