Authored by Joakim Book via TheDailyEconomy.org,
Every few years, Americans rediscover Scandinavia.
Someone visits Norway or Denmark, returns dazzled and envious of parental leave and universal childcare, and asks why America refuses to copy what obviously works. On the day dedicated to celebrating America, Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote for The New York Times that America is so great that, in fact, it should be more like Norway. If American companies can pay high wages and generous benefits to workers there, Kristof observed, they could do so in New York, too.
If only America were willing to embrace a little more social democracy and bigger government, this popular and recurring story goes, perhaps it could enjoy the same prosperity and flourishing that Norway does — and have its population also routinely rank among the happiest on the planet.
I was born and raised in one Nordic country, have worked in another, and for the last six years have lived in a third, so I’m fairly familiar with our way of life. I’ve also spent much time in America, stunned and enamored of the way things are in the vast, diverse, and unruly union of states. Europeans are simultaneously fascinated and bewildered by America.
Plenty of things are amazing about these United States, and quite a few things awful about the Nordics; I suspect American intellectuals, dreaming about Norway without understanding its nature and tradeoffs, overlook both.
“You Want Security, Health Care and the American Dream? Look to Scandinavia”Norwegian workers certainly have higher wages than those in many European countries, including those of its fellow Scandinavians. Hotel cleaners, retail clerks, and construction workers often earn salaries that surprise visiting Americans. Thanks to Baumol’s cost disease, decades of well-managed petroleum wealth have pushed up industrial and service wages.
The first thing an American professional moving to Norway would notice isn’t the generous parental leave, but the great loss of disposable income and material well-being. Norwegians households average 30 percent less disposable income than those the US, and the cost of everyday items is much higher.
The Scandinavian bargain might look like free services, but it as tradeoff: more public goods, fewer private goods.
When American politicians or intellectuals promise Nordic welfare states, most people imagine this happening automatically or by taxing the rich, and everybody benefits. That’s not the case. The real Nordic model taxes earners more (45 percent in Denmark, 40 in Norway, 41 in Sweden, compared to 25 percent in the United States) and charging flat value added tax (VAT). Broad welfare states require broad tax bases; Nordic welfare states are financed not by billionaires but by ordinary workers. The “free” benefits are bought with invasive and regressive consumption taxes (up to 25 percent), payroll taxes, and income taxes that reach well that begin after just $10,000 (the first $16,000 is tax free in the US).
An American professional, pocketing the median earnings of about $65,000, would pay over $17,000 in Norwegian income taxes (compared to about $5,000 per the IRS calculator, naturally subject to state taxes and various deductions), with the employer forced to chip in another $9,200 for the privilege of merely hiring her. From what’s left over, she faces a high cost of living and sales taxes between 11 percent and 25 percent.
Were she in Sweden, a much poorer country with wages well below Norway’s, our middle-of-the-road American professional would land herself in the top 20 percent of earners — though not yet triggering the top 53 percent (or 64 percent) marginal tax rates.
For the Tax Foundation, Cristina Enach summarized, “In 2024, Denmark’s tax-to-GDP ratio was 45.2 percent, Norway’s was 40.2 percent, and Sweden’s was 41.4 percent. This compares to a ratio of 25.6 percent in the United States.”
Some of that difference is accounted for by healthcare spending (private, not government) and pension contributions (401(k) or other retirement accounts) and other personalized options. The Nordics give you one option: the state.
In return, yes, our hypothetical expat would receive subsidized childcare, education, paid time off, and health care. Those services would be of dubious quality, with waiting times stretching into months even for life-threatening conditions. For some, that’s a trade worth making, but it’s not obviously superior, as economist Noah Smith concluded in his comparison a few months ago.
Inequality is indeed lower in Norway, where a person in the top 10 percent earns just three times as much as a person in the bottom 10 percent. That means there’s less reason to strive, less room to grow. Looking to the future, investments in growth, employment, and AI-fueled opportunities are far more attractive stateside than in stagnating Scandinavia. Suppressing growth at the top has suppressed everyone’s potential.
The Norwegian Story Isn’t the Nordic StoryThe gap between the average person’s wellbeing in America and that of almost all European countries has widened dramatically over the past three decades. In income per capita, the United States has steadily pulled away from Europe over the last thirty years. The United States’ average income now exceeds every EU member except Luxembourg and Ireland. Citizens of fourteen EU nations earn less on average than residents of even the poorest state: Mississippi, and the EU as a whole ranks between Oklahoma and Maine.
Joseph Sternberg’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year is illustrative: both Americans and Europeans are shocked when they learn how much materially better off America is. “Politically, bliss is ignorance,” concluded Sternberg. “European welfare states, by creating relatively comfortable lives for voters, conceal the full extent of Europe’s prosperity gap.”
