The "People's Home" Explained

This week I am posting a reworked text that I originally published on my Facebook page. I think the piece is warranted on this blog to explain the root causes of certain Swedish attitudes and socio-political concepts. For those of you who read it before - we will be returning to the normal Sweden Vs. the UK format as per next week. For the rest of you, particularly my non-Swedish readers, this text might be helpful in interpreting subsequent posts!

* * *

To make sense of the viciously polarized political climate of contemporary Sweden, with the centre-right coalition dramatically dubbed "The Alliance" governing, and the Greens, Social Democrats and the Left in opposition, it is necessary to consider the remarkable social and economic makeover the country underwent during the 20th century.

At the turn of the last century, Sweden was reaping the fruits of rapid industrialization, and was in the process of transforming itself from a poor agrarian economy into a wealthy manufacturing nation. The development of large scale manufacturing plants had generally been the result of lassiez-faire industrial policies at the end of the 19th century, and as a consequence both wealth and an urbanized workforce emerged to replace the hitherto dominant rural farming class.
The unions worked in close collaboration with the upcoming Social Democratic movement to institutionalize workers rights and improve working conditions. Initiated during the 1920's and 30's, an ambitious experiment in social engineering was undertaken with the outspoken aim of establishing a cradle-to-grave governing system dubbed "The Peoples Home". This was a large-scale socialistic project relying on planned economy, with a marginal tax eventually pushing well into the eighty-percent strata - legislation implemented to eradicate private wealth and foster a unified and equalized people.
Operating supply-side economics would at this point have strangled economic growth, had it not been for the passive stance taken visavi the aggressive German NSDAP which engaged in massive trade on the Swedish mineral ore market during the war.

As World War II came to an end, with Europe scrambling to rebuild, Sweden was the only remaining highly industrialized manufacturing economy, and was over the coming 20 years thus propelled from a wealthy nation into a super-rich nation-state. By the mid-sixties, Sweden clocked in as the per-capita wealthiest nation in the world.
As this wealth flowing through the Swedish economy was associated with the success of the Social Democratic leadership (a myth deftly propagated by the party and it's affiliate union-organisations) it came to establish itself as the dominant political force for the coming half-century.

As Europe rebuilt itself, and the heavy-handed labour-tax reduced competitiveness and saw ever-dwindling manufacturing returns, the cost of the ambitious well-fare reforms quickly became unsustainable. The first cracks in "The Peoples Home" became visible during the 1970's oil crisis, in which the isolated and depreciating Swedish currency saw energy costs soar, prompting a brief shift in goverment. As the Social Democratic hegemony continued, the oil crisis and the ensuing fragility of Swedens isolationistic economic model was felt, the blame could effectively be put on the opposition which remained out of power for more than a decade after.

In order to maintain the expansive well-fare programs of The Peoples Home under a dwindling GDP, the retirement funds set aside during the golden years of Nazi funding was mortgaged. Thus, straddled with an unsustainable economy, and an escalating future retirement-defeceit, the cracks in the system eventually became so severe that the currency stagnated. In the early 1990's this prompted another government shift, the Swedish Krona was put into flotation and immediately depreciated close to 30 percent.
Again, this dire state of the economy was played on the daddeling centre-right coalition, who were in power through support by the unsavory populists in "New Democracy" - a now-defunct political one-hit-xenophobic-wonder of the 1990's. Even as the Social Democrats regained power, the People's home was coming apart at the seams.

The economy was by necessity progressively liberalized, and in 1995 Sweden became a member of the European Union. As results of the gradual liberalization of the economy propagated through the system, the ideological mythos that it was the sudden onslaught of private enterprise that had killed the morally superior and solidaric model of The People's Home was fostered. Bent on reminiscing about the Glorious Years of the 1960's and early 70's, while deploying a social-conservative agenda under prime minister Göran Persson, the Social Democratic party became increasingly irrelevant for both it's own base who were demanding the financially impossible reinstatement of the Peoples Home, and the opposition who thought them fiscally naive and backwards. The Social Democrats lost power altogether in 2006.

At this stage, a generation had grown up in the last days of the people's home, and reached maturity in a pan-european market economy. This dual experience made the upholding of the Social Democratic cosmogony increasingly difficult, to the point of bringing about a country-wide cutural shift away from socialism altogether.

By the time Sweden held it's last general election in September 2010, the Social Democrats had been so weakened that they had to pin their hopes of regaining power on a coalition with the Left party and the Greens.  Wary of faltering big-government projects, many speculate that partnering with the Left party - a fringe movement with its roots in Communism - drove additional voters to abandon the Social Democrats in favor of the centre-right Alliance.

After an humiliating obliteration in the election with a worst-ever result, the Social Democrats were scrambling to reinvent and rejuvenate themselves. Dragging their feet in a bungled and archaic closed-doors intra-party selection process, a new party leader nominee - the face of rejuvenation - was finally presented: Håkan Juholt.

The face of rejuvenation

Juholt is the long-term and left-leaning small-town Social Democrat now tasked with making his party relevant again. Some speculate this will be a tough challenge indeed, as moving the party further to the right would fashion them nothing more than a light-alternative to the centre-right coalition, and going further left might alienate more of their working base.

