Battleangel

Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007

Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, released by the World Economic Forum on 26 September 2006. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most pronounced drop, falling from first to sixth.

So ironically, high-tax countries like Sweden, remain highly competitive. The obvious reason for this being that the tax level isn’t everything. Just as a large or small government isn’t really the issue. The false dichotomy hides the fact that one can have a government that works, whether it is large or small, and that taxes, if used efficiently, selectively and progressively do not impede a nation’s competitiveness. Or erode confidence in the state for that matter. It should be noted though that high-tax nations are often misrepresented by broad, gung ho statistics which cover total tax revenue and that the Sweden for instance combines a fairly low corporate tax with a fairly high income tax. Taken at face value, the facts would otherwise seem irreconcilable.

According to the OECD, Sweden is also leader in wealth distribution, so called social transfers.

So in summary, the Scandinavian mixed economies remain strong and do pretty much what they set out to do, namely maximize competitiveness while redistributing wealth.