Why The Nordic Model Isn't All Sunshine And Rainbows

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As the world's economies come under strain from the cocaine that is the manipulation of the money supply, we see more people feeling economic pain, when it should have been cleared out a long time ago, had we lived under a hard money standard.

We hear more calls for socialism as populist voices push for change, any change. We're told that the money doesn't need to change, all we have to do is change policies and everything will be fixed. We can paper over 60 years of systemic fiat failures if only we had more control through CBDCs, shits fucking scary.

To me it's one of those shoddy solutions like, Instead of eating meat, have some bug-based protein pills, like fuck off will you?

nordicmodel.png

The path to Scandaslavia

To make this bullshit palatable, politicians, economists, and talking heads in the media love to cite Nordic countries like some Bastian of democratic success. Look at them, they did it, let's copy their model and we're all gravy training it baby.

If you're not living close to the north pole you've probably heard your politicians talk about how Scandinavia is some sort of Utopia, they figured out how to generate capital from their natural resources, they managed to re-invest that to build a healthy balance sheet and with the citizens willing to fork over high taxes, they can provide all sorts of socialist programs.

You'll always hear stories in the media about how this Scandinavian country is top in happiness, and prosperity, how they offer such great maternity and paternity benefits, and how they're able to provide a healthy work-life balance for their citizens.

Here are the top 10 happiest countries and their score according to USA Today

  1. Finland- 7.821
  2. Denmark- 7.636
  3. Iceland- 7.557
  4. Switzerland- 7.512
  5. Netherlands- 7.415
  6. Luxembourg- 7.404
  7. Sweden- 7.384
  8. Norway- 7.365
  9. Israel- 7.364
  10. New Zealand- 7.200

It all sounds great, but I know when I am being sold a dream, there's always something hidden under the carpet and in the closet.

Bla bla bla

Not socialist at all, they're your friendly neighborhood imperialists.

One thing Nordic countries have on their side is good PR, they've greenwashed their image to be seen as ahead of the curve when it comes to ESG and quality of life with great social benefits.

Yet these same countries are using exploitative tactics outside their borders with Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil, also partly owned by the state involved in multiple corruption cases around the world.

Norway dropped 588 bombs on Libya as part of imperialist operations to open up the path for Statoil to run oil extractions operations worth millions in a ruined country that had forced regime change backed by NATO.

War profiteering

Let's consider this world war 2 ended in 1945, we've only seen regional conflict in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia so why would weapon sales need to increase in times of so-called global peace?

The graph below looks at the income from weapon sales from Swedish companies, a country that pretends to remain neutral, why? So it can sell its weapons to as many buyers as possible. Consider this, it's a tiny country of 10 million people with a GDP of $612 billion, of that $15 billion comes from exports while $286 Million comes from military equipment.

If weapons are such a tiny part of your economy why would you continue to produce them? Well because it's not about the total amount shipped it's about the margins on those products. It might be small in terms of value, but in terms of margin, it's netting much higher returns.

Screenshot 20220507 at 19.28.44.png

Source: - tradingeconomics.com

Wage arbitrage

What actually put me on to this topic was the fact that in my native country of South Africa, there is a Volvo factory, that does the same work as the one in Gotenburg. The only difference is the staff at the Durban only get 10% of the wages the Swedes get.

Now you can make a case for currency exchange, labour demands and cost of living but it wouldn't EVER come down to 10% of the wages, that is simply an exploitative practice.

In 2008, Norwegian communications multinational, Telenor which is partly owned by the state — was exposed in a documentary as partnering with a Bangladeshi supplier that employed child labor in horrendous conditions.

In 2009 NGO Swedwatch discovered that Swedish and Finnish confectionery manufacturers have been child labour in cocoa harvesting in African countries.

If a country is prosperous, why would its companies need to pull stunts like this?

This is just a few example, however, a large portion of Scandinavian companies' productions has been offshored while profits are retrained in the country.

The unequal exchange

The fact is, these models are not replicable and they're excluding a lot of factors in these countries' relative success to only paint a picture of unicorns, rainbows, and candyfloss.

I hate to break it to you but no African country is going to turn into Wakanda by adopting the Nordic model. It's not sustainable and it's not replicable.

They can only be achieved and sustained by offshoring reality to other countries in the global South. You could say these countries have a choice, but do they?

The political elite and business elite in these countries are willing to rack up debts with the IMF and world bank and saddle their citizens with the debt repayment obligations while they extort resources which they then in-turn remove from the country and store in banking sectors in Europe and the US.

This is not an economy based on two parties mutually benefitting from an exchange, it's neo-colonialism through financial oppression.

A dive into the truth

Sources

Have your say

What do you good people of HIVE think?

So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."

Let's connect

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21 comments
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The only difference is the staff at the Durban only get 10% of the wages the Swedes get.

