Sweden's Reinfeldt to Use Growth, Surplus for Tax Cut By Jonas Bergman Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Fredrik Reinfeldt will use a budget surplus and the fastest growth in six years, both inherited from the defeated Social Democrats, to deliver on his campaign promise to cut Sweden's taxes without dismantling its cradle-to- grave welfare system. As prime minister, the 41-year-old leader of the Alliance for Sweden aims to provide an alternative to the model the Social Democrats have used to govern Sweden for 61 of the past 70 years. He says tax cuts will stimulate employment and help to break many Swedes' dependence on welfare... LINK
When it's all said and done more job creation is what reduces poverty more so than gov't programs. I never saw the reason to have everyone in Sweden benefit from their welfare system regardless of their actual needs. That to me is a waste of resources and creates a stronger need for higher taxation that may or may not be there depending on the size of the taxable workforce population. I also find it interesting that this new PM got enough votes to win. This must indicate that many Swedes saw a need for some changes in their country.
"150 billion kronor ($20 billion) over the next three years" is a lot of money to be pushing around. "Still, Reinfeldt will face opposition from unions to making cuts to unemployment, sickness and early-retirement benefits, which the alliance has proposed to finance its planned 60 billion kronor in tax cuts. The four parties have also promised to eliminate Sweden's wealth tax." That is somewhat drastic considering that the unemployment rate of Sweden is only roughly 6%.
Well I've found that Sweden's unemployment numbers seem to be of big debate. There seems to be disagreements on how the unemployed are being counted. Examples: " It takes a few seconds to check up the American unemployment number, 5.1% in May. Sure there are speculations about discouraged workers leaving the workforce, but overall this is a reliable figure, useful for international and cross time comparison. Not so with Sweden. Yes, there is an official number, 5.2% in May 2005. But this figure is almost compleatly worthless. The true unemployment number is in fact closer to 20%, as shown below. Sweden has several massive government programs that contain most of the unemployed, chiefly Early Retirement, Sick Leave, Labor Market Programs and Welfare. In addition, since students get a monthly stipend and loan, many unemployed continue to study when they can’t find work. Controversy The right in Sweden has for some time complained about the government hiding the unemployment in ‘programs’. But the question only came to the public knowledge when LO, the immensely powerful blue-collar union had one of it’s own turn against them... " link ------------------------ " The government maintains the unemployment rate is a low 6%, while the opposition says it is around 10%, taking into account the many people on sick leave and in job training schemes. " BBC NEWS
I was misled by the title of this thread. I demand a highly thought-out and organized apology. Thanks. *runs away*
Since when does sick leave or job training count as being unemployed? Is sweden suffering from domestic problems that i am unaware of, because spending their tax dollars on students, sick leave and job training doesn't seem worthless to me... Those are not pork programes and they seem to be programes that would stimulate economic growth not hold it back. And a surplus from the previous admin seems to indicate that it's not draining resources either...
One thing I've read is that some in Sweden feel that their welfare system needs reforming because they feel that the benefits are so generous that many people have found it's better to stay unemployed than to get a job. I read that Germany had a similar problem with it's generous unemployment benefits because too many people just stayed unemployed to collect benefits. I would think that this would reduce the income taxes needed to fund their benefits in the first place. Maybe that's what Swedes and the new PM are concerned about.
Okay, but again, if only 6% are tuely "unemployed", with another 4-5% on sick leave (meaning they are currently employed), students (who when graduated will contribute to economic growth), or job training (again, employed and as better skilled workers will contribute to economic growth), where exactly is the amount of people who just don't feel like working? and if there was/is a surplus how are these programs negatively affecting government spending? What is Sweden's current tax rate?
So those affected the most will be the poor, the sick, the elderly, and students. Meanwhile they will lessen the amount of taxation on the wealthy? Sounds like the voters are working against their best interests... Since when has economic policies of the right (even the center right) ever benifited the general populace?
