Reinfeldt open to further tax cuts (- Swedish consumers the happiest on Earth?)

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has indicated that his government is ready to push ahead with further tax cuts assuming public finances continue to improve.

Reinfeldt told Sveriges Television (SVT) on Sunday that he’s open to moving ahead with the fifth stage in the centre-right government’s in-work tax credit programme (jobbskatteavdraget).

According to Reinfeldt, the tax reductions could come as soon as January 1st, 2012 as long as the four parties of the centre-right Alliance government can come to an agreement on the issue.

“But we believe on the best way to stimulated part time workers and low-wage earners to want to work more. Everyday working people will notice it in their wallets,” he told SVT.

The plan would cut taxes for wage earners by between 190 and 375 kronor ($27 to $54) per month, according to calculations presented during the 2010 election campaign.

Reinfeldt hopes to provide additional tax relief in the coming years to other segments of the population.

“It ought to be matched with further relief for pensioners and tax reductions that make life easier for companies. In this case, we’ve proposed cutting the value added tax for restaurant services in half,” he said.

Economy isn't the only thing that matters in life, but to a large degree, a sound economy is intrinsic to individual and national progress. In this sense, most other nations on Earth have a lot to learn from Scandinavia.

Most Americans probably would say Swedes pay more income tax than they do. Also, many US consumer seem to believe they or perhaps the Swiss, the Norwegians or some Arab nation enjoys the highest purchasing power nation-wise.

I'm Swedish and I've been to the US, Switzerland and Norway.

I've also seen statistics on GDP/capita by PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) - and I'm well aware Sweden doesn't score very well in those ranks. But statistics are mere statistics and reality might tell a different story.

However, I've also studied Economics some and apart from the pleasures of exploring the architecture, social life and culinary traditions of places I visit on Earth, I very much enjoy learning about foreigners material standard of living.

So far, I've not discovered a single country boasting a higher standard of living than my nation. The fact that the average car in Sweden is the Volvo V70 (although few households over here dispose of two brand new ones) and the fact that most Swedish families own two homes (a house/condo in the city + a summer house in the countryside) is an unparalleled national triumph in the domain of standards of living.

Swedes today yet are heavily overtaxed and deserve to consume even more of Volvos, jacuzzis, lutefisk and trips abroad.

“There is something to be said for having a small, homogeneous (in this case white), Christian, educated, democracy with lots of natural resources (including lots of oil) and having a very small defense budget.

It gives a country a few advantages.”

- To begin with, we don't have a small defense budget by per capita terms. It furthermore used to be much higher. We too participate in the WOT (especially in Afghanistan) and we are not a NATO member.

We Swedes could have enjoyed even better lives today if we had not been forced to fight wars against the Catholics and the Russians through centuries.

Yes, Sweden has plenty of natural resources - just like most other countries (many African nations in fact do, still they are “poor”) - but oil is not one of them. Anyhow, you can't explain the success of companies like Ericsson, Skype, H&M, IKEA and Electrolux by simply referring to Swedish forests and mines.

Why do Swedes enjoy such a high standard of living despite our climate, the fiasco of the Swedish nannystate of the 1970s and 1980s (an era many Swedes of today just wish to forget), the small population size and not exactly being located in the center of the World's largest economy like Bavaria, Switzerland, Baden-Würtemberg or Alsace are?

The answer is this:

In Sweden, universities, the government and all sorts of businesses work hand in hand - not against ech other (the success of Swedish/British Astra Zeneca is a good example of this), we are extremely good at implementing the economic aspects of Christian teachings, we understand Capitalism and trade better than we understand Socialism, we believe in the culture of “looking after one’s own house” and we, apparently, are better at maintaining a high national level of work ethics than the Japanese are..

Y’mean the Swedes have found out that cutting taxes raises revenue? We’ll, I’ll be! AMAZING!!!!!

Hey Obie! Hey, Dingy Harry! Hey, IRS!!!!! Look! Cutting taxes raises revenue! Wow!

When you finish that lesson we’ll move on to the best healthcare system in the world and why you shouldn’t touch it.

Then we start on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.

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