Chani Thorum

Political Science
Eportfolio

Economic Opinion

Like many Millennials I liked what Bernie Sanders had to say about
economic changes to the US. I voted for him in the caucus and with that I
wish I didnt have to choose between two people who are bad and worse,
although I am glad that Bernie started a sort of revolution in the younger
generation. One thing in particular that I did like was his suggestion of
democratic socialism which sounds scary but really doesnt have to be that
way. For this paper I had read an abundance of literature about our tax
structures with the progressive, proportional, and regressive taxes in the US
and found an article that suggests something completely different and more
in line with what I think Bernie was trying to make the young and old
generation understand.
I concentrated my research on Scandinavian countries and actually
googled why are they successful and found that although the taxes are
high, what you actually get from the government is well worth it. Now when
we hear the term democratic socialism we tend to fixate on the socialist
part of it but I found a speech from the prime minister of Denmark stating I
know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort
of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far
from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy. In the US
people still have the old ideas of socialism, we think that its going to turn
the US into China with the government controlling all the big businesses but
that is not actually how the Scandinavian countries are run. Their
government does provide things like our Medicare equivalent, universal
healthcare for all, and in some free college tuition for residents, but their
factories and productions are mostly owned by private individuals and the
government has little to do with where their resources go. While researching
this topic I came across a term social democracy which is a socialist system
of government achieved by democratic means and I feel that this term far
better explains what Bernie Sanders had suggested for the US.
Socialists suggest that these economic changes can happen gradually
and are implemented through legal means rather than with violence which I
can stand behind but Scandinavian countries are not actually socialists. The
Nordic Model they follow actually allows free trade, and so its no surprise
that these countries are mostly neutral and therefore are easy to do business
with. They do not however, have a higher set minimum wage, I learned that
they actually have Union-imposed wages that create different challenges for
the economy. Bottom line is that I do think that the US should make some

Chani Thorum
Political Science
Eportfolio

changes with our economic structure and yes, all economies have their
struggles with what works and what doesnt but I feel that the Nordic Model
would be a good place to start.

Sources:
Foundation for Economic Education The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism by
Corey Lacono published 2/25/2016
Investopedia What are the differences between regressive, proportional,
and progressive taxes by Melissa Horton published 5/24/2015
Progressive and Regressive Taxes by Chuck Taylor published 6/20/2003
Encyclopaedia Britannica Social Democracy by Brian Duignan published
1/21/2009