Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: social democracy

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Devine, James wrote:

> Also, I don't think anyone claimed that social democracy abolished the
> exploitation of labor or even reduced its degree. (I understand that
> businesses under Swedish social democracy did rather well in terms of
> profits, or at least that the big ones did. Doug would probably know about
> the income distribution data.)

I don't know about the other Scandinavian countries, but in Sweden,
the labor unions and the government all conspired to keep profits
high. Firms were allowed to innovate and move upmarket, and workers
didn't worry about displacement, because they'd always find another
job. Until it started going bad in the 1980s, that is.

Swedish income distribution was, at least until recently, about the
most egalitarian on earth - more even than in the USSR and other
outposts of actually existing socialism.

Doug