Norway is an affluent country by European standards, but only average compared to America as a whole. Rough figures indicate that Americans, on average, enjoy material economic abundance on par with Iceland and Norway, but are 20 percent to 60 percent better off than the other Nordics. (The difference between the economic outliers and the other Nordics is the difference between New York State and Michigan.) While there are nuances in life, politics, and economics between the five Nordic countries, it’s not like the tax rates, labor economics, public schooling, the overall welfare state, or the generosity of parental leave are that different.
It’s no accident that Kristof reported from Norway; had he run this comparison with Sweden or Finland, the economic outcome would have been so unacceptably low that few Americans would be persuaded by the promise. People in the Norwegian and Icelandic success stories are significantly richer than the other Nordics. Even adjusting for purchasing-power-parity numbers via the University of Groningen-Penn World Table data for 2023, Americans are still a comfortable 15-20 percent richer than most Scandinavians.
It’s Impossible Anyway, So Why Are We Dreaming?The most immediate sticking point to inflated dreams about the Nordics is that nobody has figured out a way to effectively translate and recreate social and economic institutions elsewhere. To say nothing about a population’s values, behaviors, and traditions.
Institutions emerge from particular and path-dependent histories. They’re not IKEA furniture to merely ship across an ocean and assemble at home. Academic or political observers often make the mistake of thinking you can just isolate a few desirable behaviors or economic institutions, retrofit them onto America, and effortlessly create better lives here.
Plus, America has long tolerated — indeed celebrated — a remarkable degree of eccentricity and ambition. Americans start improbable companies in garages, and they love their “weirdos.” When they do things, they (over)do them properly — SpaceX. College football. Time Square. Las Vegas. Whatever you’re interested in or passionate about, some all-American oddball has built a community for that. It’s a nation of inventors and obsessive animal lovers. They build Burning Man in the desert and whole cities at sea. Their wide-open spaces connect a web of places-as peoples-as-philosophies: Hollywood, elite universities, Silicon Valley and Broadway, Nashville and Detroit, Amish meeting houses and evangelical megachurches, Hindu temples and Highland games from coast to coast. Our great hybrid culture thrives on liberty, not just lower taxes. Our cultural inheritance is the result of having astonishingly many different attempts thrown at the American wall to see what sticks.
The Nordics don’t have that. With the recent exception of fintech and startup wonders (riding on an early, high-tech boom from the ‘90s), trying new, eccentric things in those cold lands isn’t exactly welcome. The Scandinavian idea of Jantelagen, the expectation that nobody should think themselves special, results in a lack of opportunities and a disregard for novelty that most Americans see as both rude and discouraging.
The political equilibrium keeping Scandinavia afloat was, until recently, a mostly homogenous population on sparsely populated lands eerily willing to subjugate individual preferences and quirks to common, collective rules. America stands out in the exact opposite way: letting 15 times as many people pursue radically different lifestyles and individual ambitions with cheerful respect, but little regard for whether the neighbors approve.
Even if it were possible to transplant Norwegian economic and political institutions onto America, how can we be confident we won’t have a Swedish-level economic debacle instead of the wealthy, comfortable Norway a social reformer might dream of?
We can admire and learn from Scandinavian countries using the “Nordic Model,” which have achieved robust social programs without sacrificing too much in the way of economic prosperity. That balance is fragile, and might not work forever: immigration troubles, stagnating growth, and an overbearing regulatory state are exposing the cracks.
Scandinavia has built wildly successful societies for a few million very similar-minded people. But the United States has built something more impressive: a vast, messy republic of economic and social flourishing where hundreds of millions of people peacefully pursue wildly different visions of a good life.
Becoming more like Norway means becoming less American, with less of the opportunity, ingenuity, and the entrepreneurship that made America great.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 03:30The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) has an 'answer' to Ukraine's recent long-range drone attacks, which have wreaked havoc on oil production and most recently online retailers and manufacturing. Ukraine has also been attacking Russian ships elsewhere in the Black Sea as well as Sea of Azov.
The MoD has announced a fresh wave of strikes targeting multiple Ukrainian port installations and Black Sea shipping targets, which represents a sharp escalation in Moscow's ongoing campaign to choke off regional logistics, and in order to further 'punish' Ukraine.
Golden Leo seen partially submerged offshore Odesa, July 26. Via the Odesa Military AdministrationWhile Ukraine's repeat large drone waves on the Moscow region have driven headlines, much less attention has been paid to the emerging and renewed Black Sea war.
Moscow seeks to sever military supply routes and disrupt arms shipments bound for Ukraine, but this has also obviously resulted in damaged and sunken tankers, auxiliary vessels, and even deaths of civilian bystanders among international shipping crew.
