Anders Borg Reinvents Sweden

Are we in the United States behind the curve? When we find that such a nation as Sweden has an economic minister like Anders Borg, we must wonder about the conservative credentials of our own Republican Party, let alone that of the generally conservative nature of our nation.

Borg and his allies have cut back government and cut taxes. He has cut into the welfare state mentality of what has been, perhaps, the most socialist free state in Europe. As a result, Sweden has been relatively safe from the economic calamity facing much of Europe. Sweden does not face the potential collapse of several other countries in Europe, notably Spain, Ireland, and Greece. Nor does it face the deficits forecast in countries such as our own.

This from a man who called then called President-elect Barack Obama's economic agenda, in an interview on November 29, 2008, days after his triumph in our elections that year, 'untenable'. This from a man speaking from the most completely socialist regime in Europe.

He is an economist. That is not something to be said with disdain, unless you look with disdain as well upon Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, or Walter Williams. This is something to be looked upon with marvel, as though from someone who really understands the real world and the actual, human stories which face all of us every day.

Cutting taxes helps the lower employed and the underemployed, says Mr. Borg. It increases investment and the value of risk. Under Borg, Swedish taxes have dipped to where Sweden has a tax to GDP ratio under 45% for the first time in decades. That's still to high. But considering where he works, it is impressive.

It shows that we too can pull ourselves back from the breach. It shows that it is, or may be, anyway, never too late to recover our senses and regain our footing among the peoples of the Earth with sane spending policies.

Will the Swedes make it that far? Will we make it that far? Will we and they reach the point where understand what too much government means, and that too much of it hurts rather than helps? Hopefully. There is, after all, only the future. Swedish voters seem to believe in that. Do we?