They Say Scandinavia But They Mean Venezuela
What do Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want America to look like? They say they want America to emulate Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden. But do their proposed policies reflect that? Or do they point down a darker path? Debbie D’Souza, a native Venezuelan and political commentator, investigates.
FOLLOW us!
Facebook: 👉https://www.facebook.com/prageru
Twitter: 👉https://twitter.com/prageru
Instagram: 👉https://instagram.com/prageru/
SUBSCRIBE so you never miss a new video! 👉 https://www.prageru.com/join/
To view the script, sources, quiz, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/they-say-scandinavia-but-they-mean-venezuela
Join PragerU’s text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru
Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful.
SHOP!
Love PragerU? Now you can wear PragerU merchandise! Visit our store today! https://shop.prageru.com/
JOIN PragerFORCE!
For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP
JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9
Script:
Venezuela—where I was born and still have family—bad.
Cuba—bad.
Zimbabwe—bad.
Soviet Union—bad.
China under Mao—bad.
Sweden, Denmark, Norway—good.
This is the socialist report card as it currently stands.
Never mind that Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China were once good. Once they go bad, they stay bad and are quickly forgotten, lost down the memory hole.
But those Nordic paradises? They never let you down.
Whenever Bernie, the “Squad”, and the growing horde of Democratic Socialists ever get cornered, there’s always “like Denmark” to come to the rescue.
“No, no, we don’t want anything like what’s going on in Venezuela. Denmark is what we have in mind.”
Except they don’t.
And it’s time we all figured this out.
Before it’s too late.
Here’s what you need know about Scandinavian countries:
They are capitalist in wealth creation and socialist in wealth distribution.
They have low corporate taxes, around 20 percent, no higher than in America.
Unlike America, neither Norway nor Sweden nor Denmark has a government-set minimum wage.
Most make it very easy to start a new business.
Most have private healthcare and education options.
Yes, the Nordic countries have an expansive welfare state, but everyone pays into the system—rich, middle class and poor.
Nobody escapes the tax man: because nobody escapes the 25% value added tax. This sales tax, a tax on what you buy is regressive, meaning it falls much more heavily percentage-of-income-wise on the poor and middle class than it does on the rich.
This concept is a complete non-starter for American socialists who want only “the rich” to pay more, even though America’s tax system is already steeply progressive: “The rich,” the top 10 percent, pay about 70% of all income taxes. But for the socialist it never seems to be enough.
So, if the American Left has rejected the Scandinavian model, which model is it embracing?
Well, where do the leading figures on the American Left, from Sean Penn to Michael Moore and Bill Ayers go when they want to praise socialism? Here’s a hint: When was the last time you saw Bernie in Copenhagen?
First it was the Soviet Union. Then it was Cuba. Then it was Venezuela.
Venezuelan socialism, like current American socialism, is based on sowing social division. The Left in Venezuela divided the country not merely between the rich and the poor, but white and black or brown—between Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people. Hugo Chavez made much of his black and Indian roots. Venezuelan socialists were bringing down statues of Columbus long before American leftists did.
Once you establish the villain class, taking away their wealth is not hard to do. Whatever Chavez and now his successor Nicolas Maduro wanted, they took—or, if you care about moral clarity, they stole—always, like the French and Russian Revolutions, in the name of “equality.”
For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/they-say-scandinavia-but-they-mean-venezuela
source
Soclisim is bot that bad. We have politisak parties that have stayed in power and that has a big following.
did this pass corporate? it shouldnt have!! 😋😋
Lame.
Nice job miss
These people are trying to Dupe you.
My tax rate is roughly the same as the super wealthy,and/or corporate class. Imagine how much money they would have to hoard To make up 70% of all taxes….hhhhhmmmmm…..
This lady is dishonest, When talking about percentage-wise the wealthy pay lot less taxes than the average everyday person… The reason they make up up 70% of all the taxes It's because the super wealthy are hoarding money… Corporate tax rate is only 21%.. After World War 2 when our country was really strong the corporate tax rate was almost 90%…
This lady is Dishonest.
