Viking Economics (29 page)
Authors: George Lakey
30.
An American Dilemma
. Myrdal wrote the 1,500-page book with the assistance of Ralph Bunche, a leading African American intellectual who went on to become Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. Myrdal was chosen for the study by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching because as a Swede he might be more objective than an American (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944).
Chapter 6: More Start-ups than the United States: Support for Entrepreneurs, Workers, and the Equality of Women
31.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, cited by Max Chafkin, “In Norway, Start-ups Say Ja to Socialism,”
Inc. Magazine
, January 20, 2011. www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-startups-say-ja-to-socialism.html/7 (accessed August 2, 2013).
32.
“In Norway, Start-ups Say Ja to Socialism,”
Inc. Magazine
, January 20, 2011. www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-start-ups-say-ja-to-socialism.html/7 (accessed August 2, 2013).
33.
Mark Zandi, “Economy still doesn’t feel right,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, April 27, 2014, p. C3.
34.
The Norwegian Center for Multicultural Value Creation organizes the program.
35.
Jonathan Jopkin, Vitor Lapuente, and Lovisa Moller, “Lower Levels of Inequality Are Linked with Greater Innovation in Economies.” blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/39215 (accessed June 8, 2014).
36.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/04/us/comparing-economic-mobility.html?_r=0
(accessed August 1, 2013)
37.
Markus Jantti and colleagues, “American Exceptionalism in a
New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States,” January 2006. IZA DEP No. 1938, Discussion Paper Series, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany.
38.
Iceland’s recovery from one of the worst economic collapses in history makes an interesting comparison with that of the United States. Iceland’s recovery was guided by the Nordic model: the country bounced back quickly from the 2008 disaster and decreased inequality at the same time. The United States recovery has been slow and halting while simultaneously increasing its population’s inequality.
39.
Viking Age: Everyday Life During the Extraordinary Era of the Norsemen
(New York: Sterling, 2013).
40.
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/18/diversity-boardroom-corporate-decisions
(accessed August 5, 2011). The author of the article claims she has done research showing that meetings with 40 percent women are reported by participants to be more professional: “Greater female representation seems to make meetings a little more pleasant, the preparation material is tidier and more comprehensive, and the processes more formal. Our respondents call it professionalisation.” As of 2011, 95 percent of board members of Fortune 500 companies were white men. Charles A. Gallagher, “ ‘Minority’ Nation?”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, November 28, 2015, p. C1. In 2015, in the United States, 104 women held 19 percent of the House and Senate seats in Congress. That gender proportion is lower than that of the parliaments of a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Ecuador, according to the World Bank. Justine McDaniel and Caitlin McCabe, “Struggle for Political Equity Persists,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, November 29, 2015, p. A14. Statistics on gender comparing Denmark
with the United States can be found here:
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34528366
.
41.
www.savethechildren.net
(accessed August 30, 2015).
42.
www.norway.org/aboutnorway/society/welfare/benefits/ (accessed July 31, 2013).
44.
John Weeks,
Inequality Trends in Some Developed OECD Countries
. Working Paper No. 6. (New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2005.)
www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2005/wp6_2005.pdf
(accessed August 28, 2015). Cited by Wilkinson and Pickett, pp. 244–45.
45.
David Dayen,
The Fiscal Times
, Quoted in
The Week
, September 18, 2015, p. 34. The U.S. Conference of Mayors commissioned a study of post-2008 wage trends, which revealed in 2015 that “the nation lost 8.7 million jobs in 2008 and 2009 that paid average wages of $61,637. The jobs that have replaced them, at least through the middle of last year, have a corresponding average wage of only $47,171.” The study was conducted by the consulting firm IHS Global Insight. Joel Naroff, “Widening Pay Gap,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, November 1, 2015, p. E9.
46.
Joseph E. Stiglitz,
The Price of Inequality
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), p. 81.
47.
For information on the relationship of party and unions in Norway, see Penny Gill Martin, “Strategic Opportunities and Limitations: The Norwegian Labor Party and the Trade Unions,”
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
, Vol. 28, No. 1. (October, 1974), pp. 75–88.