The erratic flip-flopping of Juholt during the early stages of the NATO-led intervention in Libya further damaged the credibility of a potential Juholt-led administration, which at the moment of writing generally is interpreted by the media as a government that could end up anywhere politically. A lack of media training has seen Juholt's bumbling shadow exchequer Tommy Waiderlich deliver gaffe after gaffe eagerly pounced on by scandal-thirsty tabloids - in stark contrast to the grave and professionally presented sitting exchequer Anders Borg. As the greens has initiated a process of distancing themselves from the Social democrats, Juholt will need to find new friends very quickly indeed in order to deliver an electable platform in time for the next election.

Recognising the democratic value of a well-organised opposition, many have expressed concerns that the Moderates, the dominant party within the Alliance-coalition, might become lodged and identified with the state in the same way as the Social Democrats were before them.

Being reduced to representing chiefly immigrants, the undereducated and unemployed, one might argue that reminiscing about the golden years of the People's home might strengthen the Social Democrats hold of their dwindling base - but one may be entitled to ask by what standard it is appropriate to consider financially unhinged nostalgia as reinvention - and if this really is the right kind of rejuvenation when Juholt bashes Twitter as an irrelevant fad?

Interestingly, Sweden's largest daily just ran a story that corroborates my point. The first link is to the Swedish original text, the second is an English Google translated version which is intelligible and hilarious in parts. If anything requires explaining in English, please use the comments section and I will do my best to oblige!

http://www.dn.se/ledare/signerat/socialdemokraterna-cirkus-juholts-nya-forestallning 

English version

UPDATE:

Here is another article on the same topic:

http://www.dn.se/ledare/huvudledare/klasskamp-utan-segrare

The procurement and consumption of alcohol

Line up, citizen.

The uniformed government official sneered at me, her face conveying a mixture of bewilderment and disgust:

-"What do you mean, 'special wines'?"

-Um, well, something not on the shelves right here. A Chablis, not a petit, but Chablis proper?
 I gestured down the shelf lined with bag-in-box products and sloppy Chardonnays.
(I had already abandoned asking for a Grand or even Premiere Cru. To think I had figured myself flexible not wanting a specific year or wineyard just a few seconds ago now seemed hubris bordering on insanity)

-We only have what's on the shelf.

Crowds were pushing past us on both sides, desperately filling their plastic shopping baskets with sub-par Merlot in cardboard containers equipped with plastic taps. Stench of Friday-afternoon sweat mingeled with the odd fuming alcoholic trying to minimize his cost-per-unit with superstrong canned lager.

-Oh... How can I obtain a more specific product?

-Order it in advance.

-Uh. I'm having friends over this evening. Is there another establishment that... never mind.

Her eyes were shooting deathrays saying "you should have thought of ordering your snobby swig well in advance, moron" but she said nothing and went back to re-stocking the emptying shelves with massive cardboard boxes labelled "Chill Out Wine".

I thanked her, turned around pushing through the ever-increasingly dense crowd - looking for a second at the crude Champagnes boiling on the shelf - wishfully imagining a frosty chilled Krug, somehow by accident a trapped treasure amidst endless filth - before fleeing the whole disgusting establishment empty-handed.

* * *

Had this been the end of my adventure this afternoon, it would have been an unfair reflection of the "Systembolag" (etymology for me unknown) - the Swedish state-run monopoly that controls all sales of alcoholic beverages since 1955.



Later the same afternoon I happened upon a second "Systembolaget" outlet, this time in the comparatively up-scale shopping-mall "Hansacompagniet" in central Malmö. The uniformed government officials were very knowledgeable and helpful at this time, and they also carried several of the Grand Cru's I had been looking for - and this at rather competitive prices, even considering the prohibitive tax on alcohol in Sweden. There certainly is a tangible economy of scale involved when the Swedish government procures wine, a saving that in some cases gets passed on to the consumer.

In the Western Harbour where our Swedish flat is located - an ambitious newly built seaside residential area - there is no Systembolaget. As none of the local shops are allowed to carry alcoholic beverages there is no option for us but to travel into town and visit one of the government approved venues if we wish to shop for wines in Sweden.
Attracting a relatively well-capitalized demography, the Western Harbour area would surely sustain several purveyors of fine wines, but the aim of Systembolaget is not to cater for accessibility, but rather the opposite: the official purpose of the Systembolag is to make people consume less alcohol - by making it difficult to obtain.

The Systembolag outlets all close promptly at 6pm, and have only recently taken to keeping open a few hours during the Saturdays. There is no option for picking up a bottle of bubbly on a whim a Saturday evening - it all needs to be planned in advance. This has produced an unbecoming culture of hoarding and keeping close tabs on who is drinking who's wine at parties - you will generally not find Swedes bringing a bottle of wine to a party and putting it out on a table for anyone to sample, but generally people keep track of their own drink and watch carefully that it does not run down somebody else's gullet.

This is not because Swedes are selfish (they aren't), but because if they run out of alcohol during the weekend, there is no way of restocking the supplies. This paired with the unsavoury binge-culture Sweden shares with the UK has created this peculiar behavioural pattern.

The aggressive infringement of personal freedom imposed by the Systembolag is officially justified if not by health-care costs associated with alcohol abuse, then by the poor battered wife's that would be the inevitable consequence of selfishly wanting to obtain a Laurent-Perrier on a whim a Saturday evening.

