Sweden has some of the world's highest taxes, so why is the taxman so popular with the Swedes?
Sweden is infamous for having some of the highest taxes in the world, and yet the country's tax agency is still one of Sweden's most trusted institutions.
The Swedish attitude towards tax contrasts sharply with many countries where taxes can be a deeply divisive issue. We investigate what this says about Swedish society and how the popularity of the welfare state might survive growing challenges in the future.
Americans have been taught to hate taxes. They have been sold the idea that the original concept of "no taxation without representation" didn't include the latter two words. Decades of Republicans demonizing taxes have done it.
Pair that with the GOP systematically destroying public institutions by gutting public funding as much as possible while simultaneously eroding public trust. Our public education system? It used to be the best in the world until Regan and Bush I and II tore it to shreds. Same with our healthcare system. All in the name of privatization.
well swedes also get value for their taxes. I remember one who would talk about how it drove him nuts coming across pot holes and various broken infrastructure as it would be unacceptable for it to be like that for weeks were he was from.
Nah they've been taught to hate government. Reagan finalized this with his "the scariest words you can ever hear are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'". He defined the government and anything the government does as bad and evil. This is the whole "get government to the size you can drown it in a bathtub". This naturally goes to taxes are feeding the big evil government, so taxes are just as bad.
It's more like a lot of people don't feel like they are being represented. I wouldn't complain if my taxes were housing homeless people or funding space exploration, but instead they're funding 37 wars.
Exactly. We’re also taught not to see the value we receive from our tax paying. And to fear and hate the IRS (especially since we have to file our tsxes
You can see it in the way they display prices in shops.
Always without taxes, to make sure the customer can blame the taxes for the high prices. Even though the tax directly relates to the cost of the product.
There is absolutely no reason why a shop couldn't show the total prices with taxes included. Because those taxes don't change daily, nor does the shop move.
Agreed. And it should be considered false advertising. Just like how gas stations in the U.S. have all of their prices end in .9, so gas isn't $3.00, it's $3.009. Which you can't pay because you can't pay in cent fractions. It just makes the gas look slightly cheaper.
The actual reason is because most of our taxes go to bombing foreign countries, subsidizing big businesses, or lining the pockets of the rich. If they went to something that helped actual Americans then I'm sure the perception would change. We need health care, public transportation, and better public education.
Radiation is theft seems to be far more popular. They demonize it all in all cases. Entirely brainwashed without thinking about the services that benefit them. sigh
Because here in America, when they take my money, it's to give away to oil companies and weapons dealers. Not to give us all health care and affordable housing.
Americans actually pay more per capita towards public healthcare than most Europeans, but it just covers so much less (Medicaid and Medicare) because of insane healthcare prices.
Don't forget bailing out hospitals etc. when people invariably default on their medical debt. On expensive ER bills that only exist because people couldn't afford to visit a GP five years earlier and get some cheap off the shelf preventive medicine.
Also, and this really shouldn't be underestimated: Laws concerning everything from food regulations over transportation polity to sports promotion that don't take people's health into account because health is a private matter. With socialised healthcare, suddenly all those new fancy bike paths have a tangible ROI in yet another public budget (not just the transportation agency's one, that is).
Iinm medicaid/medicare is a government health insurance scheme that only given to selected individuals, and care is provided by private owned hospital, while Europe(and a lot of other place in the world) practice universal public healthcare, where the hospital is owned and run by government. This way, the government wouldn't get squeezed dry by the exorbitant cost of private healthcare, while at the same time wouldn't need to pick and choose who is eligible. Private hospital is there to provide value added service for people who can afford it.
Yeah, the military spending is actually pretty loosely connected to the shitty safety net. It's basically hostile to the poor just because. Historically, racial resentment drove a lot of it.
Difficult considering social security isn't a tax. Without looking it up my guess is that number rolls up the 14-15% of SS and Medicare taxes so the real number is lower.
The Swedish tax agency is pretty well respected because they have their shit together. When it's time for us to do our taxes, we get forms sent home already filled in by the tax agency, and for most people those numbers are accurate and it takes less than a minute for us to do our taxes. Send a text message and you're done. And usually what happens is you get money back.
Not to mention, their taxes go to social programs and can be seen in use, improving the lives of citizens. In the US, our roads are shit, our infrastructure in general is shit, our social programs are a fuckin joke…our tax money isn’t being used for us. That’s the biggest difference.
If you have no objections to the listed figures, you can simply approve it and be done with it. If you need to add any additional income or special deductions, you add those to the form (usually online) and resubmit.
Yes. In your tax papers there's a verification number that you text to the tax agency via regular SMS. You can also log on to their website or their app. Or call them and enter the verification number. Or sign the papers and send them back in the mail.
That sounds amazing. In Switzerland, we can do it over the Internet but we have to go over the hassle of putting in all the numbers the State knows very well already. It takes about an hour to get all the certificates (work, insurance, real estate, bank accounts) together, put it all in, and check it.
Sweden has historically been ethnically close to homogeneous (until the 20th century, life in Scandinavia was hard, and few wanted to move there) and has a relatively flat social hierarchy, meaning that redistributive taxation to fund services is popular (after all, if everyone needs a specific service, having the government provide it through taxes is an economy of scale). America, meanwhile, was founded on racial slavery, which resulted in a racial hierarchy (i.e., the definition of who counts as “white” shifting over time), and there’s a non-negligible proportion of voters who would resent being taxed extra to help lift those below them in this hierarchy closer to their level.
While your point remains somewhat valid, it's not actually valid to say "native" in the same sense as "native Americans".