48.
In the UK, 25.8 percent of workers were unionized and in the United States, 11.1 percent. Among the descendants of the Vikings: Norway, 54.7 percent, Sweden, 67.5 percent, Denmark, 68.5 percent (in 2010), and Iceland, 79.3 percent (in 2008).
49.
Wahl, Asbjørn. 2011.
The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State
. London: Pluto Press, p. 55. Wahl reports that Germany has lost 48 percent of its union membership since the high of 1991 and the European Union as a whole has sunk to 23 percent union density (p. 69). Figures like this help us to understand how so many governments in the EU were able to force austerity on the working and middle classes following the financial sector’s failure in 2008. Middle-class Americans have also been experiencing the harsh outcomes of lowered union density in the working class.
50.
Wahl, p. 74. Wahl claims that governments in Sweden and Denmark have moved on several fronts to weaken the Nordic model, more so than in Norway.
51.
Brooks, Neil and Thaddeus Hwong. (2006).
The Social Benefits and Economic Costs of Taxation
. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, p. 28.
www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/2006/Benefits_and_Costs_of_Taxation.pdf
(accessed August 30, 2015).
52.
Galbraith,
The Predator State
, p. 190.
53.
In Norway, Start-ups Say Ja to Socialism,”
Inc. Magazine
, January 20, 2011. www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-start-ups-say-ja-to-socialism.html/7 (accessed August 2, 2013).
54.
Brian Miller and Mike Lapham,
The Self-Made Myth and the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed
(San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012).
55.
www.commondreams.org/views/2014/10/20/top-heavy-planet-nordic-nations-show-path-healthier-wealth-equity
.
56.
2015 report.
www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/income-inequality_9789264246010-en#page25
(accessed January 9, 2016).
Chapter 7:
Family Farmers and Cooperatives: Key Players in the Nordic Model
57.
International Cooperative Alliance, “Cooperatives create sustainable growth and quality employment.” ica.coop/en/co-operatives-create-sustainable-growth-and-quality-employment (accessed May 3, 2016).
58.
International Labour Organization, 2010. “Cooperatives and the crisis: ‘Our customers are also our owners.’ ” www.ilo.org/global/publications/magazines-and-journals/world-of-work-magazine/article (accessed July 19, 2014).
59.
Birchall, John. and Hammond Ketilson, L. 2009.
Resilience of the cooperative business model in times of crisis
. Geneva, ILO.
60.
www.greatplacetowork.net/best-companies/europe/europe/50-best-large-workplaces-in-europe
(accessed August 2, 2013).
61.
www.thenews.coop/49090/news/general/view-top-300-co-operatives-around-world/#.U5UKVy-aluk
(accessed June 8, 2014).
62.
Sources for comparative business resilience and reducing turnover include Steven Dawson and Sherman Kreiner,
Cooperative Home Care Associates: History and Lessons
(New York: Home Care Associates Training Institute, 1993); Andrew Robinson and Hao Zhang, “Employee Share Ownership: Safeguarding Investments in Human Capital,”
British Journal of Industrial Relations
, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 469–88.
63.
“Cooperative Housing in Sweden.” ICA [International Cooperative Association] Housing. 2014.
www.chfcanada.coop/icahousing/pages/membersearch.asp?op=country&id=14
(accessed July 19, 2014).
64.
Pestoff, Victor. “Co-Production as a new perspective for the Swedish welfare state?” 2013. Governance International Blog. He cites Johan Vamstad (2012), “Co-Production and Service
Quality: A New Perspective for the Swedish Welfare State,” in
New Public Governance, the Third Sector and Co-Production
(edited by Victor Pestoff, Taco Brandsen and Bram Verschuere), pp. 297–316. www.govint.org/news/blog/tags/parentpercent20cooperatives/?no_cache=1&cHash=8a52a8d-85077754cfe7bf824116e1964 (accessed July 19, 2014).
65.
Wizelius, Tore. 2014.
