September 20, 2009

Going Where They've Been

Via Power Line, a report on Sweden cutting income taxes to spur economic growth. John Hinderaker says...

...a generation of economic stagnation has taught the Swedes a lesson. They've learned that government does not produce wealth, and if they want more people to work, jobs have to pay better, after taxes. Sweden is therefore in the midst of a series of tax cuts aimed at preserving the long-term viability of its economy. Today's headline: "Sweden slashes income tax further to boost jobs."

It's an interesting comparison: Sweden experimented with the nanny state, learned that it was devastating to the economic and moral health of its people, and is moving back toward individualism. Here in the U.S., we had the world's most dynamic economy, and the lesson we took away from that--some of us, anyway--was that we were doing something wrong and needed to socialize everything. Curious.

And it's not just Sweden in retreat from nanny-statism, with center-right politics resurgent in nearly all of Western Europe, as a corrective to decades of socialistic policies. Obama's insistence on taking the U.S. down that road anyway betrays him as an ideologue, not a pragmatist. The conclusion wouldn't be so easy to jump to if Obama had given any hint that he is something other than a societal leveler by disposition.


Posted by dan at September 20, 2009 4:41 PM