The following article should be of interest to anyone, but especially to anyone who accepts Sander’s rhetoric as gospel. As I have pointed out numerous times, you can’t have socialist government benefits without heavy taxes on all citizens, not just the wealthy.
Perhaps it’s not Old Bernie who is the fool, but those among us who think he knows what he is talking about.
The naive American left continues to hoodwink an even more naive slice of American idealists. I hope you are not among them. Nothing is “free” and any politician who uses that word to gain your vote is making a fool out of you.
At over $37,000, American workers have the second largest paychecks compared to citizens of other OECD countries. High taxes and high prices have reduced what Scandinavian workers take home to between $23,579 (Denmark) and $27,792 (Norway). The nations idolized by Senator Sanders and other progressives lose out to foundering economies like Greece when it comes to what workers actually get at the end of the day.
The massive welfare states of Scandinavian economies rely on taxes that soak the middle class, not just the rich. A worker earning the average wage in these countries faces a tax wedge of 37 percent (Norway), 42 percent (Sweden), 44 percent (Finland), or 38 percent (Denmark). This compares to a wedge of 32 percent in the United States—still hefty, but reasonable when compared to northern Europe.
To be sure, Scandinavian governments offer their citizens such benefits as “free” health care and education. But, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Americans spend $4,862 annually on health care and education combined, compared to a gap of $9,473 between the real take-home income of American workers and their closest competitors in Norway. No matter how you slice the data, American workers still come out ahead.
It’s true that Americans pay too much for health care and education, but the low disposable income of workers in Scandinavian countries shows that their welfare-state model is not the answer. There are many things to admire about the Scandinavian countries, such as their scenery, their cuisine, and their commitment to free trade, but progressives like Bernie Sanders might want to reconsider their desire for a Scandinavian-style welfare state if they want the American middle class to avoid a crushing tax burden and a smaller paycheck.
Preston Cooper is a Policy Analyst at Economics21. You can follow him on Twitter here.
http://economics21.org/commentary/go-figure-bernie-america-beats-scandinavia-take-home-pay
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