Fraser Institute 社會主義的現實：丹麥

社會主義的現實：丹麥 | 迷你紀錄片

The Reality of Socialism: Denmark | Mini-Documentary

The Fraser Institute 2024年4月24日

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah4JzBgnSQY

《華爾街日報》的瑪麗·奧格雷迪與弗雷澤研究所高級研究員史蒂文·格洛伯曼和馬修·米切爾共同探討了丹麥社會主義的現實。盡管有些人聲稱丹麥奉行競爭性市場、自由貿易和有限政府，但丹麥長期以來卻秉持這一理念。

盡管丹麥在20世紀70年代至90年代期間嚐試過社會主義政策，包括大幅擴大政府規模，但這些政策最終在90年代中期以危機告終，當時該國正深陷高失業率和飆升的通貨膨脹的泥潭。

丹麥政府削減了政府開支，平衡了預算，並償還了過去幾十年積累的巨額債務。丹麥的福利水平比許多其他西方國家更高，但它卻以向普通丹麥人征收更高的稅收來維持這一福利水平。

本視頻是加拿大弗雷澤研究所、英國經濟事務研究所、澳大利亞公共事務研究所和美國美國研究基金會聯合推出的全新多媒體項目“社會主義的現實”的一部分。

訪問 www.realitiesofsocialism.org 了解更多信息。

您好，歡迎光臨。我是《華爾街日報》駐美國專欄作家Marady。在本視頻中，我們將探索斯堪的納維亞國家丹麥。那些在世界範圍內推行社會主義的人經常錯誤地將其描述為社會主義國家。正如我們將看到的，丹麥的現狀和曆史與大眾的普遍看法截然不同，這種看法至少可以追溯到19世紀80年代，一直到大約20世紀70年代。丹麥的曆史是有限的政府、自由貿易，以及對企業家和市場的依賴。因此，丹麥人享有巨大的繁榮。到20世紀初，丹麥的人均收入水平在整個歐洲名列前茅。丹麥在20世紀取得了巨大的經濟成就，以至於到1970年，其人均收入（衡量生活水平的標準）不僅趕上了英國，而且超過了英國。丹麥的成功不僅僅局限於收入。到20世紀中葉，丹麥人的預期壽命是世界上最高的之一，他們的嬰兒死亡率也是世界上最低的之一。那麽，我們如何解釋一個相對較小的北歐國家取得令人難以置信的曆史性成功呢？這一成功的關鍵在於丹麥長期以來對有限政府的承諾，以及他們對貿易、企業家精神和投資作為經濟增長驅動力的關注。早在20世紀70年代初，丹麥就開始嚐試實行大政府體製。丹麥是工業化世界中政府規模最小的國家之一。丹麥之所以繁榮昌盛，是因為長期以來，它依靠企業家、企業、工人和投資者，而不是政府來推動經濟增長。因此，從20世紀70年代初到90年代中期，丹麥嚐試實行大政府體製，並引入了大型福利國家製度。丹麥的政府支出從1970年占經濟的42%左右飆升至1995年的近60%。到20世紀90年代中期，丹麥的政府規模遠遠超過其他大多數工業化國家，占經濟的59%。丹麥的政府規模比加拿大、英國、美國和澳大利亞的政府規模都要大，也高於富裕工業化國家的平均水平。 1995年，丹麥的失業率約為43%，與鄰近的斯堪的納維亞國家一樣。丹麥的政客、官僚和特殊利益集團監管著，甚至經常控製著越來越大的經濟份額，這意味著他們，而不是企業家、投資者、企業主
