A commonly given reason for why Nordic countries tend to rank highly as desirable places to live, is because the people there are supported by a robust welfare system. In America, I’ve often heard it said that similar systems shouldn’t be implemented, because they are government programs, and (the argument goes) government shouldn’t be trusted.
This suggests the government as a potentially important point of comparison between the Nordic countries and the US. Are there features that differ between the American and Nordic governments (keep in mind that there’s noticeable ethnic diversity even in the Nordic countries, and many of them are part of the EU, which provides a roughly similar large-scale government as the American federal government). Do the politicians face different incentive structures that allow more honest and more competent politicians to do better in the Nordic countries than in the US?
A commonly given reason for why Nordic countries tend to rank highly as desirable places to live, is because the people there are supported by a robust welfare system. In America, I’ve often heard it said that similar systems shouldn’t be implemented, because they are government programs, and (the argument goes) government shouldn’t be trusted.
This suggests the government as a potentially important point of comparison between the Nordic countries and the US. Are there features that differ between the American and Nordic governments (keep in mind that there’s noticeable ethnic diversity even in the Nordic countries, and many of them are part of the EU, which provides a roughly similar large-scale government as the American federal government). Do the politicians face different incentive structures that allow more honest and more competent politicians to do better in the Nordic countries than in the US?