No, they have consumers with money to spend because they have $20 minimum wages, free health care, free education, even free child care. The private sector benefits because of these policies that free up cash for those to spend. All because they happily pay a little more in taxes. And Nemo they are called socialist because they offer the above things for their people. Americans are horrified at that thought. Free Education .... OMG that's communism , oh the horrors. We can't have people having free health care that's un-american. I lived in the US and heard the comments about socialism every time I mentioned our health care. The benefit too is that they are some of the most highly educated countries in the world. They aren't being "Dumbed" down and that usually means those conservative "Tax Cutting" policies don't go over that easy in those countries.