Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has showcased Denmark, with its 5.6 million citizens, as a model Democratic Socialist utopia. It scored particularly well for freedom (personal and monetary) and low corruption, with a regulatory climate ranked one of the world’s “most transparent and efficient,” according to the Heritage Foundation. While the country has one of the highest individual tax burdens in the world in exchange for its wide-ranging services from free healthcare to paid parental leave, it is still a market-based economy, and, as Forbes’ list shows, it manages quite well to thrive economically in the capitalist realm, while still taking care of its citizens.
The picture isn’t as bright for the U.S., which slides four spots to No. 22 this year. The U.S. is the financial capital of the world and the world’s largest economy at $17.4 trillion, but it scores poorly on monetary freedom and bureaucracy/red tape. More than 150 new major regulations have been added since 2009 at a cost of $70 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation.
There is much to be said of the advantages of Democratic Socialism enjoyed in the Scandinavian countries. Sweden provides an excellent example in the form of these 8 incentives toward considering Democratic Socialism.
1. Healthcare, including dental, is essentially free in Sweden until the age of 20. After that, a visit to the doctor will cost you 100–200 SEK, depending on where you live, and a specialist consultation no more than 350 SEK. If you incur 1,100 SEK in fees in 12 months, a high-cost protection scheme provides free care for the remainder of that period. 1,100 SEK is approximately $130 – not even enough for one single visit to the doctor in the U.S.
2. Sweden is among the top 5 on Forbes’ list of best countries for business. Forbes graded 144 nations on 11 different factors: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance. Looking for a land of opportunity? Seems like it’s the Old World that’s calling now. Despite a sluggish economy, Europe dominates the annual ranking of the finest countries for capitalism, with Scandinavia as a particular stand-out and neighboring country Denmark on top if that list.
3. In Sweden, parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave when a child is born or adopted. It’s a lot by international standards and makes the Swedish system very child-friendly. While each parent is entitled to 240 of the 480 days of paid parental leave, two months is exclusively reserved for one or the other, and should one parent decide not to take them, they cannot be transferred to the other parent. Men in Sweden use nearly a quarter of all parental leave – a figure the government hopes to improve by providing a gender equality bonus, which is an extra daily payment, if 270 days of the paid parental leave are divided evenly between mother and father. So the men pushing prams and sharing coffee with each other are not “Mannies”(male nannies), as (U.S.) visitors have been overheard to assume. They are fathers taking their share of the family responsibilities. And to make life even easier, in some cities, like the capital, Stockholm, parents pushing infants and toddlers in prams and pushchairs can ride for free on public buses.
4. The New York Times recently published an article about Sweden as a tech-forward country, home of innovations like music streaming service Spotify and Candy Crush mobile games, now taking the lead towards becoming a cash free country. Swedes have been early adopters of services which make digital payments easier. Now, many of the country’s banks no longer accept or dispense cash. Bills and coins now represent just 2 percent of Sweden’s economy, compared with 7.7 percent in the United States. However, there’s a down-side to it, as the number of electronic fraud cases surged to 140,000 last year, which is more than double the amount a decade ago.
5. Sweden pays its students $187 a month to attend high school. If you are a Swede between the ages of 16-20, you will automatically receive a student grant without having to submit an application. This is your child allowance, another incentive to all Swedish children from the state, which becomes a student grant during the year that you turn 16 years old.
6. Sweden is ranked the greenest country in the world, according to sustainability by consulting firm Dual Citizen Inc. in its fourth annual Global Green Economy Index (GGEI). Sweden’s first place status reflects the people’s ongoing commitment to climate change mitigation and sustainability policies and practices. The country is a leader in organic agriculture and renewable energy as well as per capita investment in green technology and sustainability research. Over 75 percent of Swedes recycle their waste, while only four percent of the country’s garbage goes to landfills. This means that Sweden has to import garbage from other nations to burn as a renewable source of energy. The U.S. on the other hand didn’t fare so well, ranking only 28th overall, just behind Rwanda.
7. Sweden is ahead when it comes to LGBT rights, and Stockholm, together with Gothenburg, will host EuroPride 2018. Homosexuality, however, was classified as an illness in Sweden until 1979, and Swedes are said to have protested by calling sick into work, claiming they “felt gay.” Swedes are still combating homophobia with humor, as we saw this spring during the reports of Russian submarines within Swedish territory. As Russians are known to be somewhat less gay-friendly, Swedish peace activists came up with the idea of lowering a “Singing Sailor” device emitting a gay-friendly message via Morse code into the Baltic Sea. In an effort to combat military aggression and homophobia in one swoop, the “Singing Sailor” is thrusting his hips while displaying the message: “Welcome to Sweden” in both Russian and English, to greet any Russian submariners who might find themselves lost in Swedish waters.
8. Last, but not the least, Sweden is way ahead when it comes to gender equality in film, as noted in the recent New York Times article “How Swedish Cinema Gave Women Directors a Bigger Role.”
In the United States, women direct from 5 to 10 percent of feature films, with a situation only slightly better in Europe, where 16 percent of the movies released from 2003 to 2012 were directed by women. Most film schools have a near equal amount of men and women student directors so the imbalance doesn’t come from lack of talent. When Anna Serner joined the Swedish Film Institute in 2011 as Chief Executive, 26 percent of the funding of film was awarded to women, slightly better than other countries, and the aim was to raise it to 40 percent. Anna wouldn’t settle for less than 50-50. She threatened to implement quotas if this wasn’t achieved by 2015. The goal was reached in 2014 and as a result, in the last three years, women have won 69% of the trophies at Swedish film awards and 40 percent of the top international awards presented to Swedish filmmakers. Anna concludes:
“I just think that we’ve been longing for the female gaze, the female perspective. Right now it’s unique, which is a problem. Eventually, it should all balance out.”
Enjoy this cute video showcasing Sweden’s Singing Sailor!
[vimeo 126906725 w=500 h=281]Operation The Singing Sailor from Swedish Peace on Vimeo.
