| >>It's a bit much to expect growth to peak during the era 20-40 years after laissez faire ended We need to look at Sweden's peak growth relative to other countries in my opinion, because its absolute growth rate was mediated by more than its own policies. For example the entire developed world saw its peak economic growth rates during the postwar era, suggesting there were certain global economic conditions created by the establishment of the post-war order that could have played a major role in their economic performance. So a better indicator of policy effectiveness would be to look at its economic growth relative to its contemporaries. IIRC, Sweden's economic performance relative to its contemporaries, like the US, began to lag soon after it increased its tax rates to above theirs. >>Without a doubt at least, high taxes and health and wealth clearly coexist in many countries. But that's not in dispute. The dispute is over whether those countries are rich because of their current high tax policies, or their past low tax ones. The article tries to demonstrate that in the case of Sweden at least, it acquired most of its wealth during the past eras. |
It would even be quite interesting if potentially the best approach to a healthy & wealthy society would be to be very libertarian for a while, and then very high tax after that...