和工人，正在越來越多地做出經濟決策。那麽，丹麥經濟如何應對政府支出的增加、更嚴格的監管和更高的稅收？丹麥經濟舉步維艱。失業率在整個20世紀80年代和90年代一直居高不下，並在1993年達到近11%，通貨膨脹率飆升至兩位數。從20世紀70年代開始，通貨膨脹持續到20世紀80年代的大部分時間。簡而言之，丹麥正處於危機之中。麵對危機，丹麥政府采取了什麽措施？從20世紀90年代中期開始，丹麥政府削減了政府支出，其占經濟的比重從近60%的高位下降到50%。到2019年，
政府支出的削減幫助
丹麥的政府財政
恢複了秩序。
丹麥平衡了預算，
並開始減少政府債務在經濟中的占比。
丹麥人民支持限製赤字和
債務，以使國家財政
更加可持續。
思考和評估丹麥經濟的不同方式
是弗雷澤研究所的全球
經濟自由度衡量標準。如果我們
查看2021年的數據（這是我們目前掌握的最新數據），
它表明丹麥被認為是一個
基本自由的國家，在全球165個國家中排名第七。然而，當我們考察經濟自由的五個子要素時，一個更微妙的故事浮現出來。丹麥在其中一項——政府規模——上的得分很低。在165個國家中，丹麥在這一要素上排名第143位。但談到經濟自由的其他方麵，丹麥是世界上最自由的國家之一。但丹麥仍然是工業化國家中福利水平最高的國家之一，這難道不是嗎？丹麥仍然是工業化國家中福利水平最高的國家之一。這是否解釋了丹麥盡管進行了支出改革，但在經濟自由指數中排名較低？是的，丹麥仍然維持著一個相對較大的福利國家，這也解釋了其政府規模相對較大。丹麥仍然是所有工業化國家中社會支出比例最高的國家之一。所有這些支出都必須由稅收來資助，因為正如我們已經看到的，丹麥避免了借貸。是的，丹麥的政府支出是通過提高稅收來支付的，但與普遍的看法相反，這種負擔主要由普通民眾承擔。丹麥
丹麥的銷售稅是工業化國家中第二高的，為
25%，是政府支出增加的兩大主要來源之一。
用於資助丹麥巨額政府支出的另一種稅種是
個人所得稅。與加拿大、美國、澳大利亞和英國等國家不同，這些國家的個人
所得稅稅率是大幅累進的。
丹麥的高個人所得稅稅
主要針對中產階級。例如，丹麥的高最高個人所得稅稅率
在收入水平相當低時就開始生效，這意味著許多普通人
繳納的最高稅率略高於
57%。為了便於理解，我們來看看美元等值的情況。
不同國家的最高個人所得稅稅率的起始年份
丹麥的起始年份
約為91,500美元，而美國的起始年份則遠高於
500,000美元。丹麥人
理解通過維持競爭性商業環境來吸引企業家投資的重要性，尤其是在商業稅方麵。丹麥繼續保持著工業化國家中最低的營業稅之一，因此，丹麥為更高水平的政府支出提供資金的模式非常簡單。普通丹麥人繳納的銷售稅是工業化國家中最高的之一，許多人繳納的個人所得稅也達到了最高水平。這意味著，普通丹麥人為更高的政府支出付出了高昂的代價。將丹麥描述為社會主義國家或民主社會主義國家是錯誤的。丹麥在許多方麵都是地球上經濟最自由的國家之一。它比包括加拿大、美國、澳大利亞和英國在內的其他西方國家更以市場為導向。丹麥曾經嚐試過提高政府支出水平，但後來發現這些政策行不通。丹麥的應對措施是限製政府支出。丹麥的福利國家規模確實比許多其他西方國家更大，但它通過對普通丹麥人征收更高的稅款來支付福利。這種做法在大多數其他西方國家都被廣泛拒絕。

