The American Dream Better Realized in Democratic Socialist Denmark
by John Lawrence, February 20, 2020
In the other night's Democratic debate Pete Buttigieg mentioned that the American Dream is alive and well ... wait for it ... in Denmark. As for America itself, there are 10 other countries in which it's easier to realize the American Dream which is that the children "do better" than their parents. "Doing better" has the dubious meaning of having more money. Leaving aside the fact that there are other dimensions to "doing better", America seems to be falling behind other nations when it comes to children starting low and achieving high. Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders should have jumped on this as he's often put down as a democratic socialist. But, heck, if the American Dream is more easily achievable in a democratically socialist country like Denmark, this sort of makes Bernie's case, doesn't it?. By the way they have universal health care as a human right and free college education which are things that Bernie never fails to mention as a part of his debate spiel.
In an article in Politifact Steven Rattner said: "The United States is behind many countries in Europe in terms of the ability of every kid in America to get ahead." The article went on:
Families at all earning levels were growing together after World War II but have been growing apart since in the decades since, Krueger wrote. The country’s top earners have pulled a lot further ahead than the middle and lower class, he said, and the trend line suggests the future earnings of today’s children will be tied more and more to the income level of their parents.
"Not since the Roaring 20s has the share of income going to the very top reached such high levels," Krueger said, according to prepared remarks.
Krueger compared income inequality of 10 developed countries with the correlation between a parent’s income and their children’s (it’s more complicated than we described, check out the details in Krueger’s presentation or this Bloomberg infographic). The "Gatsby Curve" showed economic possibilities for children in European countries such as Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and France were much less connected to their parents’ income than in the United States and United Kingdom.
MarketWatch reported in an article entitled Sorry America, Norway ranks No. 1 for ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’:
The U.S. doesn’t rank among the Top 10 on a list of 155 countries
In fact, Norway ranked No. 1 for happiness and personal freedom, according to an analysis of three separate studies on life expectancy by the World Bank, on civil liberties from Freedom House, a New York-based nonprofit that conducts research on advocacy and democracy, on happiness from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a group linked to the United Nations, and on rule of law from the World Justice Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
The analysis was released by information-analytics firm LexisNexis [which] found that countries that have established a strong rule of law have significantly more success in securing measures of life, liberty and happiness for their citizens. Sweden ranked No. 2 and Canada was No. 3, followed by Australia, the Netherlands, Finland and Austria. The U.S. ranked No. 19 just behind the Czech Republic, Japan and France. Afghanistan ranked last at No. 98.
Norway ranked No. 1 for happiness, the U.S. was No. 14
Norway was also No. 1 out of 155 countries on the 2017 “World Happiness Report,” up from No. 4 the year before, followed by Denmark (last year’s No. 1), Iceland and Switzerland. The U.S. was trailing at No. 14. These four countries rank highly on all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance. “Their averages are so close that small changes can re-order the rankings from year to year,” the report said.
These kinds of reports should add fuel to the fire of Bernie Sanders' message that not only do people in these countries have a better chance of attaining the American Dream, these countries are socialist democracies which guarantee health care as a human right and offer free college education. No one in these countries has any student loan debt.
Not only that but, whereas the US is $20 trillion in national debt, Norway has a sovereign wealth fund. It has over $1 trillion dollars in assets, including 1.4% of global stocks and shares, making it the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. In May 2018 it was worth about $195,000 per Norwegian citizen. It also holds portfolios of real estate and fixed-income investments. Many companies are excluded by the fund on ethical grounds.
Bernie Sanders should have driven Pete Buttigieg's point home. Now only are democratic socialist countries better off in terms of education and health care, they are also better off in terms of the wealth they own, a far cry from a debtor nation like the US that spends all its money on military adventurism. Each man, woman and child in America is responsible for $61,124.69 of that debt. The denouement is clear: US citizens are net debtors in terms of the national debt. Norwegian citizens are net creditors.
