U.S. 6, Sweden 0

By Jerome J. Maiczewski

In her recent article "Learn from Sweden," Joyce Stroup-Tummins praised Sweden as a standard of excellence for the rest of the world to emulate and condemned the United States as a model of despair that was "failing miserably" to attend to the needs of its citizens. Upon reading Stroup's article I did not know whether to be incensed by her disdain for America, the greatest country in the history of mankind, or saddened by her misguided admiration for Sweden, a socialist utopia that, at best, enjoys second-rate status in the world along with the rest of mainland Europe.

I had the opportunity to live in Europe for three years during the late 1980s. I saw firsthand what it was like to live in a political system that, to Stroup's way of thinking, is the ideal toward which the United States should strive. To put it bluntly, she's mistaken. The European social-welfare system strips people of their incentive to prosper and their freedom to rise as far as their talents will take them. Worse yet, it condemns them to lives beholden to an omnipresent government.

Stroup seems to be among those Americans who foolishly believe that the role of government is to take care of every aspect of the lives of its citizens from cradle to grave. That's what the people of Sweden are burdened with: a socialist government that demands outrageously high taxes from its citizens in exchange for the myriad social-welfare programs that Stroup is so eager to impose upon her fellow Americans.

The Swedish government promises to take care of all the needs of its citizens, but to do that the Swedish government needs money. And the only place the government can get that money is to take it from its citizens through taxes. In other words, the people of Sweden, or any socialist country, turn over large sums of their hard-earned money to the government so that the government can then turn around and use that money to take care of its citizens.

I would rather use my hard-earned money to take care of myself, thank you very much. And no, I am not implying that we should take care of only ourselves and ignore the needs of those less fortunate. What I am insisting, however, is that the federal government has neither the ability nor the constitutionally granted authority to take money from one group of Americans and use it to effectively attend to the needs of other Americans. But, I digress.

The Swedes have one of the heaviest tax burdens in the world. Almost all Swedish families pay 50 percent of their income in national and local taxes. In America the wealthy pay 25 to 35 percent, middle-income families pay about 15 percent, and those close to the poverty line pay little to no taxes at all. America 1, Sweden 0.

That whopping 50 percent tax burden isn't the end of the Swedish tax nightmare. Sweden has a 25 percent national sales tax. Yes, you read that correctly: a 25 percent sales tax. In America we pay a sales tax that is typically in the 6.5 to 7.5 percent range. The tax burden in Sweden is so heavy. The government has to pay for all those wonderful social welfare programs somehow. The Swedes have a special word for it: skattetrat, which means "tax tiredness." America 2, Sweden 0.

In America we have a similar phrase for outrageous taxes. It's called "the Democrat party."

After World War II the Social Democrats came to power in Sweden and created the social-welfare government that Stroup admires so much. Sweden was, at the time, the richest country in Europe. Its per-capita GDP was twice the European average and 25 percent above that of Switzerland, which ranked second. By the turn of the century the socialist policies of the Social Democrats had hindered Swedish economic development to the point that 11 European countries, to include Iceland, San Marino and Luxembourg, had higher per capita GDPs.

Today the United States ranks second in the world in per capita GDP, while Sweden comes in at 21st. America 3, Sweden 0.

In Sweden, almost 33 percent of all employees work for the government, administering social-welfare programs. In America, less than 5 percent of the people are government employees. The Swedish government is the largest employer in Sweden. Unfortunately, governments don't create any products or generate any material wealth. They merely consume them at the expense of an over-taxed citizenry. America 4, Sweden 0.

The Swedish model of government has been so unsuccessful that when the Soviet Union collapsed its former satellite countries Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia rejected calls to adopt the Swedish socialist government model and instead embraced the same capitalist, free-market philosophy that has made the United States the envy of the world. America 5, Sweden 0.

Now, I don't mean to pick on Sweden. The Swedes are charming, friendly people who have much to be proud of, and the Swedish government does take good care of its citizens, but that level of care comes at an unacceptable price to the very citizens who are being cared for. The Swedish social-welfare system has been ineffective and counterproductive in a country of only 9 million people. Does Stroup really think such a system will work in America, which has more than 300 million people?

I can understand Stroup's desire to take care of those in need. The innate generosity and compassion of the American people are among this country's greatest virtues. Another, perhaps even greater strength, however, is our self-reliance. A social-welfare state such as Sweden's would destroy this vital American quality and leave us even more reliant on our government than we already are.

Of final note: When the world was on the brink of disaster during World War II the United States answered the call and sacrificed more than 400,000 of its finest men and women to defend freedom in the face of fascist tyranny.

When Norway and Finland came under attack during the early part of the war, Sweden refused their calls for help, citing neutrality. Sweden did, however, manage to supply Nazi Germany with the iron ore it desperately needed to maintain its war machine. America 6, Sweden 0.

Jerome J. Maiczewski of Cape Girardeau is an author and 1985 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.