When the Democrats' Green New Deal came out last week complaints of "socialism" were heard in the conservative media and among critics in congress.
There was much not to like in the GND (A guaranteed income for those who refuse to work being one), but although it would be crushingly expensive to implement and result in an enormous expansion of government, it actually wasn't a socialist plan in the technical sense.
The confusion was amplified by some defenders of the proposal who identify as socialists who pointed to Sweden's economy as providing a socialist model that we would do well to copy.
This was confusing because Sweden's economy is not really an example of genuine socialism. In socialism the state owns the means of production, but in Sweden these are largely in private hands. Sweden's economy might rather be called welfare capitalism. In fact, in some respects its economy is actually more capitalist than that of the U.S.
In any case, Sweden is not a good model for the U.S. since it's a relatively small country with the fiscal burden of neither a large underclass nor of a world class military.
This short video put out by Reason.org clarifies the nature of Sweden's economy:
When folks like Bernie Sanders and some of his fellow progressive/socialists in Congress declare that we should look to Sweden as an example to follow someone might ask them exactly which aspects of the Swedish economy should we emulate? Taxing the poor? School choice? Privatization of social security?
I doubt our progressives would be enthusiastic about any of these.
