11/11/2004 1:31:23 pm
Sweden - a Normal European Country. Today, my good friend and colleague Fredrik Segerfeldt presented his book "Twelve families in Europe - taxes and welfare in other countries". He points out that the dominating view in Sweden is that we are the only society that devotes very large public resources to welfare services and social security. By comparing Sweden with six other similar western European countries, he shows that this is not the case. True, we have the highest taxes and the largest share of GDP that goes to welfare and social security. But as our GDP per capita today is lower than the others?, those resources counted in euro or kronor are just about average. Thus, Sweden is a normal European country and we face the same challenges as the others.
Read the book (pdf, in Swedish) - >