Sweden's quiet success

[Cotuit]

Sweden's quiet success

By Jonathan Power | August 16, 2004

IF ALL the world were like Sweden, there would be no news to report. The last time Sweden hit the front page was when its foreign minister, Anna Lindh, was knifed to death by a madman last year on the eve of a referendum on Swedish entry into the euro zone. The time before that was in the distant past.

But news and truth, as Walter Lippmann observed, should never be confused. The truth is, as a recent report by the United Nations showed, that Sweden is probably the most successful country in the world -- if you factor in not just national income but the longevity of its people, low infant mortality, and high levels of education.

Moreover, a new study by professor Richard Florida of Carnegie Mellon university that measures the kind of creativity most useful to business -- talent, technology, and tolerance -- puts Sweden number one in Europe and ahead of the United States. In the future, Florida argues, this means Sweden will become a "talent magnet" for the world's most purposeful workers.

Yet there is another side of Sweden. If one walks down the out-of-the-way, dirt track that led me to the shores of the Baltic on the island of Faro, one will come, hidden both by forest and the unwillingness of the local people to divulge its whereabouts, to the house of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. For a lifetime Bergman has chronicled the Swedish soul, its solitariness, its obsessiveness, and its melancholia, a trait he shares with other Swedish artistic geniuses -- it's in the poetry of Transtromer, the music of Stenhammar, the paintings of Zorn, and the writings of Strindberg and Dagerman.

Maybe it is this -- plus the long, dark, gray winters -- that will succeed in keeping Sweden partially cut off from the world. Despite its successes at least half its population prefers to be a step apart. Swedish voters turned their back on the euro. This is the European country that along with France loves itself the most, is comfortable in its old ways, is wedded to its cradle to the grave welfare state despite the high taxes needed to support it, and lives a life that is distinctly introverted. You can see it in "medieval week" in the walled city of Visby in the neighboring island of Gotland where visitors come from all over Sweden just to walk quietly around in medieval dress.

The real truth is that the two sides of Sweden coexist, and not altogether uneasily. Sweden has more multinational corporations per head than any other country and, despite its socialism, state-owned enterprises barely exist. Sweden has pioneered private competition in a range of endeavors from railways to hospital management to schools. Immigrants have been welcomed generously. Sweden is the only country in Europe not to insist on some years of transition before the workers of the new eastern members of the European Union are granted the right to free movement.

The Swedes have been called the Japanese of Europe -- the consensual society where disputes are talked out even if it takes hours, days, and months. The idea of the adversarial debate, whether it be in parliament or the courtroom, is regarded as uncivilized. Yet at the same time Swedes are immensely individualistic -- this is the country that pioneered sexual freedom and women's emancipation. Late teenage sex is accepted unblinkingly. The divorce rate is the highest in the Western world.

If you want to understand Sweden you have to understand its Lutheran heritage. While church attendance except at Christmas and Easter is extraordinarily low, probity is in the Swedish soul. Honesty in business is one reason why Swedish firms shine abroad. A handshake seals a deal. Rarely is an idea oversold. Bills are paid on time. If you are in a serious relationship, infidelity is not acceptable. If it happens then it usually means separation.

Swedes have consciously chosen not to take the Anglo-Saxon road. They have one of the lowest take-home pay envelopes in the Western world. The state taxes away almost half of it. As for the rest, Swedes would rather take long holidays and a short workweek than push up the national income figures. Outsiders may say that Sweden, once the richest country in Europe in terms of GNP per head, is losing its way. Insiders are content. The economy purrs along.

Swedes travel. They know the virtues -- and temptations -- of the outside world. They all speak English, even the garbage men. But they are not going to quickly change. The big news in a newsless country is that even in our globalized world you can be different. Indeed it may be that, as professor Florida observed, the world in future may come to Sweden, rather than, as long expected, the other way round.

From The Boston Globe

[danteque]

Intresting article.

I DO admire sweden's way of... making money and having such a high rate of living.

Norway is the best place to live in the world. That's what the U.N says. But, much of it is because we have so much oil.

Also, I do think norway is more independent than sweden. We're not even in the european union. Our long shore, with a tiny population, is hardly heard about from anyone. People don't have a CLUE where norway is. New york times wrote an article about norway, asking if it was euthopia. As a conclusion it mentioned how the petroleum industry has a big role in Norway.

People are worried about how it will go when the oil runs out. I'm not worried. As the rest of Scandinavia, our education strongly focuses on thinking new and being creative.

[KoRn_Snake]

Russia isnt quite as successful as Sweden.(this coming out of a 11 yr olds mouth)

before ww2, we were very poor, and after ww2, we were all dead. then we finnaly got back on track a little bit, got the communist problem, went through that, yada yada yada, then we're here in this farmer community, full of white snow and blizzards, and then theres some technology. sweden is everything. and they didnt go thrrue all as much as the hell russia did. thats because they were good. nothing wrong, no problems(if u dont count back then when they were in the castle age LOL )i really agree its successful, after reading ur article, and the fact that it hasnt been in the news so long: gosh i almost forgot about it! its a very nice place, but since its so nice for now, i think too many ppl will move in, and itll be VERY overcrowded in the future.

[danteque]

Have you looked at the prognoses? If you're looking for overcrowded - check pakistan and india. my golly.

[PghUSA]

Sweden is attacked by the conservatives all the time as "cradle to grave" or an anomoly or a bankrupt culture, interesting article I always wanted to sit down with a good book and really study whats Sweden story is all about and if it would work on a world scale.