The New Yorker "Northern Lights"

Northern Lights

Do the Scandinavians really have it all figured out?

BY NATHAN HELLER

Some say that the American Dream is not what it once was: wages are low, retirement is not a parachute glide but a plunge, and those chosen to fix such problems labor at undoing one another’s laws. For these doubters, there are the Swedes. On any given day, a Swedish man—call him Viggo—might be reclining on a sofa underneath a Danish lamp shaped like an artichoke. He is an artist, and he has a pension. He is wearing boldly colored pants. His young wife, Ebba, is a neurosurgeon, though she has never paid a krona in tuition, and her schedule runs between the operating table and the laboratory. Things are busy. She and Viggo have small kids...For more read :http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/16/northern-lights-4?mbid=social_facebook
It’s hard to envision the Nordic model ever finding a home on these shores.  CREDIT ILLUSTRATION BY SCRIPT & SEAL