Rather than allocating resources to dealing with the causes of addiction and abuse, the Swedes voted themselves a system that will punish the whole population based on the situation of the destitute fringe.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this whole complex, is how many Swedes, clearly in some depraved form of Stockholm-syndrome, has come to defend the humiliating situation they have put themselves: Arguments on how "no private enterprise would be able to deliver the diversity of the Systembolag" are often bandied about - as if a multitude of local merchants would not best the selection of the single government entity.

"The Systembolag can push prices on quality brands!" - granted, a government carries more financial clout than the biggest of companies - but 1) Was not the object of this institution to limit accessibility? and 2) Is there not an alarming risk that the massive orders placed by the government slants the market in favour of certain brands? Indeed there was a very controversial corruption scandal exposed in 2003 in which various heads of departments had taken to accepting lavish gifts from various producers to win them lucrative purchase orders for massive quantities of their produce.

To the proponents of the Systembolag, I would like to suggest the idea of maintaining the beloved Systembolag, but getting rid of the unflattering monopoly inasmuch as letting qualified retailers apply for licence to sell wine and beer. With all the fine qualities constantly voiced on behalf of the Systembolag I am sure it would do just fine on the open market.

* * *

In the UK, as in most of the rest of the democratic world, picking up a bottle of wine is an entirely undramatic affair. Off-licenses are allowed to sell alcohol over the counter until 11pm every night and although increased taxes on alcohol is sometimes discussed as a tool for limiting over-consumption, the Brits are in general doing just fine.

As on any open market, you will be able to find retailers covering every brand and price-level, and there is none of the scarcity implied to be the result of an absence of a Systembolag. In fact, accessibility is much better - both in terms of selection and availability. Those then voicing concerns of over-consumption ought to look at care and educative solutions rather than arrogantly imposing restrictions on the population as a whole.

As for drink culture in Sweden and the UK - it is quite comparable. Among the undereducated over-consumption prevails, particularly among the young. Many a night have I passed Fulham Broadway listening to estate agents in their early twenties belt out insufferable interpretations of "Can't take My Eyes Off of You (I Love You baby)". Their Swedish counterparts generally sing less and do much less cocaine, but viewed as a sub-culture they are practically identical and drunk on very similar lager. Either way, the existence of the Systembolag has meant little in changing these drinking-patterns when restrictive Sweden is compared to the more liberal UK.

Sweden:
- It can be hard to locate a Systembolag with a decent selection in stock
- Monopolies breed corruption
- Extortionate price levels in bars, expect a basic Martini to run you £15
+ Economy of scale delivers a competitive Les Vaudesirs price point

UK:
+ Quality wine merchants abound
+ Easy access, a wide selection
+ Good value in cocktail lounges
- Slightly higher price-point for certain brands when compared to the Systembolag

Winner:
Who woulda thunk it? The UK wins this round fair and square.

Administration and bureaucratic efficiency

In dealing with English financial institutions much administration needs to be handled due to comprehensive money-laundering-laws - particularly when one is engaged in international trade. I recently had some assets temporarily frozen by a UK company as my identity-profile with them apparently was not complete.

The English percieve Identity-cards as an infringement of personal integrity - and perhaps rightly so, considering how the government kept losing vast amounts of sensitive data in the post - and even on public transport - during the Brown administration.

As there are no Identity cards, but still plenty of regulation that requires identification, you are generally required to bring a set of utility bills, bank statements and various other letters and paperwork with you to any dealings with banks, goverment or companies.

This is not only impractical, it is also quite a flawed method of establishing a persons identity as it is comparatively easy to forge statements of this kind. For those of us who insist on perfect records of any and all transactions, it is also cumbersome as these statements sometimes take a long time to obtain and deliver.

A change of address might require new papers to be handed in to prove that you indeed are the same person at the new address (a gas bill being the ultimate was of proving this, apparently) - but to get the new papers you need to get in touch with suppliers to have the address updated first. This requires a written letter (in which you just give the new address and sign it - as if this would somehow be a superior record of proof compared to an email). Once they have the written letter in hand, your address is updated. You must then wait for your next bill to arrive - which it might or might not do as addresses are often mistyped and your bills might never reach you. You may confirm a wrongly entered address by phone, but a new written letter will be required to amend it - and you will need to wait for a new bill to arrive. Once the bill, this pinnacle of identity-proof, is in your hand, you can go ahead and make physical photo-copies of it and begin distributing it via post to the relevant institutions. You are usually asked to send at least one physical, paper-bill and a paper bank statement along with photocopies of your passport or driver's licence.

Given I had gotten used to this order of things, I was dreading the process of de-frosting my assets with said company - but as it happened I was in Sweden at the time and I was told a swedish bank statement and national ID would be sufficient to cover their needs (nota bene - they do recognise ID cards, they just don't like to use them within the UK. To me, it is sort of like the Amish: They know telephones exist and successfully have made life easier for millions of people, they just choose to ignore them.)

I needed to update my address slip with my Swedish bank and have them produce a bank statement with the new address on it. I pictured signing letters going back and forth, but as I walked into my Swedish bank office this is what transpired:

-I'd like to update my address information please. How do we go about
getting this process started?

-ID?

I presented my ID-card.

-New address?

I stated the address.

-Allright, all done. Would you like a statement too?

-Yes, how soon can you post it?

-Post? I can email it to you now or send it to your phone. Do you mean
you want a printout?

-Yes please!

-There you go. Have a nice day!

