“United States as the pariah — a place where things have gotten so bad that people from every other country look and shake their heads in collective dismay…”

Huh? Things are great for many people — just not all.

“George Lakey compared the United States to the Nordic countries…”

This is comparing apples and oranges. Nordic nations have (until recently) been very homogeneous, and they are tiny compared to the US — like New Jersey. Scale matters. A “universal service state” would be a disaster in the US. Our Federal government can’t do anything well.

“…a worker’s threat to quit is more credible than it is in the United States, giving workers more leverage over employers.” Perhaps this is not because of welfare policies, but because of differences in the supply of workers? I don’t know for sure, but I seem to recall that it is very difficult for someone from outside of Europe to move to Europe and work there. Whereas, in the US, we have had a flood of people coming in, in the H1B visa programs at the high end and illegally at the low end.

“[basic services] would be granted to all…” — you mean the Federal government would provide those services? So we can look forward to the kind of service that the IRS and Social Security Administration provide for electricity, health care, food, and everything else? I can see it now: the “Ministry of Shopping” — “please fill out this form; oh, sorry, you must buy this brand of peanut butter — the healthy one you like is not on the approved list”. And “please wait in line for two hours if you have a complaint”.

But that all sounds familiar — I know, it was the Soviet Union that tried it.

Paris, you have pointed out to some real problems — income disparity for one — but you did not propose solutions for those problems. Instead, you roll out the 20th century socialist plan. How about some new ideas — ones that would actually work in the US — a large, culturally diverse, geographically diverse country that is nothing like Denmark?