I am a Social Democrat. The reasoning is simple, if you care about social equality, freedom, democracy, quality of life etc., then Social Democracy is the best way to achieve these. Many European nations apply Social Democracy to a certain extent but there are four nations which are truly Social Democratic: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Let’s see how successful these nations are when it comes to what is important to a functioning society.
I used images because there is a lot of information so using text would be incredibly long and boring. Plus, now even Libertarians can enjoy the post because it’s mainly pictures.
And before the “Nordic countries aren’t perfect” crowd jump in, nobody says they are. The idea people think the Nordic nations are a utopia is a strawman. It’s easier to attack the idea that they are a utopia (which they certainly are not) than counter the idea that the Nordic countries perform consistently well over numerous criteria thanks to their economic and social system. Do they have their problems? Of course they do. But no other nation or economic system performs as well as them on a consistent basis across multiple criteria which are important to a functioning society, as you will see.
CHILDREN
CHILD MORTALITY
CHILD POVERTY
WOMEN
BEST PLACE TO BE A MOTHER
WOMEN’S EQUALITY
BEST PLACE TO BE A WORKING WOMAN
LGBT PEOPLE
LGBT FRIENDLY LEGISLATION AND POLICY
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY
SOCIAL JUSTICE
GINI COEFFICIENT
DIVIDE BEWTEEN TOP AND BOTTOM 20%
CORRUPTION
ECONOMY
GDP
DEFICITS
NATIONAL DEBT
RECESSION
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I couldn’t find one graph that could adequately cover this topic, but Nordic countries do quite well across a range of issues dealing with entrepreneurship and encouraging enterprise. See here for more details.
HEALTHCARE
HEALTH OUTCOMES
Of course Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland all offer free health care.
EDUCATION
COST OF UNIVERSITY
QUALITY OF LIFE
HAPPINESS
SUICIDE RATE
PURCHASING POWER
FREEDOM
PERSONAL FREEDOM
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
I think that is enough, and I think my point is proven. Obviously the Nordic countries have their problems, but they are successful in so many categories, both economic and social. And are certainly ahead of Ireland in most of them. This shows Social Democracy works.