Just understand that Venezuela Cuba Have had crippling economic sanctions on them from the largest country in the world(u.s.).. Which makes it almost impossible to trade with other countries…..
My first Prageru video
What is so bad about Scandinavian countries?
Hey I live in sweden and the taxes are around 40%.
so ofcourse if you pull data out of your conservative ass then it fits your narrative
Pls what is this ridiculous nonsense, pls don't listen to this America !! This rigth wing bigot chanel just don't want u guys too have healthcare for all like in Scandinavia.
I am from Denmark and I dont like this fear mongering
Socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.
Margaret Thatcher.
Ye this video is just misinformation about our model
In what way were the Soviet Union and China “good” before socialism? Russia was an authoritarian shithole under the Romanoffs, then it was an authoritarian shithole under the USSR, and now it’s an authoritarian shithole under Putin.
We all know PragerU is as good as lying. Venezuela is not socialist.
It quite literally (according to World Bank data) have more private ownership than the Scandinavian countries and also the roughly 70% of the GDP of Venezuela is from the private sector. So at least be consistent.
As a finn I can quarntee this video is complete bollocks. Yes in the nordic countires there are some private healthcare companies, but about ninety percent of people got to the public sector because it's completely free. There are also basically no private schools in Finland because schooling is free until the age of 18. All of the nordic countries also have a really progresive taxation system. So let's say you earn around 1200 euros a month. After taxation you would be left with 1125 euros. But if you earn about 7000 euros a month you wold be left with 4451 euros. The part about the added value tax is also a bit wrong. Yes it's around 25% but it an differ depending on the item. So food might have only 14% taxation and medicine might only have a 10% tax. Also most of medicine is free because the state pays for it. I don't undertand why PragerU incists on the nordic countries being a capitalist country. There has even been talks about makign a millionaire tax in Finland. That would mean that millionaire would pay even more tax. If that's not socialist I don't know what is.
Left is always about power …never equality.
a Finn here I come from a low income family so we barely pay 15% income tax meanwhile megarich pay upto 40% income tax. Also sure Private schools and healthcare exist but they are very rare and they are not allowed to make proffit.
Cuba mightve succeeded if USA didnt put it under an embargo for half a century.
Venezuela went poor because of corruption and USA plummeting the oil industry not socialism.
USSR was a state capitalist.
Thanks a lot, Prager U. This video is important.
so many strawman arguments and misinformation here.
It’s easy to understand socialism is democracy, capitalism is a dictatorship lol
Of course both can be mixed around but a capitalist enterprise has a boss, he tells everyone what to do, how much they wIll make etc..
A socialist enterprise is owned by the workers meaning all members decide like a team on who does what best, they together can hold votes on what should be changed how much one should be paid if all should be paid the same etc. it is a democracy.
Where socialist experiments go wrong is when they allow the state to do the hard part for them (create the transition of power from the capitalist to the people) when this form of transition is used, you’re almost always left with a USSR type of economy “state capitalism”
You end up with a state that becomes the new ruler class. The transition never goes through all the way and usually freezes there.
How we make the transition from being ruled to ruling together is the hardest part.
This is why you have Lenin socialist ( those who believe in state transition)
Democratic socialist (those who believe in the power of vote overtime will allow them to slowly democratize society)
Anarchist ( those that think the people should just seize the power, and skip the state part)
And many other forms of socialist. All have the same goal of democracy they just have different theory’s of how we can get there.
Communism is a long term goal that may or may never be possible. That will be when all people have democratic power over everything and there is no more state, no more money, no more rulers etc and all share and work for the betterment of humanity.
Socialism is the true goal, communism is most defiantly a utopian idea that imo is very advanced for our time and minds at the moment.
[Notes]
There is a simple reason for why Venezuela isn't a country that would be used as a positive example. Crime and violent crime is high in Venezuela, the economy is one of the worst in Latin America. Venezuela is not a good country.
This is extremely dumb
Notice they don't talk about Norway anymore? Also, Norway doesn't have side open borders.
as someone from norway i want to say that this video is extremely misinforming
The consumer tax isn't really regressive. It's basically a flat rate for most people. Mathematically it makes no sense to call it regressive because most poor people easily find cheaper alternatives and ways of life
😂
Well it's the money distribution politics people are talking about when they call them socialist. Try and stay awake during the class.
