The CATO Institute’s index that people use to say how capitalist Norse countries are includes mostly things that have nothing to do with distinguishing capitalism from modern democratic socialism.
Even looking at the economic freedom indicator, only four percent of it is looking at the state’s ownership of assets, which is core to what socialism is.
Yet, this is used again and again to say how capitalist these countries are.
In the US, the state owns around 4% of total national wealth, for Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, this is: 11.2%; 24.1%; 31.7%; and 57%.
There are many different types of Socialism. Just determining that a country isn’t a fully topped down planned economy, doesn’t mean it’s not Socialist.
Low-wage workers in the US pay HIGHER taxes than the Nordic countries if you count healthcare premiums as taxes. Healthcare premiums come right from your paycheck and go a bureaucracy that pays for healthcare. It’s the same in the US as Nordic countries, except in the US it goes to a private company and in Nordic countries, it goes to the government. In both cases. health insurance is provided…except out of pocket costs are also lower in the Nordic countries.
If you need a family plan, then the US average wage worker also pays more!
The focus on taxes is silly. What matters is what are the cost burdens on Americans. Whether it is a tax from government or a healthcare premium from an insurance company, it’s a burden! Only looking at taxes is highly misleading, especially when taxes are instead of a premium, so when you look at the US, you ignore the cost of that premium.
That the US is a larger country, means we have more economies of scale, meaning it should be easier for us to provide healthcare for its people. We don’t do it based on ideology.
The problem with childcare fraud in Minneapolis wasn’t simply a problem with Somalis, but with private companies providing government services while being paid by the taxpayer. That wouldn’t have happened if the government did it itself.
The Nordic countries have universal welfare states and high levels of state ownership. They are examples of more successful “socialist” policies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4He0ceUFvI
Nolan’s central trick: “Nolan has smuggled the core of Judeo-Christian ethics into the center of The Odyssey.” Zeus’s Law in Nolan’s Odyssey is more similar to the Christian and Jewish golden rule than ancient Greece’s Xenia. The problem with the modern right isn’t that they haven’t obeyed the golden rule, it’s that they detest it. Cruelty toward the weak, the poor, the stranger, the immigrant…is glorified. Trump’s policies are built on the logic of tribute, not compassion, love, or reciprocity.
To Homer, Odysseus’s trick, using their common religious beliefs to fool the Trojans and to destroy Troy and slaughter its people…to Homer, Odysseus was a hero, but to Nolan, it was a great crime and that Odysseus needed redemption.
In Homer’s time, slaughtering innocent people wasn’t bad as long as they were the other. After Jesus and eventually the enlightenment and eventually applying these principles to societies…we don’t believe slaughtering people is okay just because they aren’t us. Using our common moral principles to trick each other is not heroic. We believe that from a long chain of history, but that chain’s strongest seed was Jesus.
Nolan made the Odyssey about the values of Jesus. Not the values of the ancient Greeks. Not the values of Homer. Not the values of Trump.
The modern right cares about power and the need for cruelty. Jesus cared about love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livIbni7x7o
Too much of the Russian psyche is the belief that Russia is uniquely great and this greatness is defined by empire. Russia is the light of culture and should benevelonly spread its culture to its neighbors and to its already subordinated ethnicities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_w9qsi6efo
The Trump administration keeps claiming how well they have degraded Iranian capabilities, but US bases keep getting hit. Iran isn’t going to surrender due to air strikes. The best way to win the war is a full land invasion, with the massive costs that that would entail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgn9dL9T_cI
“Key GOP senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina— have indicated they’ll withhold their needed votes to confirm Blanche until they get written assurances that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund won’t be resurrected, along with certain commitments about tax investigations.
…
Blanche has already said the controversial fund is “dead” and the Justice Department told courts the program was abandoned, but officials have previously declined to put the commitment in writing. The fund, originally established by a settlement agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and Trump’s personal lawyers, would have offered taxpayer money to those who claimed they were victims of weaponization by the federal government — including those involved with the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.
Cornyn has been adamant that he also wants Blanche to clarify an addendum to that agreement that offers the president and members of his family tax immunity. The senator wants Blanche to explicitly acknowledge that it only applies to past tax investigations against the president and those listed in the lawsuit that was settled.
The demands have left Blanche in a difficult place since putting limits on the tax addendum could anger the president.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-defends-doj-weaponization-fund-121526428.html
“A June 29 ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court stopped authorities from summarily returning migrants who arrive in Ceuta and Melilla by sea, at least not without due process. While it did not legalize irregular entry or guarantee that those swimmers could remain in Spain, Spanish broadcaster RTVE reported on Thursday that the ruling spread on Moroccan social media, reportedly prompting people to try to enter Spain by swimming to Ceuta.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/why-thousands-moroccan-migrants-crossed-113754933.html
Do people not realize how corrupt the Trump administration has been, or do they not care?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDFTtJrz7Gk
Secretary of Defense Hegseth has been firing top military people based on whether he thinks their politics align with his. And, he is firing well respected people with great experience.
The first day of the war the US slaughtered Iranian girls in a girls school. This was hopefully a legitimate mistake, but, the US has the obligation to acknowledge what happened and explain it to the public. Instead, Hegseth and Trump refuse to talk about it.
Hegseth may have done his job well when he was in the military, but he did not have the experience to be Secretary of Defense. He also doesn’t have the personality to be Secretary of Defense. He had problems with alcohol, with his own finances, and regularly publicly spoke like a biased reactionary partisan hack who buys into many falsehoods and exaggerations often told by Trump and his supporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7pGJkV5C8
Trump often doesn’t care about actually convicting someone he says is a criminal. He often doesn’t care about passing specific laws. He often doesn’t care if what he is saying is true. He wants something that creates the illusion of truth so he can refer to it, argue its true, and dupes will fall for it. Whether the SAVE bill becomes law or not, Trump can refer to him getting screwed and blame Congressmen and illegals for bad elections. The truth of Obama’s birth certificate didn’t matter, as long as it got a lot of coverage and Trump got it in people’s minds. Trump wanted Zelenskyy to say he was investigating Biden so Trump could point to that and accuse Biden of shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWXVIhiiJc
China is screwing Europe economically. The US could have worked with Europe to counter China’s cheating, instead, Trump declared economic war on everyone at once, and bowed to China because China was too strong for Trump to take on alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d3dZojivjI