Why Sweden is proud to have the world's highest taxes

Sweden is famous for having some of the highest taxes in the world, and yet the country's tax agency is still one of its most trusted institutions.

The Swedish attitude towards tax contrasts sharply with many countries. We investigate what this says about Swedish society and how the popularity of the welfare state might survive growing challenges in the future.

Video by Maddy Savage and Benoît Derrier

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I'm presenting this to argue in favor of progressive policies in the US, including progressive taxes that get more out of the wealthy and start reversing this awful wealth divide that has been the tendency for decades now. That means no more electing lying Republicans, and not even centrist or moderate Democrats, but real progressives like AOC and Bernie Sanders. Rather than treating government and taxes as evil things, we need to realize that government and taxes can and do deliver great things when properly managed and given the proper chance to work, and rather than crying and attacking the whole system if we're unhappy about some aspect of it, we should be constructive and reasonable about improving it.

The US is a much larger and wealthier country than Sweden, so we could have an even better standard of living if only we would vote for it and do our part to make it happen. Notions of small government being better are simply unrealistic. Countries with larger governments and correspondingly larger social programs produce better standards of living and happier citizens on the whole. This is easily demonstrated by many other western democracies, Sweden being a shining example.

 

I am in agreement with most of this. I would amend the emboldened slightly. I want to elect democrats who are as progressive as we can get expect to get away with and successfully govern, given the sensibilities of the voters in the district. Politicians are supposed to be leaders and yet still represent the sentiments and views of their constituents as they already exist. It's a delicate balance between their representing their voters, and their own aspirations. I am always hoping that we can move the consensus towards a tax and service portfolio that redistributes wealth against the prevailing vast concentration of wealth and power at the top of the pyramid at the expense of the middle and bottom of the pyramid.

 

With respect, Swedes are also respectful of each other and much more communal in nature. I think there's a lot to learn from the Nordic countries and while parts of the model could be implemented the overall structure probably wouldn't gel with the diverse American psyche.

 

Yeah, we need to take more from the wealthy -- ie., punish hard work and initiative.

 

Unchecked Immigration is draining Sweden's welfare state dry.

They've wised up a bit, but it's probably too late.

Swedish government proposes tightening immigration laws
https://www.euronews.com › News › World
Apr 9, 2021 — Sweden's government has proposed making the country's tougher immigration laws permanent to limit the intake of refugees.

High-tax welfare states work well for homogenous countries with tight immigration control. When progressives throw open the borders(and they always do), the house of cards will collapse.

 

Sweden doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter technologically, militarily, globally, culturally, economically, innovatively, in any way shape manner or form.

If Russia does or does not decide to invade Ukraine, it won’t be because of anything Sweden does or does not do, says or does not say. If China decides to take Taiwan, it won’t be because they’re scared of Sweden. If North Korea decides to attack South Korea, they aren’t going to make a peace deal with Sweden first.

If there’s a scientific or technological breakthrough, no one’s first guess is going to be “the Swedes figured it out”. If there’s a humanitarian crisis, no one’s going to say “only the Swedes are able to save us”. If there’s a war, no one will look to Sweden to defend them.

They haven’t been relevant since the dark ages.

Why do you want us to not matter? Why do you want the world to be a more dangerous place by making sure the US also does not matter? How many outstanding medical bills must you have to prefer the entire country suck so long as you can get out of debt and promised free hospital pudding in the future?

you love Sweden so much: go to Sweden. Is learning the language really that intimidating?

listening to your argument is like hearing someone debate why being 1st place sucks and we need to be 20th because its so non-competitive there that everyone is just so much nicer because of it.

We are the land of the free, not the land of the coddled. individual economic freedom and rights are the surest and most moral form of a country’s success and advancement. And advancement and innovation is exactly where we want to go as a society if we are to continue to develop better ways of cleaning up the planet, ensure higher standards of living, reducing the costs of those standards, and protecting ourselves from foreign aggressors or would be aggressors.

weakness and apathy won’t get us there whether you think that makes us better people or not

 

Cars
Computers
Smartphones
Windows OS
Electricity
Light Bulbs
Telephones
Microwave Ovens
Airplanes
MRIs
Printers
3D Printers

What do these things, (and many, many more), have in common??