Private healthcare and education options are just that, they're options, most people don't need it because our "socialist" wealth distribution includes public healthcare and education. Contrary to wasting it all on police and military.
And as mentioned in some other comments, we don't have a government set minimum wage, unions negotiate the wages with the employers.
Comparing Scandinavian countries, that's never had to deal with companies undermining a strong workforce, unions and the democracy, to countries like Venezuela and Chile is hilariously mislead.
Stop your nonsense, you're not even a real university.
And every Scandinavian country still has a king. Not including Finland.
"it will work this time" brainlet meme describes socialists perfectly
The only way to end gun violence is to arm schools and the community keeping everyone safe.
Gun Violence stays in left wing communities because gun violence is scared of right wing communities because they know we don’t tolerate violence and we are armed to the teeth to keep it that way.
By the way Nordic countries are Finland🇫🇮
Sweden 🇸🇪 Norway 🇸🇯 Denmark 🇩🇰 and Iceland.🇮🇸
All of them are capitalist countries with high standard of living.
If they have afreeeducatiin ( not compeletly) or free healthcare ( not quite) does NOT mean they are socialist countries. A lot of other countries have The same system Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain etc.
Are you just going to leave out the fact that the reason Scandinavian countries don’t have a minimum wage is because strong unions negotiate a minimum wage?
Comparing Cuba, Zimbabwe and China to the ScandiDemocracy countries is ludicrous.
God i hate when americans talk about the nordic countries. Nether democrats nor republicans know anything it seems like.
So denmark ain't as socialist as the squad wants? Ok how does this relate to oppressive Venezuela? I disagree with lots of socialist ideas but connect the dots lady
such a distortion…. there is a reason that Bernie and others use the term social democracy, sometimes referred to as democratic socialism, although that's a bit misleading. This name is mostly due to a lack of a good description for a system that is largely a capitalistic society with a strong sense of social responsibility to the health and welfare of its population. It Kinda sucks that somehow both the words socialism and communism have both been used to describe the political system in which the government controls the means of production, and that has become the actual deffinition for these systems. It's even more frustrating that this has created a dichotomy where if the government doesn't control the means of production, it's a capitalist society. Black and white… but what about a society that doesn't control the means of production, but goes to great lengths to ensure the health and wellbeing of all it's citizens, you know one that focuses on social welfare… I hate this co-opting of a word and using it as a political tool…
no where to live 🙂
What you’re failing to mention is that the poor and middle class in Denmark don’t have to pay steep prices for healthcare education and housing. This means they have a lot more buying power, and can therefore afford the 25 percent added value tax. You are not going to flip the narrative. Socialist distribution works. Also, the rich pay about 24% of all taxes in the USA. It should be at least 70%.
This is the most stupid video in the world. Bernie is just a social democrat but he calls himself socialism because conservatives call social reforms in America socialists. They say the Nordic countries work because they are capitalist but whenever someone mentions advocating Scandinavian-like social reforms they say they are socialist and totalitarian. Here in Spain social democratic voters don't say they are socialist because we didn't have a major far right party until 2013. Now our far right party calls the social democrat ruling party "communist". Who are the stupids now?
So if the left is not bringing america to copenhagen who does?
So y'all don't want to adapt the Scandinavian model because leftists call it socialism and just for that?
1:20 but we have free health care
This is the dumbest video I've seen in a while.
Bernie Sanders said he is not a Communist and do not dislike Capitalism either. Socialism is when taxes are used to help those who need it but not those are can stand on their own. Are their Communist in Canada? No.
It is assumed by a lot of people that Socialism is when people owns the means of production. Which is stupid because that is Communism. Socialism existed before both Capitalism and Communism but not in a pure form. It was prominent in Inca, Ancient Greece, and Domain of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam.
Aren't the descriptions of the nordic countries here just descriptions of social democracies :S
Interesting – I always thought Venezuela was the right's 'go to' option.
I dont get it as someone from denmark alot of this is not true and comparing denmark to the soviet union makes me laugh