Viking Economics

Fall 2017

Designing a Sustainable Future: A New Economy as if People Mattered

Session Ten: Viking Economics
Music: "Love of the Common People," Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcrmta_LAlg

Essential questions:

• How did the Scandinavian countries come to have the highest standards of living in the developed world?

• Can their experience be replicated elsewhere?

Rick's Rap:

Gathering: "A question that I have about Viking Economics is..."

Videos:

• George Lakey interview, “Economics: How Scandinavia got it right,” David Parkman Show,   November 5, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXKmDbC1SF8&t=8s

• Michael Moore, "Why Finland has the best education"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OvVPg3y_ug

• Michael Moore, "Iceland," from "Where to Invade Next"

Closing:  Reflective Sentence Starter

                       

Readings:

• George Lakey,  “How the Swedes and Norwegians broke the power of the 1%,” Waging Nonviolence, January 25, 2012 https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-the-power-of-the-1-percent/

• Ann Jones, “After I Lived in Norway, America Felt Backward, Here’s  Why,” The Nation, January 28, 2016 https://www.thenation.com/article/after-i-lived-in-norway-america-felt-backward-heres-why/

Resources:

• Clare Foran, “Making America more Like Scandinavia, “ Atlantic, July 12, 2016 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/nordic-countries-united-states/490847/

• Valerie Schoredt, “What the U.S. Can Learn From Viking Economics,” Yes! Magazine, January 23, 2017 http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/what-the-us-could-learn-from-viking-economics-20170123
• George Lakey, "Why are the Danes so Happy? Because their economy makes sense, Waging NonViolence, July 19, 2017 https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/denmark-nordic-model-economy-happiness/

If democracy is someday to regain control of capitalism, it must start by recognizing that the concrete institutions in which democracy and capitalism are embedded need to be re-invented again and again.

                        Thomas Piketty,  author, “Capital in the 21^st Century”