Milton Friedman In Kotter We Have No Poverty Analysis

Watched a video of a Bernie sanders supporter this morning saying how great things are in Sweden. The American left seems to be enamored with Scandinavian style socialism. Milton Friedman once noted when a student made the statement: “In Scandinavia, we have no poverty”. To which Friedman responded, “In America among Scandinavians we also have no poverty". Both statements are not true of course, poverty in America among Scandinavians and in the country of Scandinavia are around 6.7%. The point is Friedman understood that among the countries that practice Scandinavian style socialism (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden), there is an underlying culture that gives the appearance of socialism working well. This type of socialism would never work in the USA because the United States is a much more complex society than
Call it North Korea. Think about it. Want a better example? Look at China. Under Mao the population, for the most part, rode around on bicycles wearing coolie uniforms, working on a rural farm. They were the lucky ones. Along came Nixon and Kissinger in the 70’s (yes, Nixon) and working together with China introduced capitalism. Now look at China. It is indisputable what capitalism does to the human condition. It raises people into a middle-class lifestyle which allows them leisure time. Time to pay attention to government policies instead of worrying about just getting by, or where the next meal is coming from. Is it any wonder Obama has targeted the middle class? Think about that one. Socialism is about many little folks working for the good of the few in positions of power. The occupy crowd points to this and says that the current mess is the failure of capitalism. Having lived 55 years now, I point at it and say the current situation in the USA is because of the slow creep of socialism in our society. If you study the results of socialism, it is undeniable that is what is happening. Just in my