We have now spent several months on our podcast discussing various ways “We Can Do Better”: universal healthcare, affordable housing, living wages, child care and parental leave, public ownership of basic needs infrastructure, etc. This week we pull it all together to review the national-level proof that all this can come together and work well: the Nordic economies of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.
We use as our primary source George Lakey’s terrific book, Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got it Right–and How We Can, Too. We talk about how the Nordic nations are “universal services states”--not welfare states. Healthcare and pensions and living wages and free higher education and child care, etc are available for all, regardless of income. Compared to the U.S., more people in those nations are in the workforce and more people are entrepreneurs. Birth rates are high because families are supported, and rankings every year show that the Nordic countries are the happiest nations in the world.
Can this be replicated in the United States? Absolutely, Lakey tells us.
These Nordic countries once had the same kind of inequality that we have in the U.S. Their governments were once captured by wealthy individuals and corporations, too. But social movements changed that, and then responsive governments followed the lead of the Nordic people who demanded change.
As Lakey points out, social movements have dramatically succeeded in the U.S. before, too. We have Social Security and Medicare and civil rights laws and workplace protections due to social movements.
We can do the same for universal healthcare, living wages, childcare, and free higher education. We can indeed do better, and the Nordic countries are proving that every day.
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