Windpower Ownership in Sweden: Business models and motives
(London: Taylor & Francis), p. 47.
66.
Lange, Even, Espen E. and Merok, E, “A successful latecomer: Growth and transformation of the Norwegian consumer co-operatives 1920–2000.” Paper to be presented at the XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, August 21–15, 2006.
www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers2/Lange.pdf
(accessed July 19, 2014).
67.
Sejersted, Francis. 2011.
The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), p. 263.
68.
www.jarlsberg.com/us/about
.
69.
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Farm_structure_in_Norway
(accessed July 31, 2013).
70.
blog.norway.com/2011/04/12/farmers-demanding-higher-income/ (accessed August 1, 2013).
71.
www.norwaypost.no/index.php/news/latest-news/28249-nor-wegian-farmers-incomes-up-5-per-cent
.
72.
Numbers from the International Cooperative Alliance. here-andnow.wbur.org/2011/03/23/entrepreneurs-norway.
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/420178/Norway/214109/Demographic-trends
. Helpful on demographic and big picture of economic production. (Accessed August 1, 2013.)
73.
“The Cooperative Movement in Sweden.” Fact sheet on Sweden published by the Swedish Institute, October 1983. digital.Lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/coops/id/5571 (accessed July 18, 2014).
74.
www.danishdairyboard.dk/History.aspx
(accessed August 30, 2015).
Chapter 8: Preventing Poverty: Nordics Learn How an Advanced Economy Can Abolish Poverty
75.
Numbers were not available for Iceland. The calculation for the United States is 22.4 percent, placing it the twenty-second-lowest. Child poverty increased 12 percent in the United States between 1996 and 2013, as reported in Harper’s Index for September 2013.
76.
UNICEF,
A League Table of Child Poverty in Rich Nations
, Innocenti Report Card, Issue No. 1, June 2000, p. 6. www.unicef.is/efni/report_card/UNICEF_report_card_1.pdf (accessed July 28, 2014).
77.
www.thelocal.se/20120316/39720
.
78.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
aspe.hhs.gov/frequently-asked-questions-related-poverty-guidelines-and-poverty
(accessed August 30, 2015).
79.
UNICEF,
A League Table of Child Poverty in Rich Nations
, Innocenti Report Card, Issue No. 1, June 2000, p. 11. www.unicef.is/efni/report_card/UNICEF_report_card_1.pdf (accessed July 28, 2014).
80.
Nina Berglund, “Concerns Rise over Poverty in Norway,”
News in English
, August 31, 2011.
www.newsinenglish.no/2011/08/31/concerns-rise-over-poverty-in-norway
(accessed May 4, 2016).
81.
Op. cit., p. 11.
82.
Although the United States has a law on the books (the Humphrey-Hawkins Act) stating that full employment is its goal, in practice it has no such policy. The Congress rejected President
Obama’s effort to pass a second stimulus plan after the U.S. financial sector caused the Great Recession of 2008. As late as 2015 the true unemployment rate, including people who wanted full-time work but could only get part-time jobs, and the people so discouraged about their job prospects that they had not looked for work lately, was 11 percent. Jane M. Von Bergen, “Unemployment rate falls to seven-year low,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, March 7, 2015, p. A1. Based on latest release of U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
83.
www.worldfinance.com/home/top-5/top-5-countries-with-the-lowest-unemployment
(accessed January 12, 2016).
84.
See Asbjørn Wahl,
The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State
(London: Pluto Press, 2011), Chapters 6 and 7.
85.
Op. cit., p. 14.
86.
I put “war on poverty” in quotes because, even in the original conception, it was far from a serious effort. Bayard Rustin, a major advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was at that time an ally of President Johnson’s. When LBJ’s plan was publically announced, I happened to be in a large meeting with Rustin. “This is the first time,” Bayard said in a tone of exasperation, “that America has gone to war with a BB gun!”
87.
See, for example, the platform on the Danish People’s Party website:
www.danskfolkeparti.dk/The_Party_Program_of_the_Danish_Peoples_Party
(accessed August 29, 2015).
