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Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland are the pretty obvious examples of democratic socialist countries that are doing just fine. Any implication that socialist platforms are unsustainable is going to have to account for them somehow.
On the other side you have Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan proving that it's possible as long as there's enough room for growth.
Hong Kong was a "laissez faire" capitalist society for years, and was most successful at it (with reduced regulation I might add). South Korea has done well, but tends to be more democratic than "socialist". The Danish communities seem to be holding their own: about like one state in our union and certainly not California or New York. The Netherlands, by personally interviewing citizens of that country, don't really like the "cradle to grave" exchange for 60% of their labor dollars. Germany has done better (like it never had extensive US aid - right!) than some, but has "bucked" the trend fiscally as of late. Having spent two years there, I am aware of many of the pros and cons. And again, without the US economy, none of these countries would be where they are - that's a fact not an op-ed opinion.
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I think you misunderstood my point. Of the ~60 nations with higher tax receipts there are something like 15 that I'd consider successful examples of social democracy. Maybe more, I'm not very familiar with the ex-USSR states.
Of the 117 with lower tax receipts there are four that I'd consider successful examples of laissez-faire.