For many on the Left, Sweden is held up as a model of a successful Socialist state, but one can only do that if one is ignorant of the Swedish model of government. In the late 1990s in response to a looming national debt and a high level of unemployment, a new Swedish government began to move more government functions to local areas and municipalities and to individual efforts, in other words, away from socialism and more toward capitalism. This revitalized the economy and created a better functioning economy with greater wealth. The first major challenge to this model occurred with the influx of immigrants who refused to assimilate into a western model of work, individual initiative, etc. Wide spread welfare fraud was found and a rise in violent crimes across the nation tarnished the Swedish model.
Sweden also, like most western nations, began to feel the impact of a falling birthrate among its’ citizens and the traditional Ponzi scheme of social security was called into questions. The link below outlines how Sweden saved its social security system through a combination of mandatory public and private savings plans. As predicted, since the reforms of 1994, the average Swede has average a roughly 10% return on their private accounts and the crisis passed. Although not perfect, it has worked and even the burden of the immigrants has not negatively impacted the social security system.
We can only hope that the politicians in D.C. will act responsibly and not play politics with the very real threat to our social security system. They may be counting on massive tax increases at the last minute to save the system, but such an impact on the overall economy will be felt across all age groups.
