Fake News About Sweden Gives Aid and Comfort to Socialists

By Jakob Hörngren


In lieu of the “fake news” hysteria invented by the left “liberals” after their excruciating defeat in the recent 2016 elections, let us take a close look at some actual fake news that has been circulating in social media lately. The circulating myth that I’m referring to is a short video about Sweden generating the false narrative of a government mandate, passed to enforce a compulsory transition from an eight hour work day to a six hour work day. It is difficult to decide what the most upsetting part of the video is, the fact that it’s a flat out lie, or the indisputable ignorance in regards to the laws of economics as well as the economic history in Sweden, from people displaying support for such legislation.

It’s not a huge surprise that misinformation like this gains traction in social media outlets. After all, it does give aid and comfort, even though it’s a false sense of comfort, to socialists who champion a failed ideology, which should have been thrown in the dustbin of history. The minions of Karl Marx are desperate and they will latch on to anything they can these days, and they certainly won’t let the truth or empirical evidence stand in their way.

It is very popular, to say the least, for Bernie Sanders supporters and other left wing liberals to point to Sweden as a successful case of democratic socialism, but the rationale behind this conclusion is astonishingly trivial. These people will look at a snapshot in time, namely the present economic and social conditions in Sweden, and they will not spend an ounce of energy to research the historical actions by the Swedish people, leading up to the current situation.

From 1850 to 1950 Sweden had a liberalization of economies unheard of in most of the world during that time. Under this century of quasi laissez-faire capitalism, Sweden, a very poor country, saw the value of capital stock skyrocket, and the real income of families increased by more than a multiplicative of ten. Furthermore, Sweden had a public sector smaller than the one in the United States, which allowed for capital investment to take place, and privatization of the means of production. The awareness of the growing value of the capital stock, among the Swedish citizens, lowered their time preference for consumption, and increased their willingness to await delayed gratification. Sure enough, Sweden systematically became a wealthy nation, due to free markets, very little government spending, and very low taxes. We should also not forget that Sweden did not participate in either WW I or WW II, and that also certainly helped Sweden to become one of the five wealthiest countries in the world.

From the 1950 and onwards, the Swedish government started to plunder the nation’s capital stock, and we witnessed the beginning of economic decline in Sweden as a result of socialist regulatory reform via a vast expansion of the welfare state. In fact, between 1950 and 2005, Sweden did not manage to add one singe net private sector job. By looting the wealth generated under a century of economic prosperity, Sweden has been able to live in comfort, not because of socialism, but rather in spite of socialism.

I wish that the same people, who pass around these memes or videos, would look at what Sweden has done to become a wealthy nation, and not what an already wealthy Sweden is doing to destroy its capital stock.

For further debunking of Scandanvian Socialism, please see:

www.tomwoods.com/717

And:

https://www.libertyclassroom.com/sweden/

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