Sweden taxing itself into oblivion
Source: swedenreport.org
I have two months left in Sweden before I return home to USA. Honestly, I’m starting to feel like the guy in a bad movie that manages to get his plane off the ground two seconds before the runway crumbles into the abyss.
The security concerns with returning ISIS fighters aside, the social tensions are mounting rapidly alongside the enormous cost of the unprecedented increase in immigration.
Aftenposten, one of Norway’s major newspapers, did a big story yesterday comparing the very generous (by European standards) immigration of Norway vs. the jaw-dropping kamikaze approach of Sweden.
The article is entitled “Facts about immigration to Sweden that the Swedes would rather not talk about” and summarizes the madness pretty well. If you don’t want to run it through a translator, the graphs speak loud and clear for themselves:
Total number of asylum seekers, Sweden vs. Norway.
The percentage of applicants actually granted asylum.
The increasing additional cost (Migration bureau only, not secondary expenses).
The number of people with granted asylum, yet remainining in temporary housing.
Shantytowns and Nordic favelas are to be the new “normal” as the modular housing program is launched in every major town. There’s no time to waste; housing for 600 000 new arrivals, as much as an entire new Stockholm, must be arranged to meet the inflow in the next few years alone. Nevermind that anyone can see that these favelas will become cesspits of crime, drugs and permanent misery the instant they’re created.
The cost of this misguided humanitarianism is already skyrocketing. A week ago Dagens Industri, the leading business daily in Sweden, took a sobering look at the state finances. The cost of immigration kinda stood out: +205%.
“Here are the runaway costs”
To counter this rapidly expanding money pit, the leftist government has announced a barrage of tax hikes and reduced or abolished deductions.
The deduction for retirement savings accounts is gone. The tax on the alternative fund savings accounts is also to be hiked, although the exact level is TBD. The Swedish equivalent of social security is already in the red, and since all new arrivals are entitled to pensions (sometimes more generous than those who has worked and paid taxes all their lives) it is a mystery how coming generations are to survive without private savings to make up for the inevitably shrinking government pensions.
Charity thrift stores are as of this year hit with a 25% sales tax (!) and deductions for household services (ranging from carpentry and plumbing to maids and study aids) are reduced or abolished. The previous moderate deductions allowed regular taxpayers to get help for small stuff without hiring someone off the books, which dramatically reduced the shady underground black economy in previous years).
Fuel taxes will be hiked considerably, starting with 0,44 SEK per liter starting 2016. But… Here’s the kicker: They also snuck in a progressive tax hike, linking fuel tax to the consumer price index plus 2% annually. So without any politician having to lift a finger, the cost of gasoline will gradually increase. Dagens Industri calculates that in 30 years, the tax hike will be about 224%. That’s some 30 SEK per liter, or just north of $12 per gallon!
Read the rest at: swedenreport.org