It is hard to describe the exhilirated satisfaction I felt from the civilised and expedient production of this piece of paper - as this process will be completely normal and expected for Swedes - but for a long-term resident of the UK this is mind blowing efficiency. Over the years I have been forced into disputes with almost every branch of the general infra-structure of the UK. Telecommunication-companies, Mobile phone companies, Travel companies, Insurance companies, The Passport authority, the HMRC and our local Council.  This is not because of some sort of masochistic belligerence on my part, but a process the English take for granted: to get your phone connected, you will need to allocate a few days to keep the providers from doing all the wrong things. To prevent your mail from suddenly being delivered to a random sewer after a change of address, expect to spend a week on the phone with a call centre sprawling the entirety of the Indian subcontinent. Et cetera.

During my early years in London, I would confused and dismayed bring up these experiences with my English friends as I naively assumed I might be the victim of the worst customer service conspiracy in the western world - only to be met with a laconic "yes, it can be a real nightmare."

We need to understand that we are not talking about the weather or the laws of physics here - these are mechanisms for human interaction - processes devised and implemented to solve certain normal and commonplace problems. If the process does not work, it needs to be evaluated and changed so that performance and efficiency is improved. Regrettably the processes rarely change or improve, although the whole of the system is littered with annoying inspections and customer surveys.

Instead of long and boring recapitulations of the dozens of absurd interactions of this kind I have had, I will present a light-hearted piece of fiction which I think may serve as a juxtaposition of my experiences in general. This is what I think might be the English equivalent of the above related interaction with the bank:

-I'd like to update my address information please. How do we go about
getting this process started?

-What information?

-My address, the one you send my statements to?

-Have you looked at our website? I think you do it on there.

-Can't we just do it now?

-Wait please, I need to speak to someone. (Brings manager)

-How can I help you Sir? (manager)

-He wants to change his bank details right now. (clerk)

-I'd like to update my address information please. How do we go about getting this process started? (me)

-If you go to www.thebank.com and log in, under My Pages you can request a form that you print out and post to us.

-Can't we just do it now?

-Wait a moment Sir (manager goes to the back. Clerk smiles and looks bored)

Brings another manager.

-He wants to update his details here in the office (manager 1)

-Do you have the detail amendment form? (manager 2)

-No, but if you bring it I will be happy to fill it out. (me)

-He's not logged on to the website (clerk)

-I'll get you the form printed out Sir (manager 1 walks to the back)

-Do you have two separate forms of ID with you? (manager 2)

-I have a passport, a bank statement and a swedish national ID.

-I can't accept the bank statement as that is what we are changing. Do you have any other proof of address with you?

-Of course, I always carry 5 years of book-keeping records with me in
a trolley. No, I do not!

Manager 1 returns with the form.

-Take this home (manager 2 hands over form), fill it out and make
copies of your gasbill and passport and post them to us. Would you
like me to give you the address - it's on our website...

-I'll print it out for you now, Sir (clerk prints homepage without address)

-You can also find the form on our website, if you go to www.thebank.com and log in, under My Pages there is a section where you can print it out. (manager 2)

-How long will it take to update the details? I need a bank statement with the new address on it. (me)

-I can't say, usually 5 to 7 business days. Do you need a bank statement printout? That will be £10 for each extra statement. I can make one for you now if you'd like.

-With the new address? (me)

-The statement will have whatever is currently in our system.

-How will I know when my details are updated in the system?

-When you get your next bank statement it should be on there.

-Try to work with me here. I need this to happen as soon as possible. If I post the forms you request, that will take 3 days, then you need 5 to 7 days for processing, which pushes us into next month, which means the next statement will reach me around six weeks from now. Can we get this done quicker?

-One moment Sir (manager 1 is irritated while manager 2 goes on the phone. The clerk looks uncomfortable)

-We can arrange a meeting with a bank manager for next week, you can then bring the paperwork and pay the fee for a printout, but we have to send it in the post as the system takes up to 36 hours to reflect changes to your details. There will be a 75p postage fee too. Shall I go ahead and set up this meeting?

-No, that is fine, I will just kill myself instead, thank you.

Sweden:
+ Efficient
+ Modern
-Big brother really is watching

UK:
- Staggeringly inefficient
- Backwards
+ Nigh on impossible for big brother to do anything except look at his CCTVs.

Winner:
A massive victory for Sweden which makes the UK feel like a juvenile kafka-esque nightmare.

HELP! I need somebody!

Albeit recent tentative attempts at liberalisation by the divisive centre-right coalition government, hiring domestic help remains a controversial bone of contention in Swedish politics.

The antipathy towards domestic help is rooted in the Swedish interpretation of egalitarianism, where the relationship between help and employer is assumed to be oppressive and un-democratic.

The opposition percieves this type of contractual relationship to pull society at large back to the days of 19th-century master and servant proto-feudalism when set in the context of individual homes - although professional cleaning and similar services are considered unproblematic within the confines of institutions and corporations.

To ideologically discourage the use of domestic help, steep taxes on domestic labour was in the late 1960's put in place, which immediately created a very large underground market for low-skilled workers.

It's not really like this, is it?

During the 90's the parliament engaged in heated debates on how to address this black-market problem which became known as "The maid-debate" in which proponents of liberalisation generally were painted as unscrupulous cigar-smoking conservatives with little regard for humanistic values. Both status quo and black market was maintained.

