Fraser Institute 社会主义的现实：丹麦

社会主义的现实：丹麦 | 迷你纪录片

The Reality of Socialism: Denmark | Mini-Documentary

The Fraser Institute 2024年4月24日

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

《华尔街日报》的玛丽·奥格雷迪与弗雷泽研究所高级研究员史蒂文·格洛伯曼和马修·米切尔共同探讨了丹麦社会主义的现实。尽管有些人声称丹麦奉行竞争性市场、自由贸易和有限政府，但丹麦长期以来却秉持这一理念。

尽管丹麦在20世纪70年代至90年代期间尝试过社会主义政策，包括大幅扩大政府规模，但这些政策最终在90年代中期以危机告终，当时该国正深陷高失业率和飙升的通货膨胀的泥潭。

丹麦政府削减了政府开支，平衡了预算，并偿还了过去几十年积累的巨额债务。丹麦的福利水平比许多其他西方国家更高，但它却以向普通丹麦人征收更高的税收来维持这一福利水平。

本视频是加拿大弗雷泽研究所、英国经济事务研究所、澳大利亚公共事务研究所和美国美国研究基金会联合推出的全新多媒体项目“社会主义的现实”的一部分。

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

您好，欢迎光临。我是《华尔街日报》驻美国专栏作家Marady。在本视频中，我们将探索斯堪的纳维亚国家丹麦。那些在世界范围内推行社会主义的人经常错误地将其描述为社会主义国家。正如我们将看到的，丹麦的现状和历史与大众的普遍看法截然不同，这种看法至少可以追溯到19世纪80年代，一直到大约20世纪70年代。丹麦的历史是有限的政府、自由贸易，以及对企业家和市场的依赖。因此，丹麦人享有巨大的繁荣。到20世纪初，丹麦的人均收入水平在整个欧洲名列前茅。丹麦在20世纪取得了巨大的经济成就，以至于到1970年，其人均收入（衡量生活水平的标准）不仅赶上了英国，而且超过了英国。丹麦的成功不仅仅局限于收入。到20世纪中叶，丹麦人的预期寿命是世界上最高的之一，他们的婴儿死亡率也是世界上最低的之一。那么，我们如何解释一个相对较小的北欧国家取得令人难以置信的历史性成功呢？这一成功的关键在于丹麦长期以来对有限政府的承诺，以及他们对贸易、企业家精神和投资作为经济增长驱动力的关注。早在20世纪70年代初，丹麦就开始尝试实行大政府体制。丹麦是工业化世界中政府规模最小的国家之一。丹麦之所以繁荣昌盛，是因为长期以来，它依靠企业家、企业、工人和投资者，而不是政府来推动经济增长。因此，从20世纪70年代初到90年代中期，丹麦尝试实行大政府体制，并引入了大型福利国家制度。丹麦的政府支出从1970年占经济的42%左右飙升至1995年的近60%。到20世纪90年代中期，丹麦的政府规模远远超过其他大多数工业化国家，占经济的59%。丹麦的政府规模比加拿大、英国、美国和澳大利亚的政府规模都要大，也高于富裕工业化国家的平均水平。 1995年，丹麦的失业率约为43%，与邻近的斯堪的纳维亚国家一样。丹麦的政客、官僚和特殊利益集团监管着，甚至经常控制着越来越大的经济份额，这意味着他们，而不是企业家、投资者、企业主
和工人，正在越来越多地做出经济决策。那么，丹麦经济如何应对政府支出的增加、更严格的监管和更高的税收？丹麦经济举步维艰。失业率在整个20世纪80年代和90年代一直居高不下，并在1993年达到近11%，通货膨胀率飙升至两位数。从20世纪70年代开始，通货膨胀持续到20世纪80年代的大部分时间。简而言之，丹麦正处于危机之中。面对危机，丹麦政府采取了什么措施？从20世纪90年代中期开始，丹麦政府削减了政府支出，其占经济的比重从近60%的高位下降到50%。到2019年，
政府支出的削减帮助
丹麦的政府财政
恢复了秩序。
丹麦平衡了预算，
并开始减少政府债务在经济中的占比。
丹麦人民支持限制赤字和
债务，以使国家财政
更加可持续。
思考和评估丹麦经济的不同方式
是弗雷泽研究所的全球
经济自由度衡量标准。如果我们
查看2021年的数据（这是我们目前掌握的最新数据），
它表明丹麦被认为是一个
基本自由的国家，在全球165个国家中排名第七。然而，当我们考察经济自由的五个子要素时，一个更微妙的故事浮现出来。丹麦在其中一项——政府规模——上的得分很低。在165个国家中，丹麦在这一要素上排名第143位。但谈到经济自由的其他方面，丹麦是世界上最自由的国家之一。但丹麦仍然是工业化国家中福利水平最高的国家之一，这难道不是吗？丹麦仍然是工业化国家中福利水平最高的国家之一。这是否解释了丹麦尽管进行了支出改革，但在经济自由指数中排名较低？是的，丹麦仍然维持着一个相对较大的福利国家，这也解释了其政府规模相对较大。丹麦仍然是所有工业化国家中社会支出比例最高的国家之一。所有这些支出都必须由税收来资助，因为正如我们已经看到的，丹麦避免了借贷。是的，丹麦的政府支出是通过提高税收来支付的，但与普遍的看法相反，这种负担主要由普通民众承担。丹麦
丹麦的销售税是工业化国家中第二高的，为
25%，是政府支出增加的两大主要来源之一。
用于资助丹麦巨额政府支出的另一种税种是
个人所得税。与加拿大、美国、澳大利亚和英国等国家不同，这些国家的个人
所得税税率是大幅累进的。
丹麦的高个人所得税税
主要针对中产阶级。例如，丹麦的高最高个人所得税税率
在收入水平相当低时就开始生效，这意味着许多普通人
缴纳的最高税率略高于
57%。为了便于理解，我们来看看美元等值的情况。
不同国家的最高个人所得税税率的起始年份
丹麦的起始年份
约为91,500美元，而美国的起始年份则远高于
500,000美元。丹麦人
理解通过维持竞争性商业环境来吸引企业家投资的重要性，尤其是在商业税方面。丹麦继续保持着工业化国家中最低的营业税之一，因此，丹麦为更高水平的政府支出提供资金的模式非常简单。普通丹麦人缴纳的销售税是工业化国家中最高的之一，许多人缴纳的个人所得税也达到了最高水平。这意味着，普通丹麦人为更高的政府支出付出了高昂的代价。将丹麦描述为社会主义国家或民主社会主义国家是错误的。丹麦在许多方面都是地球上经济最自由的国家之一。它比包括加拿大、美国、澳大利亚和英国在内的其他西方国家更以市场为导向。丹麦曾经尝试过提高政府支出水平，但后来发现这些政策行不通。丹麦的应对措施是限制政府支出。丹麦的福利国家规模确实比许多其他西方国家更大，但它通过对普通丹麦人征收更高的税款来支付福利。这种做法在大多数其他西方国家都被广泛拒绝。

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.