Get Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism PDF

Left-leaning teachers, liberal pop stars corresponding to Bruce Springsteen, and Democrat politicians from Bernie Sanders to invoice and Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama all have something in universal: they're avid admirers of Nordic-style social democracy. the reason being easy. in the beginning look, Nordic international locations appear to have every thing liberals are looking to see in the US: equivalent source of revenue distribution, reliable health and wellbeing, low degrees of poverty, and thriving economies, all co-existing with mammoth welfare states. via copying Nordic guidelines, many within the American left wish to remodel the United States to the same socialist "utopia."

In Debunking Utopia, Swedish writer Nima Sanandaji explains why this can be all wishful pondering. definitely, a few facets of Nordic welfare states, comparable to childcare provision, benefit the admiration of liberals. yet total, it's a specified tradition according to exertions, fit diets, social harmony and excessive degrees of belief that experience made Nordic international locations profitable. Sanandaji explains how the Nordic humans followed this tradition of luck that allows you to live to tell the tale within the unforgiving Scandinavian weather. He systematically proves that the excessive degrees of source of revenue equality, excessive lifespans and different symptoms of social luck within the Nordics all predate the growth of the welfare country. If whatever, the Nordic international locations reached their top through the mid-twentieth century, once they had low taxes and small welfare states. possibly such a lot remarkable are his findings that Nordic-Americans regularly outperform their cousins who reside around the ocean. humans of Nordic descent who dwell less than the yank capitalist method not just take pleasure in greater degrees of source of revenue, but in addition a decrease point of poverty than the voters of the Nordic international locations themselves.

Sanandaji's prior writings at the roots of Nordic good fortune have received media recognition all over the world and been translated into many languages. Debunking Utopia, which expands in this paintings, will be learn by way of all—liberals and conservatives alike—who keep on with the talk over the way forward for American welfare. As Sanandaji indicates, there's a lot americans can examine from either the successes and screw ups of Nordic-style social democracy.