During the following decade it was established that the domestic taxation policies pushed actual tax-revenue to the wrong end of the Laffer-curve, and that it would make fiscal sense to relax the prohibitive cost of domestic labour (70% of nothing is still nothing when capital is forced underground).

(At this point I would like to remind non-swedish readers that all this fuss basically comes down to whether people should be allowed to pay market-rates for a professional cleaner or not.)

As lowering labour-taxes would have been political suicide and pounced on as a dismantling of Swedish democracy itself, a subsidy system was introduced through which 50% of domestic labour costs could be claimed back when filing the annual tax-return.

Albeit administratively cumbersome and somewhat back-handed, the reform proved immensely popular, with legal home improvements surging as a result.

I have never seen so many new-built wooden patio decks as when
I visited post-reform Sweden!

To put things into perspective, this blogger has found the post claim-back monthly rates for 10 hours of professional domestic cleaning to clock in at around £350 which by most standards would be considered uncompetitively high. (If you know where to find a better deal, you know where the comments section is!)

Those coming out against the reform generally cite "subsidizing the rich" as a key argument. Practically, subsidies that reward certain sectors of the economy unfairly should indeed, in the opinion of this blog, be discarded in favour of a general and equal lowering of tax on labour. Loss of short-term labour-tax revenues can easily be mitigated with increased overall tax-returns from turning black markets white, and possibly by adjusted green taxes on consumption.

As the debate (if not a storm in a teacup, perhaps in a kettle) lingers, with the moral fibre of procurers of domestic labour in question, the epitome of the conflict might concern professional nannies, as I unwittingly came to experience when jollily asking around on where to find one.

If paying for housework in Sweden is understood as morally objectionable, then paying for an extra pair of hands to help out with the children is by some perceived as positively evil: if you love your children, you take care of them yourself at all times (although using friends, grandparents and council-run daycare is fine) - hire a helper and you should not have bothered starting a family in the first place.

In this context, reason-based arguments of personal circumstances are of little consequence and generally dismissed as irrelevant at best and improper at worst.

All this is made the more absurd considering Sweden's high unemployment figures for youth and the low-skilled. In the apparent discrepancy between ideological conviction and the practical socio-economic situation, it would seem ideology is besting the desperate need for a simple entry for low-skilled onto the taxable labour-market.

Instead much wealth has been squandered on job-coaches and expensive career-preparation programmes of frivolous utility. Thread lightly if you are to question this order of things!

In the UK, hiring help is completely unproblematic. There is no moral stigma attached to a process which during periods of the life of an ordinary family is practical and normal. We have had both a cleaner, a nanny and for a time a night-nurse to help us with our then new-born twins. A decent cleaner will in central London run you between £20 and £30 per week and we have had a wonderful relationship with our nanny who is supplementing her income to get through university. We ended up paying her around £100 per week and negotiated a flexible relationship that would work with both her schedule and ours on a week-by-week basis.

It should be duly noted that my wife also worked as a London nanny during the years in which she was completing her education - had it not been for the opportunity to do this the remaining options would have been going into debt or dropping out. The notion of "relative poverty" and the subsequent political desire to regulate everyone into becoming white-collar workers is as absurd as it is destructive. By making it difficult or impossible for the low-skilled and inexperienced to offer their services at competitive prices, income levels are not improved - instead it tells people "if you are less skilled than this, you can't work."

It needs to be established that doing domestic labour rarely is the final destination for most people, but rather a gateway to supplement income and gain first entry to the labour-market. The brilliant Polish handy-men who swamped London in 2005 have not only made the 2012 olympics at all possible, but they have also risen from DIY-cowboys to form large companies in the construction and infra-structure sectors, companies that now employ thousands of people and bring handsome tax-revenue for the HMRC.

There has been none of the Swedish implied coercion in the professional relationship between us as employers and our help. Rates are negotiated in person and to a level that is sustainable and add value for both parties. In fact, we are still in touch with our nanny on a friendly basis and might well ask to bring her along with us on

our next long-term soujour in the states next spring.

As for nannies, I find the sanctimonious swedish stance quite unbecoming for a people so concerned with not being coercive, and it will have to suffice to say that equality does not mean sameness: an individual cannot second-guess the situation of a fellow citizen by sight and demand conformism on the mere assumption that what works for me should also work for you.

Sweden:

- High tax on labour and heavy-handed minimum-wage-laws keep the

unskilled from entering the labour market and gaining skills

- Sanctimonious and judgmental attitudes to non-conformist lifestyle choices

+ The back-handed claim-back scheme for domestic labour is a step in

the right direction

UK:

+ Easy to find and hire people

+ Non-judgemental attitude to individual lifestyle choices

+ Competitive labour market sees low-skilled and immigrants forming

companies and successfully integrating into the economy

Winner:

The UK wins hands down and makes Sweden feel like a highly-strung

christian version of the DDR.

Manners: A picnic in the graveyard

"Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you."

-Anthony Blanche, Brideshead Revisited

Harsh words on the English crafted by Evelyn Waugh. I will leave it for others to determine whether this might be accurate or not, but I will say this: The Swedes do not suffer from excessive charm. Listen to this sentence and how wrong it rings: "Oh, the Swedes! They are famous around the world for their flair and charming manners!"

Let it be understood that the Swedes do not intend to be rude. Quite on the contrary, they are quite a sensitive bunch who generally are very anxious to be morally perfect.

Having said this, the lack of social protocol and politeness can sometimes be quite staggering when one comes to Sweden from the UK.

