Sunday, February 7, 2016

Ann Jones — American Capitalism Has Failed Us: We're Overworked, Underemployed and More Powerless than Ever Before


Comparing America to the Nordic model. Guess which wins big?

4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

So when things were good then it was 'capitalism' which was responsible for that?

Peter Pan said...

"More like the Nordic model capitalism" was responsible.

Ignacio said...

The Nordic model is not longer the 'Nordic model', has been under heavy pressure of neoliberalization for a few years (as the 'social European' model).

Simsalablunder said...

"a few years"

The major shift in Sweden was in the 1990s where neoliberals blamed the public sector for what the finance/banking crises caused back then. It gave them the opportunity to drastically shrink public spending by sacking huge number of people. Within months thousands of small companies went bust when customers declined due to drastically lowered income together with banks not giving any a respite.

What saved Sweden from what Greece, Spain, Italy or Baltic countries has experienced was the once in a lifetime exceptional boom in the world around which drove export enormously at the time. Pure luck which the prime minister made into the myth that he saved the goverments' finances through some tough decisions. Of course he made it all far worse in reality and Sweden has never really recovered from it.