[ExI] Belief in Market Efficiency

[Damien Broderick]

At 08:53 PM 2/3/2009 +0100, Mirco wrote:

>Look at Sweden, it went from an income of 130% in respect of the 
>mean (100%) income of the more developed countries in 1950 to the 
>current 80%. They lost 1/3 of their wealth in the process of 
>enacting their welfare state and it is dubious they will be able to 
>keep their current status.

I don't know about the quality of life in most of these places, but I 
do wonder if this fall in comparative wealth ranking (measured by 
what metric? are externalities included?) matters to most citizens if 
the welfare system actually works. For example, would it really be 
such a wonderful thing if Madoff had moved to Sweden or Nigeria, 
pocketed three trillion dollars from global scams, and thereby lifted 
the nation's mean income by many % points even as everyone else was 
ruined? Just a thought experiment.

Damien Broderick