Russia's military has said that from the weekend through Monday, key logistics hubs of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Port of Mykolaiv (Nikolayev) have been hit - with the latter site seeing a docked cargo vessel receiving a direct strike.
All of this comes after local authorities in Odessa confirmed Sunday that a foreign-flagged cargo ship, which some reports have identified as the Guinea-Bissau-flagged Golden Leo, capsized and sank near the coast after taking heavy damage from a Russian attack over a week ago.
🚨 Russian strikes continue to hit Ukrainian ports and vessels supplying the military
The attacks targeted a trans-shipment facility and fuel depots in Nikolayev's port, and also hit a cargo vessel at sea that was hauling military supplies to Odessa and Chernomorsk. pic.twitter.com/d7VLskmYOC
According to The Maritime Executive:
A small cargo ship that was badly damaged in a Russian strike off Odesa has gone down, according to Ukrainian authorities. The small vessel had absorbed multiple hits, and it sank after six days of progressive flooding.
On July 19, three Russian cruise missiles hit the Turkish-operated, Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship Golden Leo off the coast of Odesa. The vessel was outbound with a load of corn at the time of the strike; Russia has been targeting Ukraine's grain export sector in retaliation for strikes on Russian logistics and energy infrastructure.
Video of the slowly sinking ship had gone viral over the last several days, and the Russian attack killed ten people - and with eight crew members later having to be rescued.
At least two of the projectiles that hit the vessel were anti-ship missiles, triggering a massive fire before it went under.
The cargo vessel hit by multiple Russian cruise missiles while carrying Ukrainian grain off the coast of Odesa last week finally sank earlier today. pic.twitter.com/oAeSZZkHAW
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) July 26, 2026Russia has come under international condemnation for these attacks, especially from India given the rising numbers of Indian crew members killed or injured.
Russian vessels with civilian crew have also been coming under attack from Ukraine in the same region...
The crew of the Russian NEW VICTORY Bulk Carrier, IMO 9159050, filmed a FP-1/FP-2 attack drone strike on their vessel in the Black Sea. pic.twitter.com/R6vSvqCeZs
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 26, 2026Sea war has also lately expanded into the Caspian, potentially linking the Ukraine and Iran conflicts...
Ukraine says it has struck several vessels in the Caspian Sea used to transport Russian military cargo to Iran. Reports suggest the cargo ships Port Olya 2 and Begey were hit. Meanwhile, Iranian regime-affiliated channels are threatening ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/OBFk2SdH3H
— Baba Banaras™ (@RealBababanaras) July 25, 2026But the Kremlin has shot back, saying it is Ukraine which is unleashing "indiscriminate terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure" through its constant drone attacks.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 02:45Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
Far left UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski has caused uproar by sharing an Instagram post featuring a man in a T-shirt depicting a guillotine next to the words "We're only making plans for Nigel." The clear target was Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
This lands just two weeks after Reform's Ann Widdecombe was beaten to death with a hammer in her own home.
Reform has reported Polanski to the Metropolitan Police for incitement to murder. The Met says it is conducting enquiries.
Zack Polanski has posted to his 713k Instagram followers a photo of a man in a T-shirt calling for the beheading of Nigel Farage.
To do this just 2 weeks after our friend Ann was murdered is staggering.
Polanski is inciting murder.
It must be treated as such by the police. pic.twitter.com/mkLvxESf21
The image formed part of a carousel of photos from a Green Party event. Polanski, who has more than 700,000 Instagram followers, accepted a collaboration request. Once the specific frame was flagged, he unshared it.
A Green Party spokesman said he "unequivocally does not support this type of dangerous message" and claimed he had accepted the post "without realising there was more to it than he had seen." The same spokesman called the T-shirt "clearly in poor taste" while noting Polanski himself has received threats.
Nigel Farage shared a screenshot and stated the obvious double standard: "This is what Zack Polanski has just posted on his Instagram. If I was to post anything as inciteful then I would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski."
Reform's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf posted a video reaction expressing disbelief at the sequence of events.
I can't believe I'm saying this in a video pic.twitter.com/vs5UbnMHKJ
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) July 27, 2026The Metropolitan Police confirmed: "Earlier today, we received a third-party report relating to an image shared on social media. We take reports of this nature extremely seriously, and officers are conducting enquiries into the matter."
Is the enquiry was serious or just purely performative?
But are you really looking into this further or just two tier lip service? https://t.co/xaqZKpDvEi
— Gauci Reports (@GauciReports) July 27, 2026Reform has also indicated it will refer Polanski to the Greater London Authority monitoring officer, given his elected role there.
