Bernie’s Nordic fantasy

From Scott Sumner. Excerpt:

"I’m afraid that when progressives start talking about Bernie Sanders they completely lose touch with reality.  They say, “He’s not really a socialist, he just favors the Scandinavian economic model.”  But they don’t seem to know any thing about that model.

Let’s look at taxes, for instance.  Here are the top rates on income (plus payroll) taxes:

And then here’s an indicator of progressivity:

In Denmark the top rate kicks in at 1.2 times average income.  In the US that would be around $60,000.

And then there are the VATs:

Denmark collects about 9.6 percent of GDP through the VAT, Norway collects about 7.8 percent, and Sweden collections about 9 percent of GDP. All three countries have VAT rates of 25 percent. The United States does not have a national sales tax or VAT. Instead, states levy sales taxes. The average rate across the country is about 7 percent. The much lower rate only collects about 2 percent of U.S. GDP in revenue.

Bernie Sanders says he doesn’t want to raise taxes on the middle class, rather he wants the rich to pay more.  Later he grudgingly concedes the middle class would pay a higher payroll tax for the nationalized heath care, but still doesn’t mention the 25% VAT.  Nor does Bernie mention that the Scandinavian countries have far lower corporate tax rates than America:

Nor does he mention this:

Finally, it is worth noting that the only Scandinavian country with an estate or inheritance tax is Denmark.

So the only way to finance a Nordic economic model is with massive (and regressive) taxes on the middle class, because that’s where the money is.

What about those 90% tax rates from the Eisenhower era, that you often read about? There’s a reason the Nordics don’t use that policy, they collected very little revenue.

And I haven’t even mentioned that the Nordic countries are really big on privatization and deregulation.  How often do you hear progressives calling for those things?  When was the last time you heard a progressive advocating Sweden’s 100% nationawide school voucher program?

And it’s even worse.  Sanders doesn’t tell us whether he likes the Swedish model of 1990, or the Swedish model of today?  I’m pretty sure that back in 1990 he was telling people that he loved the Swedish model.  But that model failed, leading Sweden into economic crisis.  It responded by dramatically downsizing its government relative to 1990 (admittedly it’s still very big in absolute terms.)  But I never hear the Sanders supporters telling us whether they like the 1990 socialist Sweden, or the 2015 neoliberal version?  Ditto for Denmark."