Play Video
All four Nordic nations have vibrant, dynamic free market economies and stock and bond markets. They generally refrain from the protectionist policies common in more statist realms. Free trade and commercial freedom are viewed as crucial to economic vitality there, just as in other successful free-market democracies. Ill-informed Canadian politicians conflate government economic intervention with social programs, which is not the same thing..
Nordic support comes with a high price: personal income tax rates are steeply progressive in Scandinavia, topping out at 50% in some. Value-added taxes , which taxes consumption at a high level and are comparable to GST here, are in the 18% range, with few exemptions. However, corporate income tax rates are competitive with other developed nations – in the high teens or around 20%.Article content