The Lawspeaker
05-15-2009, 01:34 PM
"America's social model is flawed, but so is France's," the Parisian newspaper Le Monde recently wrote (http://www.watchingamerica.com/lemonde000056.html). According to Le Monde Europe should adopt the "Scandinavian model," which is said to combine the economic efficiency of the Anglo-Saxon social model with the welfare state benefits of the continental European ones.
The excessive praise for the Nordic model comes from Bruegel, a new Brussels-based think tank (http://www.bruegel.org/index.php?pid=1), "whose aim is to contribute to the quality of economic policymaking in Europe." The think tank is a Franco-German government initiative and is heavily funded by EU governments and corporations. In October Bruegel published a study "Globalisation and the Reform of European Social Models (http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-134327-16&type=News)" [pdf] propagating the Nordic model.
A paper from the economics department of Ghent University does the same. This paper, "Fiscal Policy Employment and Growth (http://www.feb.ugent.be/fac/research/WP/Papers/wp_04_275.pdf): Why is the Euro Area Lagging Behind", was also subsidized by government and compares the performances of Scandinavian policies those of the other EU economies.
To prove their case, the authors arbitrarily eliminated Ireland, Spain and Portugal (three of the four best performing EU economies) from their EU country list and added oil-producing non-EU member Norway tho their Scandinavian selection. (over 20% of Norway's GDP is based on income from oil). It is hardly imaginable that professors of one of Belgium's major universities would not be aware of how this arbitrary selection must distort the results. Hence one must read their text as an ideological pamphlet rather than a scientific study...
http://workforall.net/files/OECD-Ranking-2.gif
The implosion of the welfare state
However, despite Bruegel, distorted academic studies and the European media's praise, the efficiency of the major Scandinavian economies is a myth. The Swedish and Finnish welfare states have been going through a long period of decline. In the early 1990s they were virtually bankrupt. Between 1990 and 1995 unemployment increased five-fold. The Scandinavian countries have not been able to recover.
In 1970, Sweden's level of prosperity was one quarter above Belgium's. By 2004 Sweden had fallen to 13th place from 4th in the prosperity index, just behind Belgium.
http://workforall.net/files/Prosperity-levels-2.gif
According to OECD figures, Denmark was the 5th most prosperous economy in the world in 1970, immediately behind Switzerland and the United States. In 2004, Denmark was 10h.
Finland did badly as well. From 1989 to 2004, while Ireland rose from 21st to 4th place, Finland fell from 8th to 15th place.
Together with Italy, these three Scandinavian countries are the worst performing economies in the entire European Union. Rather than taking them as an example, Europe's politicians should shun the Scandinavian recipes
This and more. (http://scandinavian-social-model.tk/)
The excessive praise for the Nordic model comes from Bruegel, a new Brussels-based think tank (http://www.bruegel.org/index.php?pid=1), "whose aim is to contribute to the quality of economic policymaking in Europe." The think tank is a Franco-German government initiative and is heavily funded by EU governments and corporations. In October Bruegel published a study "Globalisation and the Reform of European Social Models (http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-134327-16&type=News)" [pdf] propagating the Nordic model.
A paper from the economics department of Ghent University does the same. This paper, "Fiscal Policy Employment and Growth (http://www.feb.ugent.be/fac/research/WP/Papers/wp_04_275.pdf): Why is the Euro Area Lagging Behind", was also subsidized by government and compares the performances of Scandinavian policies those of the other EU economies.
To prove their case, the authors arbitrarily eliminated Ireland, Spain and Portugal (three of the four best performing EU economies) from their EU country list and added oil-producing non-EU member Norway tho their Scandinavian selection. (over 20% of Norway's GDP is based on income from oil). It is hardly imaginable that professors of one of Belgium's major universities would not be aware of how this arbitrary selection must distort the results. Hence one must read their text as an ideological pamphlet rather than a scientific study...
http://workforall.net/files/OECD-Ranking-2.gif
The implosion of the welfare state
However, despite Bruegel, distorted academic studies and the European media's praise, the efficiency of the major Scandinavian economies is a myth. The Swedish and Finnish welfare states have been going through a long period of decline. In the early 1990s they were virtually bankrupt. Between 1990 and 1995 unemployment increased five-fold. The Scandinavian countries have not been able to recover.
In 1970, Sweden's level of prosperity was one quarter above Belgium's. By 2004 Sweden had fallen to 13th place from 4th in the prosperity index, just behind Belgium.
http://workforall.net/files/Prosperity-levels-2.gif
According to OECD figures, Denmark was the 5th most prosperous economy in the world in 1970, immediately behind Switzerland and the United States. In 2004, Denmark was 10h.
Finland did badly as well. From 1989 to 2004, while Ireland rose from 21st to 4th place, Finland fell from 8th to 15th place.
Together with Italy, these three Scandinavian countries are the worst performing economies in the entire European Union. Rather than taking them as an example, Europe's politicians should shun the Scandinavian recipes
This and more. (http://scandinavian-social-model.tk/)