Ann-Britt and Bengt get tax-free child allowances for their three kids, who also are entitled to state subsidized daycare and free medical and dental. Maternity and/or paternity leave totals 480 days, with the State guaranteeing 80% of their salaries – with exceptions until they return to their jobs. If their children fall sick, they’re entitled to home leave with pay until the kids recover. Ann-Britt and Bengt are also entitled by law to a minimum five week vacation, but like many Swedes they get more than that.
Should these benighted citizens lose their jobs they’ll get 80% of their salaries up to a certain point, thanks to state unemployment insurance. Job retraining is free.
Upon their demise, burial plots are guaranteed under the provisions of the mandatory Burial Tax (begravningsskatt) they paid during their halcyon years.
Not much to complain about
Reinfeldt has solid support from the business community, even though they have little to complain about. Corporate taxation and average wages are so attractively low, relatively speaking, that big-time Chinese entrepreneurs plan to set up shop in the Swedish city of Kalmar rather than higher-cost Germany. Giant Swedish multinationals like SKF and Ericsson, meantime, remain entrenched in the home country because overall wage levels, among other things, are relatively lower than continental Europe.
Small companies have a good deal, too, despite their carefully orchestrated complaints. Setting up in Sweden is uncomplicated and unbureaucratic, with legal mechanisms in place to ensure that entrepreneurs can retain profits for long periods (so-called “expansion funds”) within their companies. Company taxation is low or non-existent, depending on the professionalism of accountants.
Having said this, Swedes are a cautious folk who generally don’t like starting from scratch. Company startups are historically low, though rising rapidly.
But back to the main question: with all these incentives favoring the Social Democrats – plus the rocketing economy – how has Reinfeldt managed to wean ungrateful Swedes to his Alliance?
One explanation is offered by Jan Eliasson, the Foreign Minister. Noting that the Social Democrats have mainly run the show since 1932 -- with few exceptions -- he suggests that there is simply “a desire for change.”
Cool guy
Perhaps. Reinfeldt, at 41, comes across as cool and highly articulate while the 57-year-old Persson, despite oratorical gifts, almost lost his grip during the campaign by letting a key issue like unemployment slip through his fingers. Meantime, the nation’s overwhelmingly right-wing media shrilly focuses on Persson’s real or alleged shortcomings. A formidable politician, he is frequently denounced as “presidential” - meant to be a criticism.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Great article! Very well-written and informative.
I generally oppose socialism on principle...but it seems to work in Sweden (though in few other places).
If there is to soon be a change of government in Sweden, it is likely due more to a "we want change for change's sake" attitude than anything the Prime Minister has (or hasn't) done...
That being said...you didn't mention it in your article, but aren't there violent, unruly, and unassimilated majority-Muslim ghettos in some Swedish cities where the residents are demanding the implementation of sharia law? Could that be a potential factor in this presumed shift to the right in Swedish politics?
2 - Roger Choate
Thanks so much for your kind words and comments, Mr. Elliott.
I don't know if the Swedish welfare state can necessarily be equated with "socialism." Definitional question, I guess. Industry in Sweden is more than 90% privately owned and always has been. There's even a king and queen and rather subdued aristocracy of barons and baronesses and more counts than anybody would reckon on.
Thee are indeed about 300,000 people of the Muslim faith living in Sweden, and more often than not they are living in the immigrant suburbs. I wouldn't call them ghettoes though, at least not in the same sense as the French banlieus. These areas are not violent or unruly by anybody's standards. I don't think that the immigrant factor is playing a major role in the Swedish elections.