The Nordic countries went from being the fastest growing economies in the world pre-1960s, to laggard economies with stagnate growth rates, post 1960 after they adopted social democracy.

Gdp isn't everything. Folks there seem to live an insanely high quality of life even adjusted for lower income

Quality of life is extremely strongly correlated with per capita GDP. They already led the world in standard of living in 1967, at the end of their free-market/high-growth era.

Bud, that was over 50 years ago and they still have the reputation as one of the best places on the planet to live and raise a family. They're clearly doing something right, and if you zoom out and look at the big picture, we're clearly doing something wrong.