Back when Bernie Sanders was out shouting in the media -- and said things like "We should be more like SWEDEN!" -- our Cato-affiliated friend, Johan Norberg, #607347, #969787, wrote op-eds and went on television saying... YEES, America should be more like Sweden: you know, more free trade, less onerous bureaucracy, better protection of property, integrity of government etc, and all the other ways in which Sweden outperforms 'Murica in economic freedom (= every metric but size of government. Duh.)

Oh man, do I have things to say about this topic -- and this article specifically.Oh man, do I have things to say about this topic -- and this article specifically.

Stupid attention-grabbing headlines, of course, because Sweden (and Swedes) do not love capitalism... though they seem somewhat less outspokenly hostile to it, compared to some loud-mouthed idiots elsewhere...

It's a nice long read, touching on some select current-affairs topics (gang violence, private schools, inequality, economic miracle, growth challenges)... though completely overdoes the "privately operated-publicly financed" schooling and hospital.
That's NOT what's interesting about Sweden's 50-year pivot from Big(gest!) Government!

THIS history should be the focus, not political squibbles over whether some high school is too lavish with public funds

Sweden didn’t always have a big public sector. The country climbed from being one of the poorest to the third-richest country in Europe over 100 years through 1970 without high levels of taxation. But starting in the 1960s, the center-left Social Democratic Party—which dominated the country’s postwar politics—sharply raised taxes and spending, ultimately taking government spending as high as 70% of GDP by the 1990s. The changes triggered a long period of weak growth, stagnant after-tax incomes and ballooning budget deficits and debt that culminated in a banking crisis in the early ’90s.

They included cuts to unemployment benefits and housing subsidies and the privatization of public services, as well as tax cuts and a reform of the pension system to make it more affordable. Strict limits were imposed on government debt. (Sweden’s debt to GDP is a meager 36%, compared with 129% for the U.S.) In the mid-2000s, the government eliminated wealth and inheritance taxes.

That history is fantastic. 1870-1970, under comparatively _small_ government, Sweden had the (second-fastest... Japan fucked us) per-capita GDP growth ever recorded. And then Icarus flew too close to the sun, lefties thought they could do nothing wrong, and spent a few decades ruining _a lot_.

The backlash/pinball from some financial and banking crises in the ~1990s and constant deregulation/abolishing harmful taxes and lowering rates since have been a godsend.

America should take note of this storyAmerica should take note of this story

(That debt ratio, too, is, all things considered, pretty impressive.)

And, of course, any story in the 2020s need to have an AI angle... oh, look, private hospital rolling out AI use and telehealth faster! https://stacker.news/items/1492590telehealth

Like all Swedish hospitals, St. Göran’s is publicly funded. But it is owned by a private hospital operator, Capio, and its chief executive trained at McKinsey and talks about KPIs and the Toyota model of lean management. That mentality is one reason St. Göran’s rolls out productivity-enhancing tools like AI far faster than its state-run rivals. “We do more for less,” says CEO Gustaf Storm. He estimates it costs 15%-20% more at public Swedish hospitals to treat conditions such as appendicitis than at his hospital.

Stefan Fölster, an economist and former Finance Ministry official, argues that the vast majority of Swedes have benefited from the reforms. Households’ inflation-adjusted incomes have doubled on average since the 1990s, after stagnating during the 1970s and ’80s under high taxation, Fölster noted.
Underscoring the country’s new psyche, school choice is now deeply entrenched in Sweden, with broad backing among parents and within both the current center-right government and center-left opposition Social Democratic Party.

But ahead of September’s general election, fractures over for-profit schools—and societal shifts—are surfacing, and are expected to play a large role in campaigns. The Social Democrats are promising a ban on school profits. The party is also calling for higher investments in public services and social welfare and criticizing past tax cuts for the wealthy.

Yea, boring. I wish it'd be taxation, growth, the oppressive payroll taxes that squeeze out lots of work and the powerful unions squeezing out the rest, and the insane (top-rate) marginal taxes.

Anyway, interesting read if all you know about Sweden is Abba, IKEA, and socialist utopia.

https://archive.md/5j9BK