{"id":38985,"date":"2024-10-21T16:22:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T23:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38985"},"modified":"2024-10-21T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T23:22:13","slug":"is-the-nordic-model-any-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/is-the-nordic-model-any-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Nordic model any better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not an economist and this week\u2019s readings were some of the hardest for me so far.\u00a0 However, as Simone Weil said \u201cstudents who love God should never say: \u2018For my part I like mathematics\u2019; \u2018I like French\u2019; \u2018I like Greek.\u2019 They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.[1<\/a>] May\u00a0God help me as I seek to understand Polanyi and may what I write make sense.<\/p>\n

Karl Polanyi, a Hungarian citizen wrote The Great Transformation<\/em> while at Bennington College in Vermont, just as World War II was starting.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 In his book Polanyi was critical of capitalism in the form of the self-regulating market (SRM) and how it disembedded\u00a0 itself from social relationships.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Jason Clark writes \u201cCentral to Polanyi\u2019s thesis is the assertion that society and social relationships are vital to humans, and that the SRM is problematic to that, owing to how the SRM is disembedded from social constraints.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 We see in Bebbington how success in the marketplace appeared to be an assurance from God of our salvation[5]<\/a>\u00a0 With SRM, Clark suggests that \u201cThe locus of salvation moved from the nature of Christianity to one in which the SRM becomes the site of a \u2019secular salvation.\u2019\u201d[6]<\/a> Our economy and our success in it becomes our Savior. This is an area of concern for the Church<\/p>\n

However, is what Polanyi was suggesting a better model?\u00a0 In the Introduction to the 2001 edition of Polanyi\u2019s book Fred Block writes \u201cTo be sure the considerable achievements of European social democratic governments, particularly in Scandinavia, from the 1940s through the 1980s provides concrete evidence that Polanyi\u2019s vision was both powerful and realistic.\u201d[7]<\/a> I am unfamiliar with their economic system, so I did an internet search and found an article that was most recently updated in August 2024.\u00a0 Will Kenton writes \u201cThe Nordic model embraces both the\u00a0welfare state\u00a0and globalization\u2014two approaches to government that can be seen at times as opposites. The core aspects of the Nordic model include:<\/p>\n