When I arrived at the central station in Malmoe, Sweden, I decided to queue up for some fast food. The person in front of me, a well-dressed grown man, stepped up to the counter and stated "One cheeseburger". The waitress, without uttering a word, popped around the back and brought him one. "Forty-five crowns", she replied. He handed over the cash. No further words were uttered. There was no "Hello", no "I would like", no "Thank you" and certainly no "Please". In Sweden, none if this is required in day-to-day transactions, although a sole "Thank you" will often be used if the service has been adequate.

Sweden is a fiercely egalitarian and aggressively secularized country, and the current state of affairs is generally considered a freedom from structural oppression. The politeness of olden days were linked to social status and class and were thus abolished during the construction of "The People's Home" - the grand-scale social-engineering project undertaken during the early 20th century. The purpose of the People's home was to create and maintain equality throughout society - a concept which in Sweden gradually also came to mean sameness: A marginal tax which peaked at 83% ensured a redistributive economy where few were wealthy, and in a somewhat Orwellian newspeak-move, titles like "Herr" (Mr), "Fru" (Mrs.) and professional titles with social status were officially abolished in favour of the all-encompassing "Du" (You).

When I went to grade-school in the early 1980's, it had been decided that writing in script should no longer be taught. Instead, a new form of print-style letters, loosely tied together with bridges was to be taught. But a person who is not taught to write script will also have a hard time reading script, and many people in my generation still struggle with reading hand-written material that is older than the 1960's.

I believe politeness follows a similar pattern: once you dismantle the social protocol - even with the best of intentions - you inadvertently will also make people blind to social protocol everywhere.

I have many times been embarrassed by fellow Swedes who fail to distinguish the polite request "A glass of dry white wine, please" with the rude order "A glass of dry white wine" when at a restaurant in the English speaking world. The former adheres to social protocol, with the please being the key that indicates respectfulness towards the waiter whereas the latter is crude and commanding.

What really took the cake though, and what prompted this blog post, was a visit to the Malmoe-Festival. This is a generally harmless but much derided affair focused on serving subpar take-away food in a public square, and it enjoys a fair bit of popularity among the villagers in the Scania country-side who make it an exciting excursion into the city.

Adjacent to the square in which paper plates with woked elkmeat and langos are handed out lies the old cemetery. The cemetery is still in use, and it is the property of the church. As I was crossing the churchyard from the park to the square I noticed several large groups of people parked on and around graves, happily drinking lager on spread-out blankets, children playing and the distinct smell of kebabs in the air. Indeed, it would seem it is generally considered acceptable to have a picnic in a graveyard in modern day Sweden.

I have no interest in being a defender of conservative morality, and I suppose some might argue that it is a nice and progressive thing to bring life and activity to a sombre place like a graveyard - but what gets me is how bizarrely different the Swedish egalitarian secularism has made them compared to the rest of the world. Though they might construe themselves as the most advanced and modern of societies, it is my firm belief that continental Europe would consider this kind of behavior nothing less than extraordinarily vulgar hedonistic barbarism of the worst kind - religious or not.

It might be relevant for Swedes to consider that the moral high-ground they like to think they occupy might not be how they and their ideologies are perceived by their European peers. The Swedes might to some extent also be perceived as that bachelor cousin who's spent too much time alone in his cabin - who although still clever and well read has come out slightly... odd: "Yeah! Come on over for a BBQ, we are equals here! ..what? Yeah, it's in the graveyard like the last time, why?"

Murderous charm or not, in the UK, people are in general very respectful and polite. Even the teenage boys who work in high street retail-stores and look too stoned to direct you towards the exit will end every sentence directed at a customer with "Sir". Even in low-end restaurants like the "Cafe Rouge" franchise we went to at Gatwick airport still presented an all-smiling cast of french waiters and waitresses.

In the UK, generally, the better educated, the better the command of social protocol and appropriate politeness. What got me as a swede was how the english politeness also can be used as a weapon.

If you are making a complaint, no matter how abysmal the error you have encountered, if you use any colourful expletive to describe the situation: you lose. They will pounce on that "crap" or "bloody" you accidentally let slip in a heated moment, and make the discussion about your behavior rather than their mistake. There is no backtracking from this - you missed a beat in the polite rephrasing of the circumstances and have now lost face and credibility - and who can take a complaint seriously when the very credibility of the complainee is in question? Next please!

In dealing with professionals it has also become clear to me that English politeness in this context is nothing more than a veneer, a social lubricant devoid of any real emotion. Everything might be love and roses when you met your landlord and agreed to move out by the 12th, only to have them stab you in the back next week with the words "Although I do not remember the 12th in particular, I wanted to let you stay out of the goodness of my heart, but now I have grown tired of your fussing" - as you had not insisted on written contracts.

Always insist on written contracts. Legalese begins where politeness ends.

Sweden:

- The normative crudeness that slowly poisons the well of refinement

+ In Swedish politeness there often tends to be some real emotion involved

UK:

+ Good service, generally very sophisticated command of social protocol

- Politeness as a weapon, backstabbing and skullduggery

Winner:

I guess it is a tie, with some extra bonus points for the UK for finesse.

The Property Ladder and The Queue

The property market in Sweden and the UK are vastly different - a point vividly illustrated when trying to move between the two countries.

