Generation snowflake

I will agree that we have made bad trade deals but Trump may be the one to fix those, at least he sees the problem. This is still the land of opportunity though and many in the current generation are soured because all they know is Obama's economy. In Carter's economy we called it stagflation and when Reagan took over with his capitalism approach things got better and better.

As for Scandinavian socialism you may want to look deeper than the leftist myth on that.

"Sweden was a poor nation for most of the 19th century (which helps explain the great wave of Swedish emigration to the United States in the 1800s). That began to change as Stockholm, starting around 1870, turned to free-enterprise reforms. Robust capitalism replaced the formerly agrarian system, and Sweden grew rich. “Property rights, free markets, and the rule of law combined with large numbers of well-educated engineers and entrepreneurs,” Sanandaji writes. The result was an environment in which Swedes experienced “an unprecedented period of sustained and rapid economic development.” In fact, between 1870 and 1936, Sweden had the highest growth rate in the industrialized world.

Scandinavia’s hard-left turn didn’t come about until much later. It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that taxes soared, welfare payments expanded, and entrepreneurship was discouraged.


But what emerged wasn’t heaven on earth.

That 1976 story in Time, for example, went on to report that Sweden found itself struggling with crime, drug addiction, welfare dependency, and a plague of red tape. Successful Swedes — most famously, Ingmar Bergman — were fleeing the country to avoid its killing taxes. “Growing numbers are plagued by a persistent, gnawing question: Is their Utopia going sour?”

Sweden’s world-beating growth rate dried up. In 1975, it had been the fourth-wealthiest nation on earth (as measured by GDP per capita); by 1993, it had dropped to 14th. By then, Swedes had begun to regard their experiment with socialism as, in Sanandaji’s phrase, “a colossal failure.”

Denmark has come to a similar conclusion. Its lavish subsidies are being rolled back amid sharp concerns about welfare abuse and an eroding work ethic. In the last general election, Danes replaced a left-leaning government with one tilted to the right. Loving Denmark doesn’t mean loving big-government welfarism.

The real key to Scandinavia’s unique successes isn’t socialism, it’s culture. Social trust and cohesion, a broad egalitarian ethic, a strong emphasis on work and responsibility, commitment to the rule of law — these are healthy attributes of a Nordic culture that was ingrained over centuries. In the region’s small and homogeneous countries (overwhelmingly white, Protestant, and native-born), those norms took deep root. The good outcomes and high living standards they produced antedated the socialist nostrums of the 1970s. Scandinavia’s quality of life didn’t spring from leftist policies. It survived them.

Sanandaji makes the acute observation that when Scandinavian emigrants left for the United States, those cultural attributes went with them and produced the same good effects. Scandinavian-Americans have higher incomes and lower poverty rates than the US average. Indeed, Danish-Americans economically outperform Danes still living in Denmark, as do Swedish-Americans compared with Swedes and Finnish-Americans compared with Finns. Scandinavian culture has been a blessing for native Scandinavians — and even more of one for their cousins across the ocean.

No, Scandinavia doesn’t “violate the laws of the economic universe.” It confirms them. With free markets and healthy values, almost any society will thrive. Socialism only makes things worse"

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion...list-utopia/lUk9N7dZotJRbvn8PosoIN/story.html

 

The US isn't even CLOSE to touching scandinavia in health outcomes, education, equality, women's rights, lgbt rights, etc. Whatever they are, they do it better than we do, can we acknowledge that? They are on the correct path, we are on the wrong path.

That however isn't the ultimate, ultimate goal. That is what we can hope for in my life time. The real goal is to create an economy where PEOPLE decide what/when/where/how to produce goods and services, rather than a top down capitalist hierarchy, or a central planning committee with rampant corruption from old communism.

You also highlight the importance of social cohesion, of which the USA has zero.

 

I will agree that America has zero social cohesion right now and our current president is a big part of what caused that. It's also why I support a pause in immigration, we need to let current generations of immigrant's assimilate before we let in more.

 

I don't mean to be rude at all I just want to find some common ground here.....Scandinavia, whatever you want to call their society, has better outcomes in healthcare, women's rights, gay rights, education, freedom of press, etc. Yes, or no?

America has never had social cohesion, it's our history.

 

I would say no except in education. Our education system has become a joke and has become liberal indoctrination instead of education

 

How can you argue with the facts though? They rank higher than us in all categories except being a country for wealthy people.

 

They have a social structure to be envied while we have upward mobility to be envied. If you have the will to succeed you can do so in America and that's why people worldwide flock here.