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.
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
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.
A lot of voters were. But the grifters running the party just got richer and richer and richer, enabling them to keep regurgitating the same “You’re unhappy because the Big Woke Government Is Too Communist” line ad nauseum.
Certain Republicans did get crushed. The Bush and Cheney families used to be at the center of GOP politics and now they’ve been forced out to the periphery. But others have profited immensely from their fall and risen to take their place. The Christian Dominionist Wing is rapidly consolidating control of the party under the Trump banner, with guys like Mike Johnson and Ted Cruz and Kristi Noem rising into the top ranks of the party while the Bloombergs have had to back away or jump ship to Team D.
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.
But Massachusetts has snowy winters and icy conditions which means they need to salt the roads. This is not something that they have to contend with in check notes Sweden?
This year in particular has been frustrating when it comes to snow. I live pretty far south, about two hours south of Stockholm, and we’ve had snow for like half of April. It all melted at the end of March, there were spring flowers, and then we had a shit tonne of snow again, which melted, followed by more snow. So many false starts. 😩
It’s been snow free for a week now, I hope it holds.
I’ve heard that MA is a pretty solid place overall. To be fair I loved my stay, but I think the main reason for that was meeting up with a very close friend of mine. I recall this crossing in particular leaving me rather exasperated.
It seems like they’ve since paved over it, however. It is a bit baffling to me that it looks the same in 2012 as it did to me in 2019.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
It’s pretty much the same in France. People will grumble a lot, obviously (because France, and taxes), but it’s a very simple process for the majority.
Unless you’re one of the happy few that has a lot of varied investments. In which case you’ll have to fill in extra forms. Although your banks will typically send you a precise list of what goes where.
In Germany we don’t “need” to do taxes as an employee, but you won’t get anything back if you don’t do them. You can usually just do them in some app, send them to the tax office, get some money back and pay the app a tiny fee for the help.
Then again if you own a house or a company or have any income that isn’t taxed as receiving a salary, you better get a tax consultant and those can be pricey.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Well the largest category is
Machinery, Nuclear reactors and boilers. The nuclear part of this in Sweden is quite small so machinery is the big part. 14%. Second is:
Vechicles, Other than railway, trans. E.g. the later large Car and Lorrie, Truck manufacturers, Volvo, Volvo Cars and Scania. also about 14% The third is:
Electrical, electronic equipment, with large companies like Ericsson. 8.7% Then on fort place:
Mineral Fuels, Oils, distillation products, 7.4% Thou there are no internal sources for this is mostly refining of imported gods.
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.
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.
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.
So, not quite the previous poster’s 55%, but pretty close. There is also an “Other” column which likely includes other social spending and may have gotten us to that number. But, it’s enough of a mixed bag, and way too much work, to try and pick it all out.
While the US could certainly adjust it’s spending in a lot of good ways, the idea that the US spends “nothing” on social programs is provably false. These numbers also get weird and much harder to pin down when we look at State level taxes and spending. Many years ago, I dug into education spending in the US. And while Federal Education spending is a drop in the bucket, the actual number is pretty large, because it’s considered a State responsibility and each State spends large amounts of money on it.
For example, my home State of Virginia budgets $29.9 Billion for “Health and Human Services” this Fiscal Year 2024 and $25.0 Billion for “Education”, those two line items eating up about 62% of the State budget.
Thanks, and your math makes sense, but I think this is a misinterpretation by op. It’s fair to say that as a percentage of expenditure… But not tax dollars.
Social security gets complicated because it’s set up as a trust fund and has investments that grow to support disbursement rates. It also means that the expenditures should be carved out, same as the inbound tax. This should shift the calculations meaningfully.
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.
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.
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.
In many places in Europe, they have a so-called “treatment guarantee,” which means that if the wait is longer than 30 days for non-emergency treatment and procedures referred by a doctor, you can elect treatment at the private hospital instead of a public hospital. No charge.
For emergencies, you are always treated immediately at either a public or private hospital.
E: I’m mentioning this because I’ve encountered a large number of uninformed Americans who always start crying about “people dying on wait-lists in Europe and Canada unlike in America.” No.
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).
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.
A few years ago, I went to the ER because I was feeling abnormally unwell. Sat in the ER for an hour then nurse finally took me into a room. They had to leave to do something immediately after putting me in a room. Sat there for 15 minutes and realized that my body was starting to feel much better so I left.
I got a $3000 bill after insurance. The hospital declined my financial assistant application to get my bill reduced because they said I made too much money. I made $16/hr at the time in an expensive metro area. Ended up paying it off on a 3 year plan.
Important thing to remember, don’t leave after you get put in a room. Get formally discharged, or it becomes AMA, and insurance will always deny coverage.
If you check in at the desk and leave, it’s not a big deal, but once you start to receive care you really should stay.
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)
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