Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dalbasal 3066 days ago
Well... Nordics have had a generation of good, effective governance. Ie, the hospitals, schools and such are run quite well as are state finances. I think that's the key thing others are jealous of. I would say that is more of a democratic success than a socialist one.

Economically in those countries and much of central Europe (notably Germany), large old companies, their unions and government are merged to some extent or at least highly cooperative. The result is a sort of company based welfarism in exchange for incumbent protection. Good and bad aspects to that, but it takes a lot of stress out of the system. It's very hard to fire people. It's also hard to build new large companies.

I'm not sure if the system is transferable elsewhere or even buildable if it doesn't already exist. You can't just conjure up a Siemens.

It's certainly not Marxist, itd probably be classed as right wing structurally if we go by the terms of the late 19th.