All of these were invented by Americans largely for the purpose of making themselves rich. Your life, mine, everyone else's on this forum, indeed virtually every person on the planet today would have vastly different lives were it not for the rugged indivualist entrepreneurial spirit provided by the prospect of making vast sums of money and the personal rewards that go along with capitalism.

While it comes as no surprise to me whatsoever that you idolize people like AOC and commie Bernie, get your damn thieving fingers out of my pockets, and leave people alone to, in many cases, single handedly improve the human condition for humanity in general. No matter how many times, or under what sort of circumstances you continue to justify socialism, communism, or any other economic model aside from capitalism, they all have one thing in common... Theft of private property. Whether it's an outright takeover of the "means of production", outlawing private property ownership, or ignoring intellectual property rights, you cannot get from here to there without stealing those things from their current (or future) owners.

I would suggest that you move to Sweden if you like their economic model so much, but they actually enforce their borders and have tightened access recently, so I don't think you'd have much luck doing so legally. But, hell, you have no problem with people migrating here illegally, so maybe you should give that a go and see how it works out.

 

The wealthy already pay a massive percentage of the bill for our government; both federal and state.

 

Ah but you've always had the power to raise taxes, as high as you want, in your own blue states. You could probably fund a statewide health plan, and every bit of social engineering programs you can dream of, just by raising state taxes.

 

Somehow, the US considers the Swedish model as 'free stuff'. Of course it isn't 'free' - it is paid for by taxes.

 

Ah nope, a lot were invented just do it and for the military.

 

Nope, EVERYONE PAYS.

 

Are you seriously trying to say an American invented electricity??? Ampere, Volta and many others would disagree…

 

Also computers… Brits and Germans had those before you.

 

Joseph Swan an Englishman invented the lightbulb,Edison improved it. Karl Benz a German the automobile.

 

Admit the top 50% of earners pay 97% of the income taxes collected. That means the bottom 50% of earners pay 3% of the income taxes collected. And there are some making small earnings who pay no income taxes. None at all. Now tell me the rich should pay their fair share. Sheesh!!!

 

Yep, that's their fair share,

 

How is raising taxes not "everyone pays" in that state?

 

Sorry, whole country.

 

Fair enough, "invented" may be stretching it, since it's a natural force that we've been at least aware of since Ben Franklin and his kite. But "harnessed" or "converted" or "commercialized" might be more accurate, the fact remains that the power coming out of the wall that powers your computer to enable you to respond to me is a direct result of Edison's work, and he was an American doing what he was doing in large part for the profit incentive.

And then there's the fact that Sweden itself is a miniscule unimportant patch of self-governed land that, were it not for the USA would today either be under the rule of the nazis from Germany, or the commies from the Soviet Union, and who to this day doesn't even provide its own military protection.

That the people there are so dumb that they don't even realize that most of them are being supported via theft from others doesn't change the fact that that is precisely what is happening, and it SURE doesn't obligate me to pay your bills. We are the greatest country that has ever existed on the planet, and while we do have our own problems that need to be fixed, the idea that we should emulate some podunk country that is of all but zero importance to the rest of the world is preposterous.

 

Innovation often comes from people having a lot of time and money to do things they are really interested in and that nobody really cares about (yet), not from the desire to make a lot of money. Those who just want to make a lot of money go into finance and handle other people's money. And the ones who recently innovated in finance were physicists and people like John Bogle, who wanted to allow regular day people to invest without financiers.

People who just want to make a lot of money are like Trump, with the known consequences.

 

Let me know when we've lasted as long as the roman empire.

 

No thanks. You do you in your own state.

 

AND SINCE THE REAGAN ADMINISTRTION WE HAVE DONE IT ON OUR CREDIT CHARGE CARD

 

Sorry but your a citizen of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, not whatever state you live in.