Trouble in socialist paradise
Sep 13, 2018, 5:07 AM
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The left regularly cites the Nordic nations as proof that socialism works but a new report from the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen shows trouble in paradise. Young people in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden show a sharp recent rise in “poor mental health” and the New York Times ran a recent headline proclaiming “Gloom in World’s ‘Happiest’ Nations.”
Clinical depression in Sweden increased by 20 percent in just 10 years, while younger generations in Denmark report alarming levels of loneliness. In recent Swedish elections, angry voters gave right-wing parties almost double the support won by parties of the left, another indication that Scandinavia hasn’t achieved socialist nirvana.
In fact, each of these countries still run mixed economies, where free markets play an important role, and recent trends should dull the left’s enthusiasm for their purported Nordic utopias.