The Average Stockholmer in Reality

The official picture of the Average Stockholmers is all painted by statistics. But as Mark Twain said: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics," we've got to take this picture with a grain of salt.

When it comes to salary, for example, the average salary is the before-tax figure. Since Stockholmers pay an average 30% income tax, the after-tax average comes down to SEK14.350 (US$1,971 / €1.588). If that still seems high to you, hold on. There is a 25% sales tax on almost everything we buy. And besides, many blue collar workers earn much less than this figure. Given that fact that the price level here in Sweden is among the highest in Europe, a typical workers' salary doesn't go very far. (Eating out, for example, is a luxury. I do this only once every three to four months).

The worst item on the list of a Stockholmer's expenses has to be housing. Unless you are lucky enough to have a first-hand rental contract of a large apartment from several decades ago, you are most likely to have to a) rent second-hand or third-hand and move around once every few months; b) buy a first-hand rental contract in the black market for about SEK250000 ($34,339 / €27.706) in cash and then pay the rent every month; c) purchase an apartment at the average cost of SEK40000 ($5,500 / €4.400) per square metre, and keep on paying a monthly maintenance fee.

What about the healthcare system? Isn't it among the best in the world--as an average Swede would argue? Well, the medical system has deteriorted so much in recent years that people really don't get much out of their tax money. There has been a substantial cut of healthcare workers in recent years. Elderly people don't get the low-cost healthcare and dental care anymore. They have to pay from their own pockets if they want to do anything "special" and often they have to travel very far to see the doctor. Expecting mothers are always in the fear of not being able deliver at a hospital in time--there are simply not even beds in most hospitals serving cities. Women are discouraged to see a gynecologist on a regular basis because now they have to pay SEK600 instead of the original SEK120 nominal fee. And the lines to see any doctor at all is long, so you'd better try not to be sick at all.

The official unemployment figure is 6%, but having been unemployed for long stretches of periods, I understand that this figure doesn't reflect the reality. Since many unemployed people choose to go back to school or take some courses to improve their skills (which I have done), they are not counted as unemployed, but in reality they are.

And then there are those who benefit from the parental leave system. Before I came to Sweden, I thought, "What a great benefit!" After I came here I realized that one cannot really take advantage of it if one is unemployed, and who knows how long it would take for an immigrant to get a job? Even for those couples who benefit, most fathers don't choose to take paternal leaves because they would have to sacrifice a larger sum from their income than if their wives take the leave (due to the fact that men learn more than women in general). Yes, in the land which touts itself as being one of the most gender-equal society in the world, women are still being paid substantially less than their male counterparts even if they hold the same positions.

Crime is on the rise, of course. The most shocking in the public life of this social democracy since Olof Palme was the murder of Foreign Minister Anne Lindh last year. But, unfortunately, it did not shake the average citizen out of their rose-colored bubble. To them, this society has always functioned best as a social democracy, so it should be kept the way it always has been. There are so many social problems that can no longer be solved by the high-taxation and "big brother" governing philosophy. The "folkhemmet" (people's home) of the 60s is no longer a reality. But most people still live in that dream--that illusion that the government is going to take care of you from cradle to grave.