There were a whole bunch of tribes in the area. Some were more influenced by Europe (swedes, Norwegians) and some less (Finns, Estonian, Sami). Surprise to no one, these tribes living in the southern regions were more successful (easier weather), so they expanded northward and thus rolled over the semi-nomadic Sami in a very nasty, but extremely historically common human way.
We’re losing that in Sweden though. Public healthcare is becoming more and more under funded. Doctors barely have time to treat patients, so they’re often sending patients home with prescribed paracetamol.
The only way to get proper healthcare nowadays is through private healthcare, if you can afford it. I know many who haven’t gotten proper healthcare until they sought private healthcare. It sucks, because it used to be great.
And people vote for that shit because politicians dangle tax cuts in front of their faces. It's really sad to see swedes fall for the lower taxes scam, when our entire thing is built on taxes.
So, what you're saying is that you'd want to go to a system akin to what the US has? Hmm.
I mean, I'll personally take affordable, universal healthcare that needs some tweaking over a system that will bankrupt me if I break my arm or, God forbid, get seriously ill.
It’s like how they’ve installed that DeJoy person to dismantle the Postal Service from inside out and then complain that the Postal Service is having issues, so we should privatize donate the business to rich people so their disgusting amounts of wealth can trickle down on our faces or something.
We should stop voting for people who promise to dismantle said services. We also really need to move towards a basic income setup instead of having all of the hoops and paperwork for people to prove they are eligible for whatever it is. In the USA people going on disability are always denied even if they are a paraplegic. We would spend so much less money and other resources if we just made it available to everyone with no proof of eligibility needed.
Also Sweden’s population is about the size of Los Angeles county. Every time I see Scandinavia held up as something to aspire to folks should remember how small and historically homogenous these countries are.
Comparing the US to the EU as a whole is a much more accurate way to look at things, with us states being akin to eu member countries.
I don’t really care if someone has it worse. We should still strive to do better. I don’t think that’s relevant.
It would be nice to get something for that money. However little or however much it is. Functional services, a social safety net for example. I’d certainly be willing to pay more to have those services. A functioning healthcare system would be nice. I think you would get fewer complaints if the benefits were most obvious.
Same in Canada, at least Quebec, 50% of my taxes go in health care system, I have no family doctor, all doctors are millionaires, nurses make 100k+, people dies in ER after 48h waiting
Education system is a joke. Teachers earn 100k+ too
Not many physicians make over a million, and the way provincial governments have set up the bureaucracy around healthcare feeds the high wages, ie: it's not the nurses caring for patients that are making $100k per year.
Because Americans let movie stars and reality show con-men drive the train and idolize their asinine tomfoolery like it's a goddamn team sport. Garbage in garbage out. Why is this even a question, what the fuck. This shit is as obvious as hot pink wallpaper.
I think the question is stupid, and I'm not sure why we need to bring the Swedes in. Why not just say Why do Americans Hate Taxes? You'll get a variety of answers, some in the vein you've described.
Me, I live in Jersey (New), and we pay a lot in taxes. I'm pro tax, but at the same time I'm also critical about how my taxes are wasted, and I say that because they certainly are. So it's a love hate relationship I guess. I say this just because I don't think it's fair to assume everyone is all hurr durr small government (when it's convenient) nonsense. I just want smarter spending. And I live in a state that's as blue as they come, I vote for them, but our mediocre transit system is on the brink of disaster (like, every election it seems), despite me sending a bunch of my money to NJ, as an example.
Pretty sure they'd be fine with it if trillions and trillions didn't disappear into military and black budgets (ie transferring money to their friends)
As a US citizen I don't feel like I get a good ROI on my taxes. It's a small percentage of upkeep for public things, some below average public education, and a shit ton of weaponry.
I never had any real issues with taxes back when groceries, rent and insurance were affordable.
The issues came to light when life started to cost 1.5 times our income, while still having to pay 40% on income and an extra 20% on expenses. I'd rather pay less taxes and eat, when taxes don't do anything. I also learned that our safety nets are a scam, they set up so many bullshit rules that when i needed it they literally went: "you have the right to receive €800 but you won't get it, no matter how hard you try". I tried for a year until i realised our money is just being stolen under the cover of "taxes".
Yep, if taxes are preventing you from having a minimum of a comfortable standard of living then what is the point? That money should be coming out of the pockets of those that can afford it.
Maybe people wouldn’t hate taxes if they were put to good use, not squandered on shit we don’t want and corruption.
We have to watch as all our taxes go to pay corrupt politicians hundreds of thousands of dollars and cover all their expenses, meanwhile this year our elementary and middle schools are getting their sports/music/art classes cut because there isn’t enough budget.
The Swedes have had a number of popular tax revolts in living memory. The big one was back in 1979 (about the same time Americans and Brits were having their own tax revolt) when they threw out the socialist government and brought in a bunch of neoliberal reformers.
Until fairly recently, Sweden has been undergoing the same set of neoliberal policies common to western nations. But thanks to being a relatively small economy with an outsized O&G export market, they've skated by what industrial centers in the American Midwest and agg sectors in France and the UK have suffered.
Sweden isn't a high-tax state, its a petro-state with the appearance of high taxes.
Oil and gas products account for 4.2% of Sweden's exports. The gas exports alone almost rival those of dairy and eggs! Truly a petrostate if I ever saw one
Its almost as though efficient utilization of tax revenue offsets the hatred of paying taxes. I just threatened my 1st cousins into pitching in $100 each to buy a 2nd cousin of ours a cello after I asker if she planned on continuing to play thru college and she said no she can't afford school, dorms and instrument rental. I looked for programs that actually helped students like her but found nothing of actual use. You can do more help with your own money than giving it to the government or charities.