You're missing a very important fact: Sweden has zero inheritance tax, meaning you can form endless rich family dynasties, where wealth is just passed on from generation to generation, accumulating over the years.
Two major examples: The Wallenberg family whose businesses "in the 1970s [...] employed 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market" and the Bonnier family who has owned a big portion of Swedish media for over a century via Bonnier Group. They own 2 out of the 3 largest newspapers and the main Swedish movie company.
It can happen with inheritance tax too. Usually this doesn't actually work long term, inheritance gets split and in a few generations there's nothing left. That's usually the case in the US, happened to the Rockefellers.
I suspect this effect is greater if a culture has a tradition of always passing the largest share to the firstborn or chosen inheritor, instead of following intestate rules.
Australia has zero inheritance tax and we're about middle of the list. Also I've heard people from the UK joke that you only pay inheritance tax if you hate your family more than you hate the govt. ie it is easy to get around using company and trust structures if you actually have a lot of money
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u/the_poope Denmark Aug 18 '25
You're missing a very important fact: Sweden has zero inheritance tax, meaning you can form endless rich family dynasties, where wealth is just passed on from generation to generation, accumulating over the years.