What Americans Don’t Get About Nordic Countries

This is a great article. I have lived in Sweden for many years, and how the swedish political model is seen abroad is often very misinformed and far from the truth. It actually works extremely well, compared.

Most of the social benefits, like one year of paid paternal leave, free education, free and high quality child care, very cheap health care and so on are seen as so natural and beneficial for sociey and for the economy and innovation,that a vast majority of the population stands behind it regardless of political inclinations.

I also liked this article. Gives a great insight to the things that just seem to work in Scandinavia, such as free education and health care. However, it does not shed any light on things that do not work in the Nordic countries. The socialistic model builds upon trust; a trust that people will not abuse the system. In Denmark, a big problem is that unemployed people with children turn down jobs simply because the pay is not substantially greater than their welfare check which they get for doing nothing. This becomes very expensive for the tax payer in the long run if not solved.

I'm actually traveling to Sweden and Norway next week just to get a small taste of this. I'm staying in Airbnbs, meeting up and staying the night with a swede who is a friend of a friend... I hope to be able to better understand their culture and thought processes around these very topics.