It's Official: Sweden's Perfect

If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting on baited breath for the results of the Economists democracy survey to arrive. Wait no longer folks. They’re here and the conclusion is this:

Sweden is the perfect democracy.

At least according to the Economist, but at the end of the day, does it matter? Talk to any Swede and the results wouldn’t cause them to bat an eye, and most likely they’d just say: “We’ve got a great state system”.

Don’t have a job? No problem: here's a cheque!
Don’t want to pay tuition? Taken care of!
The list goes on and on. But really, it is a great system!

And rely on state they do, to the point they seem… well (huge stereotype coming)… lazy. Lazy in the sense that at the end of the day, they know they’ll get something out of the system.

An example is this exact program I'm studing. Basically, there's a government initiated pursuit of educating young entrepreneurs, and they are teaching youth how to impliment entrepreneurial ideas and take them into action. Swedes are insanely innovative, that much is for certain. But the problem with pursuing entrepreneurial ventures is the risk involved in the uncertainty of success. Now why on earth would you enter into uncertainty with this great state welfare system that guarantees so much?

So correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t communism all about total reliance on the state and commitment to the government? Of course, Sweden is a free market democracy, but my god the people here sort of coast through life (in a way) because they know if nothing else, they’ll have government support of some sort to back them up.

To put this perfect democracy/hyper-individualistic society in context, where else would you be more then happy to dish 50% of your salary to taxation?

While taxes may not always make sense, I think Norway has it figured out.



Take strip clubs for example. If you’re the lucky owner of a peeler bar, you’re exempt from the regular 25% VAT. Why? Well, because stripping, in its “combination of dancing and acting” is an art; therefore, they don’t pay this astronomical fee.

Nordic regions all placed extremely high on the survey, and these happy-go-lucky folk clearly have not a problem in the world with their wonderful system.

I guess if I lived here fulltime, there are a few ways of overlooking the taxes and $10 pints…

Not a great picture, but you get the idea....