There are evenings when life feels pretty simple. You've eaten, maybe read something, maybe exercised, maybe watched a bad movie that was still pretty good. Then there are evenings when your whole life suddenly opens up like an old linen closet and everything falls out onto the floor at the same time. Then you can start to think about how…
Category: Class society
The Sweden Democrats' betrayal of their own voters
Worse unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, higher unemployment, eroded welfare resources and tax cuts that have greatly benefited high-income earners. A new report from Katalys examines what the institute describes as the Sweden Democrats' betrayal of the workers, unemployed and low-income earners who helped the party to power. The SD received 29 percent of the workers' votes in the 2022 election and 27 percent among LO members….
Relationships alone are not enough – happiness requires a holistic perspective
Relationships important but no miracles Good relationships are crucial for well-being. A long-term Harvard study with that message, the New York Times recently highlighted. The research supports it. People with warm, stable relationships live longer and happier on average. Isolation, on the contrary, can be as harmful as smoking. More time with family and friends actually increases…
Inequality breeds right-wing extremism
Everyone runs – few arrive A nurse counts the minutes between alarms. A warehouse worker lifts at the high pace required by the band. A teacher takes the correction home again. All three have too tough working conditions. Sweden is even among the worst in the Nordic countries in terms of cultural funding, which is why librarians and museum officials have far too poor…
Sufficient childbearing is a matter of security
Sweden's fertility rate has fallen to a historic low of 1,43 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2,1. Karin Engdahl believes that political reforms are urgently needed to restore young people's faith in the future. She suggests reducing working hours, especially for parents of young children. Without more secure jobs, cheap, good and beautiful housing and investments in saving the climate. and stronger welfare…
Life expectancy and class gaps within it are increasing
Despite increased life expectancy since the 1950s, large differences between groups are increasing. The average life expectancy for men in Sweden is 82,3 years. For women, it is 85,4, which is 3,1 years more than for men. For example, the average life expectancy in the 1950s, calculated from birth, was around 74 years for women and 71 years for men. Nowadays, infant mortality is lower…
The crisis of hyperglobalization – and the path to a new green Bretton Woods
The crisis of hyperglobalization finally arrived. For several decades, the world had been governed by one idea: that more trade, more deregulation and more global capital mobility would automatically lead to prosperity. In the report “Out of the Ashes into the Fire,” Stefan de Vylder calls the period from 1980 to 2016 the era of hyperglobalization – an era in which the economy became increasingly…
From the public home to the financial crisis
Anders Borg's confession and the false burden of debt In 2005, Anders Borg admitted that it was not welfare that caused the 1990s crisis, but a misvalued exchange rate and poorly managed macroeconomic policy. Despite this, welfare was left to bear the blame. The Moderates used this narrative to push through attacks on wage earners, privatizations and cuts. Already in 2006, when Fredrik Reinfeldt won the election,…
Saving the world starts with local protests
How do we save democracy, world peace, the climate and nature? Democracy wins the people and vulnerable groups through local protests historically. If they are of sufficient public interest, they spread. Today's capital is built on fragile international systems such as just-in-time. These are very sensitive to disruptions. If local protests spread, this could have a major effect. Could red-green…
Threat to democracy with private universities
Private universities – are they really better just because they are self-governing? The Liberals are now proposing, in a first step that I suspect will be taken against private universities, that more universities should become foundations. The stated noble purpose is to secure the academic freedom of higher education institutions. There is a widespread belief that privatization automatically leads to higher quality…