Nordic Countries Are Good Places to Be Poor

Nick Schulz at AEI offers am argument I find deeply confusing:

Before we go too far down the road emulating Europe, it’s worth noting that when it comes to caring for the poor and least advantaged, the United States currently has little it should apologize for. That’s one possible takeaway from a new paper by economic historian Price Fishback, who finds that “Americans spend more per capita on social welfare than do any of the Nordic countries.” You read that right. Dive in to Fishback’s entire paper to understand how it’s possible. Fishback accounts for “the differences in the structures of social expenditures,” “the dramatic differences in tax structures,” and “differences in purchasing power” between the U.S. and Sweden et al.

Doesn’t this mean that conservatives like Schulz should favor shifting to a Nordic social model? Or is it now the case that American conservatives have spent decades agitating for greater levels of expenditure on the poor?

At any rate, I think Fishback’s research is interesting and thought-provoking but ultimately scan be somewhat misleading. For basic purposes, it’s more enlightening to just look at how much money people have using the OECD’s income and inequality data. Poor Americans have drastically lower incomes than poor people in Nordic countries despite the United States being richer on average. Conversely, rich Americans are the richest rich people in the world. Fishback’s counterintuitive result is worth thinking about, but the conventional wisdom that the Nordic countries are a good place to be poor is very firmly established.