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Addendum 17-08-2011:
Sweden's most reputable daily newspaper ran an article today which illustrates the situation I am relating in this blog post. This quote from the article is the most striking example of the Swedish property market situation - where waiting has become currency:

"Do you understand that tenants who have invested decades of waiting time in public housing get upset?"

The original article (in Swedish) can be found here:

http://www.dn.se/sthlm/hon-kan-snuvas-pa-17-ar-i-bostadskon

A direct Google Translate to English - comprehendible although somewhat funny - can be found here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.se%2Fsthlm%2Fhon-kan-snuvas-pa-17-ar-i-bostadskon&act=url

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Sweden has a long tradition of life-long renting, particularly in urban areas. Buying a flat was by many considered a slightly suspicious activity well into the eighties. It is in fact not possible to actually own a flat in Sweden at all under normal circumstances - you own a share in the company that owns the building and are thus granted the right to live in a certain flat and engage in light DIY. You are allowed to buy and sell these "accommodation-rights" as they are referred to, but are also required to pay a monthly fee to the holding company.

What you can and can't do in an accommodation-right is tightly regulated. You cannot buy to let. In most instances you actually need to prove that you are occupying the flat as your primary residence - as if that was any of their business.

One might wonder why anyone would choose to buy a flat in this climate? The reason is because of how heavy-handed rent-control has distorted the rental market.

There is no real market for estate-agents in the rental sector, while this may sound like a blessing, it is actually a curse. In Sweden strict rent-controls are in place - with the best of intentions - to try to maintain affordable housing for all income levels in the city centres. They have succeeded inasmuch as keeping the rents exceptionally low.

The knock-on-effect is dramatic: as rental prices became uncompetitive already in the 1970's construction of new rental units came to an abrupt halt - and even today only a trickle of new rental units come onto the market.

As a consequence this has frozen the market altogether - those who have a first-hand contract for a ridiculously cheap city centre flat can never give it up as they are practically unobtainable and represent an enormous locked-in value. In the bigger cities this has created a massive black market in which second- and even third-hand rental contracts illegally are being traded with juicy mark-ups.

For the landlords of properties with regulated and low-performing rents, it also means that they generally can triple the property value by selling off the rental units and turning the property into "accommodation-rights" instead.

The long-term consequence of the regulated rental market in Sweden has thus had the following results:

1) The creation of a black market in which rental contracts are traded at high prices.

2) Ten-year long queues for those trying to obtain legitimate first hand rental contracts in city centers.

3) A strong incentive for property owners to sell their properties and make them into accommodation-right properties where market rates apply and only well-capitalized individuals can buy.

Effectively, this policy has killed off renting in Sweden, and current projections show that there will largely not be any rental market whatsoever within a decade. Chalk another one up for central planning.

Friends of the Swedish model would argue that you can find rental properties provided you do your homework - call around among landlords, ask friends and friends of friends. In my view, this is a broken system. As a potential customer, I should not have to face artificial scarcity and have to work to find the product I am seeking - I should be courted by providers.

As I do not want to enter the property market in Sweden right now (according to The Economist it is estimated to be the second-most overvalued one in the world, with a 30% correction to be expected) we wanted to find a first-hand rental unit. The only practical way we could do this without having to queue for years was to find the the most expensive high-end flat possible - still a very competitive rate compared with anything you would find in London - but a rent that would make the heavily taxed Swedes shy away.

Even at this we were still number three in a queue to view the flat, with no option whatsoever to come in with a better offer to close the deal. The rent is fixed. You have to queue like the rest of the comrades.

To add insult to injury, the queue system is generally not based on a come-first basis (we were the first to jump at our flat - but were quickly downgraded to third place) but on how long you have been renting before and how long you have been registered in the queue-system. This traps people in the queue-system, and as nobody dares risk lose their place even if they would be financially capable of owning a home, the queues keep growing for popular properties - now sporting decade-long queues full of people who really are not seriously looking to move.

In the UK - and particularly London, the market rules supreme and as a consequence you have infinite options in terms of location, price level and configuration of flats. Of course prices are extortionate - they always hover just at the threshold of what any sane individual can cope with. The difference compared with Sweden struck me the other day when an old friend got in touch asking "what we were going to do with our old rental flat in London" as a relative of hers was looking for something in London.

If you are a Swede it is hard to understand how this question does not make sense in the UK, as any rental unit immediately is put back on the market and rented out again by estate agents - and also since in order to find a flat all that is required is a phone call to an estate agent. However, when your whole mindset is rooted in a rent-controlled economy plagued by artificially created scarcity, your gut instinct is to jump at any nepotist opportunity when somebody seems to be ready to finally make a move.

The big downside to the London rental market - aside from the prohibitive cost - is the ruth- and uselessness of estate agents. As a rentee, there is little security in making sure you have secured a flat until you literally have the keys in your hand.
We have moved a few times within London, and each time has presented new nightmares.

The first time we had agreed the deal with the estate agent, paid our deposit fee and given notice at our previous address only to be notified ten days before our move-in date to let us know that the property owner had "changed her mind" (read: got a better offer). I asked the agent "But you told us we had a done deal?" -"Yes, but then the deal came apart. I'm sorry."

We went back to our previous landlord and explained our situation and asked if we could stay a few months longer, to which she agreed although "reviewing the situation I will have to put the rent up £30 per week" which is London-pro-speak for "Aha, you are between a rock and a hard place - I will take you for what I can then!"

