Sweden: Falldin's Fall

Bedeviled by tax reform

No issue is so certain to rile the normally subdued Swedes as taxes. With reason. The average Swedish worker must turn over about half of his earnings to finance the cradle-to-grave welfare society, and for the self-employed the tax bite frequently exceeds 85% of income. Historian Sven Stolpe was so disgusted by his tax assessment that he threatened to burn all his unpublished manuscripts. An actor even set himself ablaze last March outside Stockholm's tax office. But most Swedes have chosen a less extreme alternative: the ballot box. In 1976 they turned out the Social Democratic...

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