STOCKHOLM Caregiver With Fatima Boubker has a tomato in his hand that he can afford. Boubker is shopping in the suburbs, where he travels once a week for cheaper vegetables.
– If I bought where I live, the money wouldn’t be enough for the whole month, he says.
At the market stall in Skärholmen, located in northwest Stockholm, tomatoes cost two and a half euros per kilo, while closer to the center the price is more than four euros in the store. It’s an example, but it describes well the differences in the financial situations of city dwellers.
– The rich don’t come here to shop. They don’t have to look at the prices, Boubker laughs.
Many indicators show that in Sweden the gap between the rich and the poor is deepening.
– The five richest Swedes own more than five million Swedes, i.e. half of the country’s inhabitants, says the head of politics Rosaline Marbinah From Oxfam Sweden.
Fresh from the non-governmental organization Oxfam report measure countries’ ability to combat economic inequality. According to it, Sweden is the worst in the Nordic countries in this fight, and is constantly slipping further away from neighboring countries such as Finland.
The graphic shows how the countries’ rankings have changed in four years:
The rankings of Finland, Norway and Denmark have remained more or less at the same level, Sweden’s ranking has collapsed in four years. Iceland’s ranking is 22nd.
According to Oxfam’s report, the reason is primarily Sweden’s decades-long tax policy, which favors high-income earners. At the same time, it is even more difficult for the poor to survive everyday life, he says.
– We have more and more children who live in poverty and pensioners who do not have money for food.
The report also cites cuts to welfare such as schools and health care as reasons for Sweden’s poor ranking.
According to Marbinah, governments in Sweden have made decisions that deepen the gap in living standards, regardless of whether left-wing or right-wing parties have been in power. In other Nordic countries, the lines of the governments have varied, he says.
In international comparison, Sweden is still a very egalitarian country. The statistics show, however, that wealth is concentrated faster than in comparison countries.
In Sweden, the number of the super-rich is especially highlighted: the country has a relatively large number of dollar billionaires relative to the population.
Swedish media pointed out that Sweden’s richest 1% own relatively more than in any other European country except Switzerland and Russia. The information appears from a study conducted by the financial services company UBS.
“Sweden is a worse country than before”
In Stockholm, money can be seen in areas where living is expensive. There are plenty of customers in Östermalm’s luxury boutiques and restaurants.
Swedish according to the Economic Policy Council the main reason for the growth of economic inequality is the concentration of capital income on the well-off. Salary differences are relatively small in Sweden.
Stockholmers passing by in Östermalm say they have noticed an increase in economic inequality.
– It has become a big problem, says Fabian Sellberg.
Sellberg, who works as an architect, says that he grew up in a suburb near Stockholm, where inequality was visible. In his opinion, the differences are deepening all the time.
There is an IT consultant along the same lines Axel Seger.
– The deepening of the gap is definitely a problem. It increases division when people feel further apart and don’t feel that they have anything in common with others, he says.
Seger says that he himself made a so-called class jump, that is, he now lives a wealthier life than when he was a child. In his opinion, the possibilities for this must exist, and people’s enrichment should therefore not be directly prevented.
Young people stress about money more than before
The Swedish youth barometer published in the spring shows that young people’s relationship with money is changing.
In the barometer, Swedes between the ages of 15 and 24 were asked which five things they ranked as the most important. In the second question, they had to tell how often they have worried about the mentioned thing.
Oxfam’s Rosaline Marbinah considers young people’s relationship with money to be worrying.
– In social media, the dream of getting rich is sold to young people as if it were possible for everyone. But it isn’t, he says.
Marbinah rejects the prevailing idea that happiness means unlimited money.
– We need to change the narrative that a good life means that there must be more money than there is time to waste.
Professor: This is not a zero-sum game
A different perspective on Sweden’s economic inequality has been brought up by, among others, a professor of economics Daniel Waldenström. In his opinion, the economy should not be viewed as a zero-sum game, where the enrichment of one is at the expense of the other.
Waldenström’s argument is that successful businesses that make the rich richer help the entire country’s economy, and thus those who have less.
– They pay salaries and rents for offices, and sell their products and services, making a profit and increasing value, says Waldenström in a video call to .
In Waldenström’s opinion, too large differences in wealth can create rifts between people, but he emphasizes the importance of successful companies in well-being. He does not like that the prosperity of others is seen as a problem.
– It doesn’t matter what the problem is. The rich are almost always blamed. They are the ones who are envied and suspected, he says.
According to Oxfam’s Marbinah, the problem is basically not that some have a lot, but that some don’t have enough. He reminds that 1.4 million Swedes live in relative poverty.
– We have to raise them. Politicians protect those who already have so much. It doesn’t work if the goal is an equal society.