THE SOCIAL WELFARE STATE AND INFANT BAPTISM. Dick Weisfelder sent me this article by Jeffrey Sachs which compares the economic success of a group of English-speaking countries to that of a group of Nordic countries and argues that the success of the Scandinavian economies demonstrates the superiority of what he calls a high tax, high social expenditure system. Sachs concludes, “Von Hayek was wrong. In strong and vibrant democracies, a generous social-welfare state is not a road to serfdom but rather to fairness, economic equality and international competitiveness.”
Dick would like my reactions. My first reaction (of many) is that there is no question that the Scandinavian economies prove that it is possible to have a successful social-welfare state (note that free markets are not at issue since all the countries in the comparison rely on free markets). There is an old law school story about the Vermont farmer that was asked if he believed in infant baptism. “Yes,” he said. “I’ve seen it done.” It’s the same thing with a successful social-welfare state: we’ve seen it done.
Philip,
Very interesting posts. I shared the site name with my brother Mark who is putting it in his favorites. He noticed the link to the article by Jeffery Sachs – Lee’s new job is working on one of Mr. Sach’s projects – in fact she met his wife this week!
I’ll keep checking in.
Cadie
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