The Swedish model is dying

8 Feb, 2017 at 21:59 | Posted in Economics | 4 Comments

The 2017 OECD Economic Survey of Sweden — presented today in Stockholm by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Sweden’s Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson — points out that income inequality in Sweden has been rising since the 1990s.

sweden-2017-oecd-economic-survey-growing-moreequal-12-638

inequalities-have-widened

I would say that what we see happen in Sweden is deeply disturbing. The rising inequality is outrageous – not the least since it has to a large extent to do with income and wealth increasingly being concentrated in the hands of a very small and privileged elite.

gini sweden 1980to2012
Source: Statistics Sweden and own calculations

A society where we allow the inequality of incomes and wealth to increase without bounds, sooner or later implodes. The cement that keeps us together erodes.

The development in Sweden is going in the wrong direction. The main difference compared to UK and US is really that the increasing inequality in Sweden (going on continuously for 30 years now) started from a lower starting point.

The OECD survey confirms that Sweden is no longer the model country it once was, in the heydays of the 60s and 70s. It’s no longer the country of Olof Palme. Just as in so many other OECD countries, neoliberal ideologies, economists and politicians have crushed the Swedish dream that once was.

It’s sad. But it’s a fact.

4 Comments

  1. But why refer to Palme in this complaint? The development of inequality began on his watch, and he appointed all the ministers who caused the big disaster in the early 90s.

    Comment by Jan Wiklund— 15 Feb, 2017 #

  2. It’s possible to relate this inequality with some events in political-economic facts in world?
    Some events such as 2008 American and world crisis are reflected in diminishing earns for bottom 5%. What about other facts as high oil prices.
    These events are willfully creations of corporate oil companies and top banks.

    Comment by robertoviera1— 14 Feb, 2017 #

  3. Ain’t this a Swedish meatball
    the Nordic model is in free fall
    inequality has taken a liking
    to them damn Vikings
    beware of a populist recall (hehe)

    Comment by Dawoods— 9 Feb, 2017 #

  4. […] via The Swedish model is dying — LARS P. SYLL […]

    Pingback by The Swedish model is dying — LARS P. SYLL – Não traz sentido— 9 Feb, 2017 #


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