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.
That and the growing unrest due to wage gaps and our taxes not benefitting our society.
Which is also due to Republicans cutting all social services and resisting new ones.
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.
Right, but there’s a reason we don’t get value for our taxes and that reason is also Republicans. Especially Reagan.
oh yeah and we end up paying more in local taxes than any reduction we ever got on federal ones.
Yeah, re-paving happens all the time here. I visited Massachusetts back in 2019 and was shocked at the abysmal state of the roads.
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?
/S
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.
Oh cool you live in old Denmark?
yeah and that was a place with pretty good infrastructure and upkeep for the us.
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.
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
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.
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.
If it actually did result in republicans being crushed under a giant domino, at least we’d have that going for us.
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.
Donald and his Trumpanzee cult are the giant domino, it is crushing us alongside the conservatives who pushed the smallest one.
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
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.
Do you have a source for this? I only see 28 global conflicts and 16 wars involving the United States marked as “Ongoing conflict” or “Another result”.
Plenty of people would complain if their taxes were housing homeless people or funding space exploration though.