I mean, in your list Iceland is the number one nation for wages which very much follows a similar Scandinavian model.

An island that formerly was a tax haven isn’t a great example

Wages on their own mean nothing.

That's not "wages", that's "average wages". I don't expect much but I at least expect a passing knowledge of statistics and intellectual honesty. If most people have nothing and one billionaire joins the group that doesn't make everyone rather wealthy even if it drastically raises the average.

Keep in mind that there was a massive rise in C-level and especially CEO compensation compared to most other wages. Arguably this can be traced back to a specific book being rather popular among wealthy investors and entrepreneurs that argued CEOs are underpaid, which many CEOs agreed with and convinced the investors to also agree with. But this does nothing for the wages of anyone outside this group because C-level compensation is orders of magnitude removed from that of anyone lower in the ladder.

Which book?

Not Grapes of Wrath

Okay then, so you'd prefer to analyse median wages, rather than mean wages?

The US has the 3rd highest median wages, and Sweden has the 14th highest median wage.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in...

The US is #21 on the Human Development Index, a holistic measure of quality of life. Sweden is #7.