2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhat Americans Don’t Get About Nordic Countries
When U.S. politicians talk about Scandinavian-style social welfare, they fail to explain the most important aspect of such policies: selfishness.
Bernie Sanders is hanging on, still pushing his vision of a Nordic-like socialist utopia for America, and his supporters love him for it. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is chalking up victories by sounding more sensible. We are not Denmark, she said in the first Democratic debate, pointing instead to Americas strengths as a land of freedom for entrepreneurs and businesses. Commentators repeat endlessly the mantra that Sanderss Nordic-style policies might sound nice, but theyd never work in the U.S. The upshot is that Sanders, and his supporters, are being treated a bit like childrengood-hearted, but hopelessly naive. Thats probably how Nordic people seem to many Americans, too.
A Nordic person myself, I left my native Finland seven years ago and moved to the U.S. Although Im now a U.S. citizen, I hear these kinds of comments from Americans all the timeat cocktail parties and at panel discussions, in town hall meetings and on the opinion pages. Nordic countries are the way they are, Im told, because they are small, homogeneous nanny states where everyone looks alike, thinks alike, and belongs to a big extended family. This, in turn, makes Nordic citizens willing to sacrifice their own interests to help their neighbors. Americans dont feel a similar kinship with other Americans, Im told, and thus will never sacrifice their own interests for the common good. What this is mostly taken to mean is that Americans will never, ever agree to pay higher taxes to provide universal social services, as the Nordics do. Thus Bernie Sanders, and anyone else in the U.S. who brings up Nordic countries as an example for America, is living in la-la land.
But this vision of homogenous, altruistic Nordic lands is mostly a fantasy. The choices Nordic countries have made have little to do with altruism or kinship. Rather, Nordic people have made their decisions out of self-interest. Nordic nations offer their citizensall of their citizens, but especially the middle classhigh-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble. This is what Americans fail to understand: My taxes in Finland were used to pay for top-notch services for me.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-nordic-countries/473385/
We as Americans are selfish in the way of I got mine.............
H2O Man
(73,308 posts)Very important. Thank you.
elleng
(130,126 posts)Bjornsdotter
(6,123 posts)...is the idea that no one has/lives better than those in America. As most Americans have never been to Europe or other areas they have no idea how people in other countries live. I think they would be very surprised.
For example this is Paris, but not the Paris many picture. It's too modern.
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)both with America is the greatest meme and I myself would not imagine Paris like that at all.