According to multiple experts (Scott Atlas from Stanford and Glen Whitman from Cal State Northridge have both written extensively on it), the vast majority of healthcare innovations (not to mention Nobel Prizes in Medicine) have taken place in the U.S., NOT IN SWEDEN, NOT IN DENMARK, NOT IN ENGLAND, AND NOT IN CANADA. I point this out because, if it wasn't for the rapid advancement in technology that our still relatively free market approach has given not just to us but to the entire world, there wouldn't be all that much to socialize over there, now would there?
I hope you are not forgetting all the basic research funded by...The Government.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair point, Jerry. In between all of the crazy studies that they fund they do do some good funding.
ReplyDeleteJerry said: "I hope you are not forgetting all the basic research funded by...The Government."
ReplyDeleteGood point, Jerry. We can't forget that. No, we can't.
IMO, it is doubtful the free market is very
ReplyDeleteeffective in the area of basic research . The goal of science is discovery, the goal of business is profit. The different goals
can lead to serious problems.
The government spends money on literally everything and so it isn't really surprising that they have their fingerprints on a lot of inventions (though if you look at the number of patents issued the government isn't all that well represented). And you also have to make a distinction between invention and innovation. Yes, the government may invent stuff but it is the private sector that really takes off with it (the internet, for example - it languished in the Defense Department for years and it was only when private industry got a hold of it that it flourished). And just look all around you; the innovations that have taken place in tech and energy versus the lack of innovation in public education, DMV, the Post Office, etc.. It isn't even a contest.
ReplyDeleteThe Nordic countries seem to operate under a different philosophy.
ReplyDeleteDenmark ranks 9th and 14th respectively on the Heritage and Fraser Institute rankings of countries in terms of economic liberty. And Sweden and Norway aren't that far behind them. Yes, these countries have a large welfare state and a fairly high tax structure but in terms of regulations and even in terms of the corporate income tax, they're actually BETTER than we are.
ReplyDeleteWill: Hell will freeze over before the canardish among us actually advocate that we follow these countries on their policies of more fair taxes concerning businesses. They only want us to emulate the excesses, the mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAnd Norway is wealthy because of the oil, the fishing, and the fact that there are only 3 million people to share the booty with. No mystery with that.......And who is this guy to criticize Estonia? That country had phenomenal growth all throughout the '90s and early 2000s. Yes, they got hammered by the recession just like we did but instead of engaging in ridiculous stimulus spending they bit the bullet and they soon rebounded with an 8% growth rate in 2011 and their unemployment rate now in 8%. Not too shabby.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it, dmarks, but a small businessman in Denmark probably has a much better shot to make it than if he started his operation here.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Norway has some very smart governance and is a great capitalist nation as well. Check it out Will, really, people in the USA have been hoodwinked into believing socialism is something it is not.
ReplyDeleteCheck kt out.
RN,
ReplyDeleteyou can thank the republicans and the tea partiers for that. They are the ones screaming "socialism! socialism! socialism!" all the time, along with some so called libertarians.
Yes, the difference in the percent of the economy controlled by the state vs the percent controlled by the people in Norway is not that different from in the US.
ReplyDeleteAt least since 1945, after the period when Norway was actually very socialist.