The timing is not abstract. Ann Widdecombe, 78, Reform's immigration and justice spokeswoman and a long-serving former Conservative minister, was found dead at her remote Dartmoor home on 9 July.
Prosecutors told a court she sustained 21 blows to the head from a hammer in what was described as a planned and targeted attack. A man has been charged with her murder.
The killing immediately produced open celebration among sections of the left online, including on platforms that market themselves as more "kind" alternatives to mainstream social media. Users treated the death of an elderly woman for her politics as a punchline or a form of progress.
Against this backdrop, Polanski's post landed like petrol on dry grass.
Jack Hadfield noted the contrast with previous cases of social-media speech:
Lucy Connolly was locked up for much less.
Are the police going to apply the law fairly, or are we going to see more two tier justice?
The left are violent extremists who want to see us dead, and they should be treated as such! https://t.co/z7cKwkmKnG
Alex Armstrong stressed equal application:
Lucy Connolly's post was undoubtedly seen by far fewer people and was also deleted.
I don't believe anyone should be locked up for social media posts HOWEVER this is about equal application of the law. Ignorance is not seen an excuse, neither is an apology. Not my beliefs, that... https://t.co/fpicPcdBmN
Nioh Berg highlighted the mechanics of Instagram collaboration posts. Accepting a collaboration requires a deliberate step; the image was visible.
Let me point out the LIE here.
Zack was added to an IG collaboration. In order to be a visible collaborator, you must manually accept it.
Meaning Zack, the disgusting subversive snake, SAW the image and STILL accepted it. He only unshared because of massive backlash and the... https://t.co/Tgi8WhyVPw pic.twitter.com/dwMTmQHK0s
Will we see yet another example of two tier policing in the UK?
I don't t want people arrested for threatening social media posts, but if this was me or someone on the right... we WOULD be arrested.
So we either have two tier policing or we have consistent policing... what will it be ?
This is two weeks after Ann Widdecombe's murder. The left... https://t.co/hvJjStmi3l
Alex Phillips observed the media asymmetry:
Can you imagine if it was someone from Reform wearing a t shirt with a medieval murder instrument on it and Nigel Farage had retweeted it?
Every newspaper front page would be plastered with it and there'd be mass calls for resignation
2 Tierism is Leftists at the top, and us... https://t.co/5FfC2s4KxJ
Susan Hall of the London Assembly noted that this rhetoric is unacceptable in any context.
It's irrelevant if you like or support Nigel Farage or not. This is totally and utterly unacceptable, aimed at anyone. I cannot imagine the meltdown that would be going on right now if Farage had aimed this at any of those on the left. https://t.co/wmHA3CZClN
— Susan Hall AM (@Councillorsuzie) July 27, 2026Polanski leads the same Green Party that has spent years elevating radical identity politics above basic national standards. In May, we documented the election of a transgender Tamil immigrant on a temporary student visa - with no British citizenship or permanent residency - as a Green MSP in Scotland.
The party's record under Polanski includes candidates investigated for antisemitism, open rejection of biological reality, and a consistent prioritisation of ideological purity over ordinary voters.
The culture that normalises such figures is the same culture that treats a guillotine graphic aimed at a political rival as an unfortunate oversight.
British politics has already seen two sitting MPs murdered in recent memory - Jo Cox and David Amess - plus the hammer killing of Widdecombe. Security concerns for public figures are no longer theoretical.
Farage has repeatedly described himself as among the most physically and verbally attacked politicians of the modern era. Polanski has previously labelled Farage a "fascist" and a "grifter." The language of existential threat has become casual on one side of the spectrum while the same side demands maximum protection and sensitivity for its own.
Two-tier enforcement remains the live issue. Cases involving speech from the right have produced arrests, charges, and in some instances custody. Equivalent or stronger material from the left has frequently been waved away as "poor taste," "satire," or an unfortunate oversight.
The Met's statement that it takes such reports "extremely seriously" will be tested by whether any meaningful action follows or whether the file quietly closes once the news cycle moves on.
A political party leader is not an anonymous activist. He is a public figure with institutional reach, elected positions, and a platform that amplifies whatever he platforms.
Accepting a collaboration that places a beheading graphic of a rival in front of three-quarters of a million followers is not a private lapse. It is a public act. Claiming not to have noticed the content after the fact does not restore the credibility that was spent.
The response from the Green Party has been damage control rather than unambiguous rejection of the underlying culture that makes such imagery thinkable.
Either the rules on incitement and threats apply evenly, or they exist solely to police one side. If Polanski remains leader of the Green Party after this, it confirms the far left's extremist stance and proves that only those who oppose it will be targeted and punished.
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Tyler Durden Wed, 07/29/2026 - 02:00