“Socialism, bro. Can't become a millionaire.” That was his
response. Incredibly nuanced, simple, straightforward, well-researched, I’m
sure.
I was walking to work a while back when the tall kid in a
group of guys in front of me muttered that sentence. Being a graduate student
and also teaching at the university means I am surrounded by a whole lot of
young(er) people. And it means I overhear a whole lot of things I don’t
necessarily want to overhear (late night drunken revelry is usually rehashed
loudly on cell phones the morning after). Now, everyone says stupid things. It
happens. We all know I’ve done it. Especially because I am even more stupid
than most and recorded plenty of those thoughts in writing on a blog for people
to refer back to. Sometimes those stupid things are overheard and posted on
blogs by other people though. It’s essentially the idea behind
tjuvlyssnat.se.
So when this group of guys started discussing Scandinavia,
my ears perked up just a bit. Discussing Scandinavia in the Midwestern United
States is not all that uncommon. There’s been a whole lot of immigration to
that area since the middle of the 1800s and that immigration has left its mark.
It’s a mark that is filled with interesting questions of identity and culture
and what it means to be Scandinavian. But this kid in front of me wanted to go
big. He wanted to move to Scandinavia. Somewhere. Finland, Norway, Sweden. I’m
quietly cheering this turn of events and damn near ready to try to recruit him
to taking some Swedish classes. That’s when his buddy spoke up. Some buddies
are the kinds of buddies who support you when you have plans for an adventure.
They’re the ones you keep around since you met them in third grade. They’re the
ones you call a few days before the Rose Bowl and convince them to drive 17
hours to California on New Year’s day. This guy was not one of them. This guy
was the buddy who cheats off your test and blames you when he gets caught. This
guy was the buddy who takes the last sour gummy worm without offering you the
orange half, even though he knows you love the orange half. He sucks. He should
not be your friend.
He’s also the guy though that knows everything. Knowing
everything can be problematic because sooner or later, you’re not going to know
anything because you stopped listening long ago to anyone who might have
something interesting to say. It often results in comments like, “Socialism, bro.
Can't become a millionaire.” Which, surprisingly, isn’t true.
I think the tax rate in Sweden is too high. I thought that
when I moved there, I thought that when I worked there, I think that now. That
being said, it’s asinine to argue that just because the tax rate is high, that
there are no millionaires (not to
mention how asinine it is to shoot down an idea because of your chances of
becoming a millionaire. Here’s a secret, that’s hard no matter what country you’re
in.).
I’m not a socialist. I know, surprising. My political
beliefs have changed quite a bit over the course of five years, but I am far
from being a socialist. But I cringe at the way the word is used in the United
States when referring to Sweden and Scandinavia. Scandinavian societies have
socialist aspects. Absolutely. In fact, Sweden can best be described as a
social democracy. But even the United States has some of those socialist
aspects – the United States Post Office for example. Scandinavian societies
tend to have a bit more of those aspects, but both are mixed market economies
that depend heavily on capitalism.
Turns out that through 2011, there are 61,100 people in
Sweden who are considered to be millionaires. Ten are considered to be billionaires.
Forbes
magazine and
Capgemini
do annual reports on this sort of thing using US dollars to measure the number
of millionaires and billionaires. There are way more in the United States,
obviously, but also as a percentage of the population. Over three million (less
than one percent of the population), but that number has decreased recently. However,
the number of millionaires in Sweden is actually increasing, since 2009, they
are in the top 10 of countries that are seeing a percentage increase of
millionaires.
Now whether this is a good thing or is slowly eroding the
social makeup of Sweden’s prized social democracy is up for debate, but if you
don’t want to move to Sweden, fine. Just don’t blame it on your chances of
becoming a millionaire.
Welcome to Swedish America. And “socialism, bro.”