Watch Land of the Free, Home of the Poor on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
If you want to learn about the difference between the United States and Sweden – please take a few minutes to watch the following videos. First off is PBS (video above), and their show ”Free or Equal”. They do a follow-up to a survey about wealth distribution where Americans seem to have little understanding of how the US really works. In order to demonstrate this, they present people in the streets with different pie charts of wealth distribution in Sweden and the US. And here are the stats: The richest 20% of Americans hold 84 percent of the nation’s wealth, whereas the financial assets of the bottom 40 percent of the population equal 0.3 percent of the entire wealth in the United States. In Sweden,on the other hand, the wealthiest 20% of the country hold 36 percent of the wealth, the top 40 % of the population hold 57 percent of the wealth. A no doubt stark difference to the US. Even more so - the bottom 40 % of Swedish households actually own 36 percent of the nation’s entire wealth! (Compared to 0.3 percent in the US!) It is obvious that Sweden has a much more equal distribution of wealth … and Americans who are asked about it just LOVE this kind of society – at least when they see the pie chart. In fact – they love it so much that they actually think that the pie chart that represents Sweden will have to be a representation of the wealth distribution in the United States. (This brings in a lot of questions about The Myth of the Rational Voter - and why democracies choose bad policies.)
What the PBS documentary does NOT say, is how a society like Sweden (which is obviously doing well today in the midst of financial turmoil) has been hampered by tough government interventions. In fact, it is only until quite recently (the past 20 years), that Sweden liberalized its economy and gained some economic traction. Still, the taxes in Sweden are very high. The municipality income tax is around 30%. The marginal tax rate is 50%, and anyone making more than $55 000 a year pays 20% in income tax on everything above that level, and another 5% taxation is placed on incomes above $78 000 (people that are referred to as the "super rich" in Sweden...). Some income taxes are hidden in the system of Swedish payroll taxes as well (at around 32%). This means that the highest possible income tax today stands at around 87% in Sweden. But Swedes who make less than $55K a year "only" pay 62% of their gross salary ... And out of your remaining net salary you still have to pay 25% in sales tax on anything you buy.
Sweden is a much more equal society than the United States, but equal does not mean better. And whatever your view is on financial redistribution and equality - bearing in mind the Swedish tax brackets, you would have to wonder how many Americans would be willing to move to Sweden if they got the whole truth behind the pie charts.
An altogether different view is the "Free to Choose" idea, that has been championed by Milton Friedman - a free market might not give us equality in distribution of income, but will let people be free to create their own future:
Free or Equal from Free To Choose Network on Vimeo.
Of course, since Sweden has not been increasing its national debt and while some Swedish industries are outsourcing their jobs to places like... the United States (!) - some Americans are waking up to what it means to have to work for their money, as opposed to just putting every expense on a credit card. The Daily Show has a great video on what IKEA is doing for American jobs:
And here are two more "insights" into what it means to have Swedish "socialism". Clearly, the old "Swedish socialism" stereotype (drummed up by Fox News) is not up-to-date with how Sweden functions today, which The Daily Show clearly demonstrates. Whether you like tall blond women or not...
And, to add some more positive views on Sweden, regardless of what you may think of Al Gore, his assessment of Sweden's ability to deal with cap and trade, recycling and other environmental programs, makes the United States look like a polluter country from the developing world.
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