The Swedish government's destruction of the family

Originally the Swedish tax system was purposely set up to make women join the labor for.  With its very progressive tax rates and each individual being taxed on their own income, not the family's income, families are much better off having two people earn $50,000 each than one earning $100,000.  There is an additional point that was original noted by Sherwin Rosen.  From the WSJ:

Swedish author and educator Jonas Himmelstrand says although parents are given long parental leaves to spend time with their children in the first year of life, the Swedish system of universal day care could encourage parents to disconnect after that time. 

"The state is sending out the message that you don't have to raise your children yourself," says Mr. Himmelstrand. "Day care and schools will raise your kids, and when the kids come home, you can just be their friend." . . .

With essentially free day care, parents are giving up a lot financially to stay home with their kids.  It is also hard to convince grandparents or others to help out.  After all, why are the grandparents willing to be inconvenienced when free day care is available?

My own belief is that separating parents from their children is all part of the government's scheme to indoctrinate children.

Swedes getting tired of long queues to get health care, moving to private health insurance

Seven day waits to visit primary care doctor? As someone who has had relatives through marriage in Sweden, I can attest first hand that there have been extremely long delays of months once one gets past primary care.  From The Local in Sweden:

More than half a million Swedes now have private health insurance, showed a new review from industry organization Swedish Insurance (Svensk Försäkring). In eight out of ten cases, the person's employer had offered them the private insurance deal. 

"It's quicker to get a colleague back to work if you have an operation in two weeks' time rather than having to wait for a year," privately insured Anna Norlander told Sveriges Radio on Friday. "It's terrible that I, as a young person, don't feel I can trust the health care system to take care of me."  

The insurance plan guarantees that she can see a specialist within four working days, and get a time for surgery, if needed, within 15. 

In December, the queues in the Swedish health care system pushed the country down a European ranking of healthcare. 

"Why can Albania operate its healthcare services with practically zero waiting times, and Sweden cannot?" the report authors from the Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP) organization in Brussels asked, albeit acknowledging modest improvements. "The Swedish queue-shortening project, on which the state has spent approximately €5 billion, has achieved some shortening of waiting times." . . .  

"The target for maximum wait in Sweden to see your primary care doctor (no more than seven days) is underachieved only by Portugal, where the corresponding figure is 15 days," the report stated. . . .

The economic rise, fall, and rise of Sweden

Fred Bergsten has a nice summary of how Sweden's fortunes have changed since the late 1960s.  In 2011, Sweden had a corporate tax rate of 26.3 percent, while the US had a rate of 39.2 percent.  Sweden has vouchers and a competitive education system.  The US is protecting teachers.  That said, Bergsten has some points about current account surpluses that I think are wrong -- deficits can simply mean that people are investing in the US, which was true for much of US history.  From the Washington Post (much more good info is in the piece):

. . . Sweden was the world’s third-richest country in 1968 but became a massive welfare state in the 1970s and 1980s and a prototype for how not to run an economy. It slid to No. 17 in the global income rankings and experienced a deep financial and real estate crisis in 1991, according to a 2012 study from the Research Institute of Industrial Economics. To its enormous credit, Sweden reversed course with consummate skill and political courage; it has become a paragon of sensible economic and social policy. 

Sweden’s economic growth has been much higher than that of the rest of Western Europe, or the United States, since 2006. Data from the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that Sweden has one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe; it runs a budget surplus every year; its corporate tax rates are considerably lower than U.S. rates; and it spends more on research and development, as a share of its economy, than we do. . . . 

After its crisis, Sweden reduced public expenditures by 20 percent of its gross domestic product, slashing social transfers such as unemployment benefits and sick-leave compensation. It cut its public debt in half (its debt, as a proportion of the economy, is now about half that of the United States). It cut marginal tax rates and simplified its tax code so much that nearly two-thirds of Swedes simply confirm by phone that the declaration automatically prepared for them by the tax authorities is correct. . . . 

Structural reforms were also adopted. Successive governments deregulated one market after another and privatized as market conditions permitted. All children receive vouchers so their parents can choose private or public schools at public expense. Swedish social security became a true insurance system, rather than a pay-as-you-go one with huge unfunded liabilities as in the United States. . . . .