Scandinavian countries are primarily social democracies and have some of the highest standards of living in the world.

That's my point. If you redistribute the wealth, businesspeople and entrepreneurs will leave and take their business elsewhere. Maybe they will leave minor facets of their business in the States, but I doubt it. The people who you seem to be talking about, will be affected in that they will lose jobs, and ultimately money since there will be less money to redistribute. It's lose-lose. Companies move overseas to retain profits, and people that work for them are unemployed.

Indeed, but at the same time Scandinavian countries are also a lot smaller and have less infrastructure to support. All of them combined are the size of Alaska (an exaggeration...I think).

I'd have to do more research into this, but I don't think an American lifestyle could handle that, either. We consume too much for it to be cost-effective. That's just a shot in the dark, but I think it's something worth pursuing (hell, maybe I'll turn it into a thesis statement for senior year lol and give you a definitive answer ).

I think America could easily handle it on a state by state basis. Possibly with the exception of maybe California and Texas.

Well, the federal government still needs money. You know, for the NSA.

But in seriousness I think the government would cease to function.

Not that the country is technically bankrupt as-is or anything.