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 tough working conditions. Sweden is even among the worst in the Nordic region for cultural funding why librarians and museum staff have far too poor pay and working conditions. At the same time, someone opens a pay slip in the financial sector that corresponds to several years of the work of the other groups.
In this reality, people often start comparing themselves to vulnerable workers. Not upward, towards the top, but obliquely to the side. “Why does the librarian earn more than me?” “Why does the immigrant have a job and not me?” “Why should the environmental inspector's training be worthwhile when my job is more demanding?” The questions feel reasonable. They are based on fatigue, not malice.
The problem lies elsewhere.
A system that creates conflicts
Since the 1980s, wage formation, taxes and the labor market have changed in a direction that favors capital and career professionsIncome dispersion has increased while security has decreased. Thomas Piketty describes how capital income grows faster than wages.
When the pressure increases Do people look for explanations close to themselves?The anger is directed at the colleague in the classroom, at the immigrant, at the unemployed and sick, at the sociologist, at the cultural worker. Not at the structure that pushes down wages in welfare and at the same time allows extreme top incomes.
It's a classic trap. It divides the many and protects the few.
Purchasing power disappearing from the economy
When wages are squeezed across broad groups, something concrete happens. Purchasing power decreases. Then companies are selling less. Small businesses are losing customers. Investments are postponed.
After the 2008 financial crisis, many countries saw weak wage growth slow the recovery despite low interest rates. Money was concentrated at the top, where it was more often saved than used for everyday consumption.
The economy is losing momentum from below.
Cheap labor makes the economy worse
It sounds paradoxical, but low wages can slow down productivity.
When labor is cheap and replaceable, employers' incentive to improve the organization decreases. Why invest in better machines, smarter schedules, or training when you can squeeze a little more out of people?
Historically, we see the opposite in economies where wages have risen broadly. Higher wages forces innovationCompanies are streamlining, automating and building more efficient workflows. The result is higher productivity and often a better work environment.
When people instead work hard for low wages the economy is stuck in low efficiencyBodies wear out instead of technology developing.
Working conditions shape the entire economy
Stress and insecurity cost more than they save. Sick leave increases. Staff leave. Skills disappear. Production falters.
During the same period that wage differences and capital income increased, unemployed, workers and sick people have been made worse off, productivity growth has slowed. It makes sense. An exhausted nurse or stressed construction worker cannot work effectively in the long run.
Postwar growth in Europe was built on the opposite. High wages, strong unions, and security created demand. Workers could buy what they produced. Companies invested to meet demand. Productivity rose along with living standards.
When inequality threatens everyone
This is not just about justice. It's about stability.
As divisions grow, trust diminishes. People withdraw or react with anger. Politics becomes more unstable. History shows what follows: social unrest, polarization, and economic crises.
Societies don't just fall because they are poor. They fall when people stop believing in the system.
It affects even the richest. No market works without customers. No investment is safe in a society that is shaking.
Together is the way forward
The solution doesn't lie in pushing someone else down. It lies in building up from below.
Raise the floor. All jobs should provide a livable life.
Promote welfare professions, the cultural sector, environmental protection activities and other socially beneficial activities in the public sector. Salaries and working conditions should reflect responsibility and competence.
Press the top. Extreme concentration of income harms the economy.
Strengthen working conditions. People work better when they have the energy to live.
Then the incentives also change. Companies invest in technology instead of wearing out people. Organizations become smarter. Productivity really grows.
Stop arguing sideways
As long as we compare ourselves sideways, development will continue in the wrong direction.
When we instead demand better conditions for everyone, the playing field changes.
That's where the hope lies. Not in someone being given less dignity, but in the floor and ordinary academics being given a good life.
Yes, things have gone wrong in Sweden with an impoverishing policy in welfare, culture and civil society. The politics of the right kills morality. It happens that people are not people but as a means to be economic machines. A path that existed in the communist systems with people as economic cattle.
Cory Doctorow has some examples of research on this at https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/12/always-great/.
For example, it is possible to find direct connections between hospital closures in England and votes for Reform.
Interesting.