The Social Welfare State, beyond Ideology: Scientific American - 0 views
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Jasper Arasteh on 15 Oct 12I think that finding a balance between the freedom and social welfare has always been an issue in America and thats why this is such an interesting article. The Nordic countries seem to have a very good balance of free market success and equality. These countries would be good examples for America but there are two reasons that make this difficult. First off, many Americans seem to be deeply afraid of anything resembling socialism or communism. Second all these nordic states are small and relatively homogenous. This makes it much easier for the government to provide social welfare that meets everybody's needs and keeps everyone happy. The US is huge and has a much more diverse population. This makes for a completely different problem. While a social democratic government has worked so well for Scandinavia, we are far from getting to a state like that in the US.
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Jasper Arasteh on 15 Oct 12Even though I believe a government like that would be ideal for the US, it is not very realistic due to how conservative the US is compared to Scandinavia.