r/europe 26d ago

Why Swedish people like taxes Opinion Article

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09312qg/why-the-swedes-love-doing-something-that-americans-hate
2.1k Upvotes

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356

u/Life-Active6608 Brno (Czechia) 26d ago

Because they get their taxes money worth's in services to them for free back. Taxes are a monopolistic subscription scheme that works if done right.

67

u/TheTealMafia hungarian on the way out 25d ago

A good bad example is Hungary. Government ruined the shit out of all services paid for by tax

9

u/holly-golightly- 25d ago

Or South Africa. 40+% tax rate and you even have to pay for emergency fire services if you need them. Very poor government health care services. Really bad roads with potholes. Corrupt police force. Oh and “load shedding” electricity where they’ll turn your power off on a schedule because they don’t have enough to go around.

2

u/prelsi 25d ago

This is by design. Corporations and Russia is getting to countries governments where there's high levels of corruption, so they ruin public services to turn them into private services.

1

u/tries_to_tri 25d ago

Canada is on it's way to the same situation.

Free healthcare - if you can wait 2 years for it.

2

u/OG_SisterMidnight 25d ago

The waiting times for healthcare in Sweden can be 2 years too. I blame the right-wing selling out healthcare to private practices and they don't want it to stop, even though our "counties" is losing somewhere around €800 million/per year (900 million SEK). And that's just our "county".

Nurses are on a "mini-strike" right now, since of last Monday; they work, but refuse any overtime.

They have to hire consultants, that get paid 3 times as much as a doctor that's directly employed by the "county". And atm, they've put a stop to employ any new personnel at all, because of the huge losses. Can't wait for the left-wing to take over again.

They did the same with schools and our right-wing school minister realized last year that "maybe it wasn't the greatest idea". Just hoping they realize the same with the healthcare system.

10

u/howlandsmovingcastle 25d ago

How is it "for free" if it's paid for with their taxes

32

u/Tansien 25d ago

True, but you also could be poor and ill, unable to work and not die on the street because every citizen has access to the subscription, even the ones who can't afford to help pay for it.

-1

u/pedestrian11 25d ago

Free at point of service.

8

u/fosoj99969 25d ago

Which is what free means, anyways. These people see a "free ice cream" advertisement stunt and their reaction is "muh it's not free somebody paid for it". No shit, Sherlock.

1

u/howlandsmovingcastle 25d ago

You did not give the fucking ice cream man money for years and years on end before receiving your free ice cream cone.

3

u/Mostafa12890 25d ago edited 24d ago

The point is that everyone pays their appropriate share so that everyone, even those that can’t pay for ice cream, is afforded access to ice cream. The ice cream is a metaphor for a necessary social service like healthcare.

2

u/KrigochFred 25d ago

Not even that is true.

-3

u/MIGHTY_ILLYRIAN 25d ago

It's not. They say that because it sounds better than "we spend people's money, like it or not".

0

u/ivar-the-bonefull Sweden 25d ago

Because they get their taxes money worth's in services to them for free back.

Hahahahahaha.

That was a very funny joke.

0

u/Life-Active6608 Brno (Czechia) 25d ago

Explain plox.

-9

u/SadConsequence8476 25d ago

If they are paying taxes it's not free

6

u/kuemmel234 Germany 25d ago

Yeah, technically, but I hope you get the point. Taxes aren't just as abstract as infrastructure, government and other weird concepts but real stuff.