The difference between Belgium and Sweden/Denmark is that the return to the population in benefits is much bigger in the Scandinavian countries.

For example, maternity leave is only 3 months in Belgium compared to a year or more in Sweden. Roads and infrastructure like public transport in Belgium are not well maintained and costly for average users. Belgium got good health care but working class people still need to provide extra insurance to have full coverage. Also housing and the energy bill is unaffordable. All the money is wasted on too many governments and their bureaucracy.

I'm pretty sure Belgium has the highest taxation, is the most wasteful, has multiple crony governments and a huge deficit.

We win.. 😅 

 That's a common argument, yes. Though having seen some of those countries operate from the inside, I'm inclined to disagree. 

Maternity leave and other "social insurances" are costs levied on businesses, which crowds out lower-paid jobs and push up (the real) prices of everything. It means it gets harder to employ anyone for anything; It's not a mythical benefit in our pure Nordic air. The systems also don't redistribute very much -- some 85%+ returns to the same individual over his or her lifetime. 

Swedish health care is somewhere between crap and delay-delay-delay, so instead of rationing on price you ration on quantity and quality. 

As for bureaucracy, I don't know... it's pretty bad in the Nordics.