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It's a common refrain in American progressive circles: If Europe can have universal health care, pre-K, and all the other welfare state goodies, why can't America? We could if we just taxed the millionaires and billionaires, the argument goes.
Speaking as a Swedish citizen, I can tell you it is not
quite that simple. While I treasure many of the benefits the welfare state provides, the fact of the matter is that the U.S. cannot follow the same path, for a number of reasons.
Building a welfare state is a boom-time endeavor. The Nordic welfare states were built during the postwar expansion. In Sweden's case, we got the best of both worlds: We avoided becoming involved in the war, and afterward, demand for our industries spiked. With that, so did salaries. This made building a welfare state easy for two reasons:
First of all, as salaries boom, so do tax revenues, even if tax rates are unchanged. This revenue boost allowed the government to add additional safety nets and government programs without raising rates or having to cut any other budgets.Secondly, it is politically much easier to raise taxes
when salaries are rising quickly. Most people don't pay close attention to their tax rates, but rather to how much they get paid. If taxes are increasing, but real wages are increasing at an even faster rate, then most people will be fine with it because their paychecks keep getting bigger over time and they are able to purchase more stuff. Relative change is king.
Comment: RT reports on the protest at Trieste port: Italy does appear to be a test case for the establishment's tyrannical scheme, and it doesn't look like it's going quite as smoothly as planned. Although, they did succeed in scaring a significant proportion of the population into enrolling into these experimental injection trials, which was at least one aspect of the agenda.
One of the next up is France, which has seen ongoing protests against the 'health pass' since at least July, and whose senate just voted against mandating the experimental injections, whilst at the same time healthcare workers have found themselves suspended for not succumbing to the coercion. The media also tried to downplay the numbers attending those protests, although at one point it was estimated that up to a million and more were in attendance.
Meanwhile over in the US, Southwest Airlines saw employees walk out in protest over the mandate, bringing business to a costly standstill, pilots also filed a lawsuit against their employer. Boeing on the other hand, perhaps after seeing the consequences for violating people's human rights, are giving people the option to opt out for religious or medical reasons:
- 'F**k the jab!': CHAOS in Australia as construction workers violently protest vaccine mandate outside union HQ
- Thousands protest in Slovenia against vaccine mandate & lockdown ahead of EU summit
- Police arrest far-right leaders after 10,000+ attend vaccine mandate protest in Italy
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