The Reality of Socialism: Denmark | Mini-Documentary

The Fraser Institute 2024年4月24日

The Wall St. Journal’s Mary O’Grady, along with Fraser Institute Senior Fellows Steven Globerman and Matthew Mitchell, explore the reality of socialism in Denmark. Despite what some people claim, Denmark has a long history of embracing competitive markets, free trade, and limited government. 

And while Denmark did experiment with socialist policies, including significantly larger government, from the 1970s to 1990s, that ended in crisis in the mid-1990s when the country was beset by high unemployment and soaring inflation. 

To course correct, the Danish government reduced government spending, balanced its budget, and paid down the large debts it had incurred in the previous decades. Denmark maintains a larger welfare state than many other western countries, but it pays for this welfare state with higher taxes levied on average Danes.

This video is part of a new multimedia project, The Realities of Socialism, by the Fraser Institute in Canada, the Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK, the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia and the Fund for American Studies in the U.S.

Visit www.realitiesofsocialism.org to learn more.

hello and welcome I'm marady America's columnist with the Wall Street Journal in this video we explore the Scandinavian country of Denmark it is often incorrectly characterized as socialists by those promoting socialism for the world as we'll see the reality of Denmark both currently and historically is very different than the popular perception going back to at least the 1880s all the way up to roughly the 1970s Denmark's history is of limited government free trade and Reliance on entrepreneurs and markets as
a result the Danes enjoyed great Prosperity consider that by the early 20th century Denmark enjoyed one of the highest levels of per person income in all of Europe and Denmark's economic success was so great during the 20th century that by 1970 its perers income which is a measure of living standards had not only caught that of Britain but it surpassed it and the success of Denmark was not limited to just income by the middle of the 20th century Danes enjoyed one of the highest life expectancies in the world they also had one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world so how do we explain the incredible historical success of a relatively small northern European country a key part of this success was Denmark's long-standing commitment to limited government and their focus on trade entrepreneurship and investment as drivers of economic growth on the eve of its experiment with much larger government starting in the early 1970s Denmark had one of the smallest governments in the industrialized World Denmark prospered because for the
longest time it relied on entrepreneurs businesses workers and investors rather than government as the driver of economic growth so what happened starting in the early 1970s through the mid 1990s Denmark experimented with a much larger government and introduced a
large welfare state government spending in Denmark soared from around 42% of the economy in 1970 to almost 60% by 1995 by the mid 1990s Denmark had a much largergovernment than most other industrialized countries at 59% of its economy Denmark's government was larger than those of Canada the United Kingdom the United States and Australia and it was above the average of wealthy industrialized countries which in 1995 was about 43% like its neighboring Scandinavian countries Denmark's politicians bureaucrat rats and special interests regulated and often even controlled larger and larger shares of the economy this meant that they rather than entrepreneurs investors business owners
and workers were increasingly making
economic decisions so how did the Danish
economy respond to increased government
spending heavier regulation and higher
taxes the Danish economy struggled
unemployment remains stubbornly High
throughout the 1980s and 90s and it
reached almost 11 % in 1993 and
inflation soared to double digits
starting in the 1970s and continued
through much of the 1980s simply put
Denmark was in a crisis facing the
crisis what did the Danish government do
starting in the mid 1990s the Danish
government reduced government spending
as a share of the economy falling from a
high of almost 60% to 50% by 2019 the
reductions in government spending helped
Denmark get its government finances in
order Denmark balanced its budget and
began reducing government debt as a
share of the economy and the Danish
people supported limits on deficits and
debt so that the country's finances
would be more sustainable a different
way to think about and assess Denmark's
economy is the Fraser institute's Global
measurement of economic freedom if we
look at data for 2021 this is the latest
year for which we have available data it
shows that Denmark was is considered a
mostly free country it ranked seventh
out of 165 countries worldwide but a
more nuanced story emerges when we
examine the five subcomponents of
economic freedom Denmark scores poorly
on one of them the size of government
it's ranged 143 out of 165 countries on
that component but when it comes to the
other areas of economic freedom Denmark
is among the freest countries in the
world but isn't it true that Denmark
still maintains one of the largest
welfare states among industrialized
countries and that this spending
explains the poor ranking of Denmark in
the economic freedom index despite its
spending reforms yes Denmark still
maintains a relatively large welfare
state and this explains its
comparatively larger government Denmark
still has one of the highest rates of
social spending of any industrialized
country all of this spending has to be
financed by taxes because as we've
already seen Denmark avoids borrowing
yes government spending in Denmark is
paid for through higher taxes but
contrary to popular opinion that burden
is primarily borne by the average Dane
Denmark's sales tax is the second
highest in the industrialized world at
25% and is one of two main sources used
to finance higher government spending
the other tax used to finance Denmark's
large government spending is the
personal income tax unlike countries
like Canada the United States Australia
and the United Kingdom where personal
income tax rates are steeply progressive
Denmark's High personal income tax taxes
are levied on the middle class Denmark's
high top personal income tax rate for
instance kicks in at a fairly low level
of income this means that many ordinary
D pay the top tax rate of a little over
57% for context let's look at the US
dollar equivalent of where the top
personal income tax rate starts for
different countries Denmark kicks in at
about $91,500 and in the US it's well
over $500,000 the same same time Danes
understand the importance of attracting
investment in entrepreneurs by maintaining a competitive business
environment particularly with respect to
business taxes Denmark continues to
maintain one of the lowest business
taxes in the industrialized world so the
Danish model for financing much higher
levels of government spending is
straightforward ordinary Danes pay one
of the highest sales taxes in the
industrialized World many also pay the
top person income tax rate this means
that average Dan pay dearly for higher
government spending it's a mistake to
characterize DeMark as a socialist or
even Democratic Socialist country
Denmark is one of the most economically
free countries on the planet in many
ways it's more Market oriented than
other Western countries including Canada
the US Australia and the United Kingdom
while Denmark once experimented with
higher levels of government spending it
learned that these policies don't work
it were treated by reigning in
government spending Denmark does have a
larger welfare state than many other
Western countries but it pays for the
system with higher taxes levied on
average DS it's an arrangement largely
rejected in most other Western countries.