It's blatantly false. Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway are in the top 30 for the most free economies in the world. Here are some examples of the top 30 economically free nations: Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Estonia, The Netherlands, Finland, Japan, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Norway. These nations, being the most capitalist, and the most prosperous in all of human history, how can anyone claim that socialism works as an economic system? Source here http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
Politics - 9 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Your asking if Conservatives understand what socialism is basically. A term they don't know the meaning of.
2 :
Great. Let's follow those models then and have wonderful health care systems and lower poverty rates.
3 :
stupidity
4 :
Small homogeneous nations with no military might to speak of. You cannot isolate their economies without pointing out those similarities as well. Nations like China, Great Britain or the U.S. cannot practice "free economies" like those countries you've listed.
5 :
The Economic Freedom Index measures countries based on many different factors, like trade freedom, labor freedom, property rights, corruption, business freedom, fiscal freedom, government freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom. For example, I can see that Denmark and New Zealand have higher business freedom than the US. Their taxes are probably lower on businesses and they probably have fewer regulations. On government spending, the US is better than New Zealand and Denmark. Essentially, Scandinavian countries are socialist and score very poorly in certain categories, but they do well enough in other areas to pull ahead, like in corruption.
6 :
I love heritage.org, but to answer your main question. People leave out that these countries depend on the United States,for military aggression in case of an attack.So they don't have to spend money on a military budget(or not very much money)This is how they can carry more socialistic programs like health care etc.If the US fell tomorrow, they would be in total chaos and unable to support the life they have come to know.
7 :
It is conservatives that refer to socialist Europe - and point to the policies and structures of these nations (eg highly progressive income tax, universal healthcare and education, strong effective welfare safety net) as examples of socialism. If they are not as you now claim socialist and are in fact free and successful then why does the right campaign vociferously against any attempt to emulate that success?
8 :
Preposterious. Is Heritage one of the "huge network of think tanks" owned by the Koch bros? “Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.†By Jane Mayer. “David and Charles Koch own all most all of Koch Industries which is ranked by Forbes as the second-largest private company after Cargill. The brothers’ combined wealth is $35 billion, third to Gates and Buffett. They believe in minimal social services and govt regulation, and drastically lower corporate and personal taxes. They’r the kingpins of climate science denial. They fund a huge network of think tanks, political front groups and the creation of the Tea Party...†http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
9 :
Often, "Socialism" isn't used as a set thing, it is often used more as a comparison, if something is "more socialist" than something else etc. If you compare these countries welfare systems to the, for instance, the US, they are indeed more socialist.
