Sweden has private ownership and you cannot get more socialist than them without the police state of Cuba.
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are not socialist nations because their governments own one or two major industries of the thousands of large businesses that operate within their borders. They are socialist nations because they have setup forms of democratic government that enable the whole society to determine their economic policies. They have little need for labor unions because they have labor parties that are guaranteed a place in government, and a vote on the actions of government policy. They don't need corporate lobbyists to promote business interests because they have pro-business parties that are likewise guaranteed the ability to represent business issues in government policy-making. And because their democratic processes are so much less corrupt than ours, their people are being more truly and satisfactorily represented than we are.
The result is that their society as a whole; laborers, businessmen, professionals, and dependents (children and the elderly and infirm) are being properly and equally represented, and therefor properly and equally looked out for. Because their "democratic socialist" governments are controlled by their people, and therefor their governmental policies reflect the needs and desires of the people.
They pay high taxes because they want everyone in their country to be guaranteed their survival, free from the fear of economic predation, destitution, and avoidable illness. They want everyone in their country to have access to higher education so that they will have a very high quality work force, and so that anyone among them with the aptitude for intellectual excellence in any fields of endeavor will get an opportunity to discover their talents, and excel. How many geniuses in this country go completely undiscovered, and to waste, simply because they are never given an opportunity to discover their own gifts, and to excel at them?
No one is forcing socialism on the people living in those democratic socialist countries, because "socialism" means that the society, itself, is in control of the policies by which they are being governed. And when those people are asked if they are happy with their government's policies, and their "socialist" system, they are overwhelmingly approving.
Ask Americans if they are happy with their representation, and governmental policies, and see what you get!
Those democratic socialist scandinavian countries are nothing like Cuba, Or Russia, or China. Because Cuba, Russia and China were not democratic. And were not controlled by their own people. They were never actually "socialist" at all.
