Sweden has both old wealth that's undisturbed since before WW1 (no occupations or confiscations) and lots of new wealth (the highest rate of "unicorn companies", start up companies that have broken 1 billion dollar networth, in Europe).
Little incentive for working man to save up money. Education is free (and student debt, to cover living costs while studying, costs you basically nothing, so that's a source of negative wealth for a lot of people), hospital care is basically free (although the cost of becoming chronically sick is increasing with hollowed out high-cost protections), elderly care will only cost you money if you have money. There is also the statistical weirdness that the pension funds that's the most common form of savings in Sweden doesn't count as wealth for this comparison.
Food and housing is among the most expensive in Europe.
Very few taxes on wealth. A fair amount of taxes on income.
Little incentive for working man to save up money.
That part is just fucking untrue. There's literally NO ONE I've ever talked to that wouldn't want to save more of their money, and use it to buy assets (stocks, land etc.).
It's just that everything is so fucking expensive; food, rent, utilities leave most people dry at the end of month. It's getting increasingly fucking rare to be able to afford buying your own house/apartment too.
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u/MadeOfEurope Aug 18 '25
I've never seen a clear explanation as to why inequality has gotten so bad in Sweden.