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Live Long Enough….

March 22nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm David Frum | 6 Comments |

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…and you see everything, goes the old saying. But did anyone ever imagine that we’d see Sweden take a more market-oriented approach to its auto industry than the United States?

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6 Comments so far ↓

  • joemarier // Mar 23, 2009 at 4:27 am

    When it comes to Sweden, I always keep in mind Friedman’s saying: “In Sweden there is no poverty. In America, there is no poverty… among Scandinavians.” P.J. O’Rourke quoted that in his essay on Sweden and “good” Socialism, which pointed out that the Swedish state nationalized industries and then basically did nothing. No massive wage hikes, no purges of executive boards to my knowledge, etc.

  • dacookson // Mar 23, 2009 at 4:32 am

    Give it time, it’s not over yet. There’s some brinkmanship going on here and if the government get this wrong they know they’re history….

  • sinz54 // Mar 23, 2009 at 7:04 am

    It’s not so much market-oriented as nationalism-oriented. Many folks don’t know that Saab is owned by General Motors. The Swedes don’t want to be seen as bailing out a failing foreign company–especially not one as badly run as General Motors. We would probably react the same way if Honda asked Washington for a bailout, even though Honda employs thousands of American workers.

  • jwillits // Mar 23, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    I know, Frum is just trying to make a joke, but…This kind of oversimplification (and what it reveals about the conservative psyche) is, i think, a big problem for Republicans and why they have no current shot at getting the vote of someone like me, despite an overwhelming urge on my part to have (at least) one choice other than the Democrats.I think a big problem for Republicans is failing to distinguish between actual socialistic, anti-market behaviors and the creation of large social welfare nets. In the current Republican (hive) mind, these are one and the same. But Sweden is an example of a country that does a lot of social welfare, but less actual interference with industry and commerce outside of what is necessary to guarantee housing, minimum income, health, education, and other things that they take to be “basic rights of citizens.”We certainly may want to argue that Sweden has gone (much) farther than we would want to go in terms of social welfare. But we also want to avoid conflating social welfare states and socialist states. Because a winning Republican coalition (as Frum has argued quite persuasively in his book) is going to need to embrace some increase in the social safety net in order to get the middle class back on its side.So come on Frum, even when joking, don’t conflate.

  • sinz54 // Mar 25, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    jwillits: Your observations about Sweden apply only in recent decades. Prior to the 1980s, the Swedish government spent over half the nation’s GDP, and as a result their GDP growth rate was relatively low. Their welfare statism peaked back then, and it’s been scaled back in recent decades. Government spending has been cut, and Sweden actually has a center-right government now, supportive of markets and even of privatization.So while it looks like the U.S. overdid deregulation and is now in a course correction, it also looks like Sweden overdid welfare-statism and is now in a course correction.

  • oldranger // Mar 26, 2009 at 10:59 am

    That and being lectured by the Czechs. As one who once patolled that border during the Cold War, I can now say Hell has frozen over.

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