California governor vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students, citing cost
apnews.com
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have made free condoms available to all public high school students.
  • Cave@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    2 years ago

    Norway is mixed market capitalist, like most developed countries. They do have a strong welfare system, though. I’d imagine it’s similar in the other countries in the list you mention too, but I’d have to see what they are.

    • SailorMoss@sh.itjust.works
      41·
      2 years ago

      The majority of wealth — excluding homes — in Norway is held in its sovereign wealth fund. This fund is invested in a diversified set of foreign and domestic industries. If we can’t call a country in which the majority of wealth is held in collectively owned means of production, socialist. What even is socialism?

      • honey_im_meat_grinding@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        4·
        2 years ago

        Wealth is definitely a strong element. It’s easy to forget that socialism is just democratic ownership of the economy, not just “workers owning the means of production” because that forgets all the people who can’t work. In addition, these elements add to Norway’s status as a mixed economy with market socialist elements:

        • 30% of the domestic stock market is owned by the Norwegian state
        • They operate 70+ state owned enterprises (SOEs), including a national bank and telecom
        • Norway has 50% union density, which is pretty high compared to the rest of the world
        • They have works councils where workers get 33%(?) of the seats on the board of larger corporations
        • 20% of Norways population lives in democratically owned housing (housing coops), originally funded by the government but now growing their membership faster than the population is growing
        • Norway uses Georgist-style taxes on land (natural resources - oil, aquafarms, hydropower, wind energy) because no one worked for the creation of those natural resources hence a good cut of the profits should belong to the people

        When you compare these to China, you’ll notice that a so-called communist country gets beaten on many of these in relative terms, which is a strong case for Norway being quite socialist (obviously they also have capitalism hence the “mixed economy” part, before someone goes “well actually”)