Something to aim for
In an article in Saturday's New Zealand Herald (sadly paywalled), Simon Wilson took a high level look at ways in which we, as a society, could be more like Scandinavia.
Though far from detailed, the piece offered solid examples at how implementations of long-term policies and planning have made some Nordic nations world leaders in key areas. These include schooling, prisons, national road and cycleways infrastructures, mental health services and progressive civic models.
While the conditions may be different and the size of the challenge significant, these shouldn't stifle our aspiration or effort. If other countries of a similar size* can find a working balance between market economics, comprehensive welfare, private enterprise and state-run essentials, surely it's not to late for us here.
*While Sweden and Iceland are outliers (with populations of 10.2M and 350,000 respectively), Demark, Finland and Norway are all between 5M and 6M.