The next time we moved we decided to use a relocation agent to handle the estate agents. A relocation agent will sniff out good opportunities before they hit the websites, which gives you a competitive edge in finding good deals and properties. We stressed the need to have the contracts signed well before moving in this time - something the estate agent reluctantly agreed to after demanding a 6-month up front payment to make sure we were serious.

As I got my appointment in their office and signed the contracts, the clerk then took them away and stowed them in a drawer. I can only assume the blank look on my face was what led her to ask me "Can I help you with anything else?"

"Well, can you get someone to countersign the contracts so I can have a copy please?"

"We will sign the contract on the day you move in, Sir."

"...uh, so I just handed over ten grand to you in advance for the privilege of one-sidedly signing a completely non-binding contract?"

"Don't worry, it is a done deal."

Curtain.

Sweden:

+ Nobody will try to con you out of your contract

+ Generally high quality properties where both plumbing and heating work

- Very few available rental properties due to rent control

- The humiliating queue-system

UK:

+ Loads of properties on the market

+ Opportinity to make deals and haggle

- Use- and ruthless estate agents

- The generally decrepit state of properties. Even modern refurbished ones tend to be held together by gaffa tape and old newspaper under the plaster.

Winner:

The UK wins, as most people can find a property that works for them fairly easily, and in the end this is the most important thing. I will happily deal with scoundrels if I do not have to suffer the impracticality and humiliation of having to queue.

Sweden Revisited - mission statement

As I am writing this, I am overlooking the traffic going up and down Bayswater road. Mostly double-decker buses, but also many cabs and people on bicycles who are rushing late for work though the gates of Kensington Gardens.

It is a great view looking west, towards the lush and opulent Holland Park - to the south over Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, north over Bayswater and Hamstead Heath in the distance and East with the towers of the City glimmering though the fog. I will surely miss this view, as after ten years in London I am partly relocating back to Sweden.

Our current plan of action is to spend somewhere between five and six months in Sweden, and share the rest of the year between the US and the UK. I will still be operating my businesses from London, and I will most likely be spending quite a bit of time here as well.

The purpose of this little blog will be to share my experience of returning to Sweden with both Swedish and English friends. As I have more Swedish friends with a command of the English language than vice versa I have chosen to write in English.

I will not only share my experiences, but I will also review and compare the two countries to one another. How are we treated by people, the government and corporations in these two countries? What are we allowed to and required to do and not do? What obstacles and benefits come with living in the UK versus living in Sweden?

At the end of the year I will evaluate the pros and cons of each country and make a decision on where to live more permanently.

The past decade has surely changed me a great deal, but the United Kingdom and Sweden as countries have changed greatly too.

When I arrived in Clapham South on the 2nd of September 2002 you could get a vegetable pilau at Safeway for 69p. Blair had not yet moved English forces into Iraq, and The 7/7 bombings were yet several years off in the future. The English pound was tremendously over-valued and Gordon Brown was exclaiming "the End of Boom and Bust".

When I left Sweden you were still not allowed to buy painkillers in corner shops, few had heard of Stieg Larsson, and Wallander was not yet an international export. The Swedish economy was puttering along with little sign of growth, with the Krona still bobbing up around at an undervaluation of around 20% due to clumsy trade barriers and a long-standing deficit-problem.

Clearly an expensive time to relocate as I converted my life savings into just over four grand and moved into a sublet in a Council Estate near Balham.

* * *

As we have not yet moved into the lovely new Swedish flat (I will be maintaining accommodation in London too) my first comparison between the UK and Sweden will concern getting passports for our two girls.

UK:

My wife Jaana spent better part of two weeks collecting and filling out paperwork. She went to the post office twice to collect the appropriate forms, brought over a friend with "Good Standing in the Community" to attest to the validity of the four photographs we had taken of each girl. I got in touch with my accountant and had the last six years of tax return sent over. She then spoke to no less than THREE government officials to ensure everything was complete and filled out correctly before waiting 3 weeks for an appointment at the passport authority only to be told an additional six forms from two separate branches of government were also required. Each of these forms could take up to 3 months to receive, and then a new appointment at the passport authority needed to be made.

Our clerk could only apologize as to why the government officials we had conferred with earlier had been unaware of these additional six forms - as the matter is "complex". We could be given no guarantee that the application would be complete even after complying with this additional 4-month ordeal, though it would "Probably - most likely go though".

Sweden:

In Sweden, the first thing the government requires from an individual is get assigned an "Identity number" which is kept by the Tax authority. This is what would be considered infringement of personal integrity in the UK, and it is symptomatic that it is held by the tax Authority - which in breach of EU law has been granted the power to administer legal punishment without a trial.

The upside of this perversion is the incentive to quickly expand the tax base by getting more people into the system, and although we initially were told we would have to wait 8 weeks to get the Identity Numbers as all the Swedes go on vacation at the same time (more on this absurdity later) we eventually managed to acquire taxable status for our infants in less than two weeks.

Once the identity numbers were cleared the process of getting temporary travel passports were expediently dealt with in a matter of hours.

UK:

+ The ability to fast-track your passport application by paying an extra fee

- The inability to tell you how to fill out your application

Sweden:

+ Friendly and efficient service once the Identity numbers had been established

- The idea of a complete shut-down of civilization during the summer months labelled "The Industrial Vacation"

Winner:

Sweden beats the UK in terms of bureaucratic efficiency hands down.