[umanwizard]

Scandinavian countries are capitalist by any standard. They are not even close to being “on a continuum” between capitalism and socialism. As far as I know most businesses in Scandinavia are not controlled and owned by their workers.

We could use more public spending on safety nets in the US. That has nothing to do with whether “capitalism has failed”.

[jhbadger]

But you can't ignore the reason why the US doesn't have effective safety nets is because corporations don't want them. The reason why the US doesn't have a universal public health care system is because private insurers are doing everything they can to fight it, for example. Countries that put the needs of their people over the needs of corporations are more on the socialist continuum even if they have private businesses.