Crypto doesn't discriminate against anyone and I'm proud to be a citizen of the internet

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

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Crypto absolutely discriminates against people, no crypto was created without a premine giving a select few an exorbitant privilege that can never be usurped, and all proof of stake systems are designed to outright benefit others, if you don't see how it is just like fiat system, then I have a bridge to sell you

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I see your point.

Virtual countries that we're creating with crypto that is open to anyone access to financial and economical freedom that encourages innovations and contributions. Innovations mean lots of failed experiments to discover a system that is better than our current Fiat system.

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Yes there I can agree with you, people have choice, they are free to pick what they want and that I can respect, be it a stablecoin, a shitcoin or bitcoin, however you want to use your money you free to do so, and take the risks you feel are worth it for you

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great article. the current business practices by top corps and governments show the true extent of their evil intentions.

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I wouldn't put it down to simply evil, there's a lot of inertia too, people don't know they participating in an unjust system, they're just useful idiots going to work every day not knowing how things work

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yes for sure, but those at the top seem to be evil if I judge them by their actions. the question is why they are doing it and what are they hiding.

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They're only playing the game with the incentives in front of them, we are all playing the same game, to try and accumulate claims on resources for future use, just like for you and me we feel we don't have enough, they do too, as silly as it sounds. Humans can easily adjust to anyting

If tomorrow you are a millionaire, it wont take you more than a year to feel like you not satisfied and want more, its people who use money to fill voids in themselves as not to admit that they are a burden on society

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in general, I agree with you, but the real controllers of our realm have all the money and wealth they want, which doesn't explain their actions.

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Well im not one of them unfortunately, just a lowly pleb, you'll have to ask them directly and let us all know what they say lol

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I couldn't believe im gonna enjoy so much a post on Hive. Especially from a guy from the other side of the world. Greetings from Greece my friend! Keep this raw style on your post! I love it

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Lol glad you found if enjoyable, I am no PG blogger, I let rip, and call shit out and wait to be schooled by others, im always happy to learn.

Hope all is well in Greece, even if Mitsotakis is trying his best to run the country into the ground

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Trust me pal, he is a duche! Dont believe what mass media says! He is dumb so he easily controlled

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What actually put me on to this topic was the fact that in my native country of South Africa, there is a Volvo factory, that does the same work as the one in Gotenburg. The only difference is the staff at the Durban only get 10% of the wages the Swedes get.

Dear @chekohler, Do you condemn the fact that Sweden exploits South Africans for low wages?
I don't know about the Nordic socialist heaven model that Sweden claims.

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I am not here to tell people what to do with their time, and how to sell their labour, all im saying is the bullshit virtue signaling they make in Scandinavian countries is built on sand, they will larp and say oh look we closing the gender pay gap, but use location arbitrage. I am just pointing out the hypocrisy at play.

These things are never a 1 way street, it's usually in this case South Africans selling out their own country too and exploiting their fellow citizens

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Dear @chekohler , As an East Asian, I don't know about the Nordic socialist heaven model. However, I guess you have condemned Sweden's low-wage exploitation of people from developing countries abroad.

So what do you think is a better alternative to the Nordic model?😦

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I don't know what the best model is, everyone wants different things. All I want is capitalism backed by incorruptible money

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I don't know what the best model is, everyone wants different things. All I want is capitalism backed by incorruptible money

@chekohler , In the East Asian world where I live, all manufacturing industries are already collapsing because of Chinese products.
Capitalism without manufacturing and factories is impossible.

From my point of view, East Asia is already returning to the era of feudalism dominated by the Chinese economy.

How is the situation in South Africa?

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I completely agree with you, China is massively competitive, but it's because they're creating an unnatural peg to the dollar to keep their currency low to continue to be competitive. If we are all using the same money IE bitcoin, that bullshit goes away

We still have a manufacturing base and agriculture, but we are dumb enough to think service-based economies are the way to go like developed nations and it's going to bite us in the arse.

We've also obliterated our energy production, so not going well, we'll default on our debt soon enough

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I completely agree with you, China is massively competitive, but it's because they're creating an unnatural peg to the dollar to keep their currency low to continue to be competitive. If we are all using the same money IE bitcoin, that bullshit goes away

Currently, East Asian countries, including China, are suppressing cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, by promoting them as dangerous speculative products.
The world I live in is monitoring individual transactions, accounts, text messages, and currencies.

We still have a manufacturing base and agriculture, but we are dumb enough to think service-based economies are the way to go like developed nations and it's going to bite us in the arse.

In the state where I live, manufacturing is already collapsing because of Chinese products. So, the state gives up manufacturing and shifts to a service industry-based economy, with disastrous results.
Currently, about half of the younger generation are temporarily or unemployed.
So, They depend on unemployment benefits from the state.

We've also obliterated our energy production, so not going well, we'll default on our debt soon enough

Still, South Africa has oil. The country I live in is a more difficult situation because energy resources, including oil, are not produced.😅

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