The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

All of the Scandinavian countries rank much higher than the United States, and each provides not only universal education but also health care to its citizens. The standard mantra in the United States claims that the taxes required to finance these benefits stifle growth. Far from it. Over the period 2000 to 2010, high-taxing Sweden, for example, grew far faster than the United States—the country’s average growth rates have exceeded those of the United States—2.31 percent a year versus 1.85 percent.95 As a former finance minister of one of these countries told me, “We have grown so fast and done so well because we had high taxes.” Of course, what he meant was not that the taxes themselves led to higher growth but that the taxes financed public expenditures—investments in education, technology, and infrastructure—and the public expenditures were what had sustained the high growth—more than offsetting any adverse effects from the higher taxation.