The Quotes are Powered By Forexpros, the Forex, Futures, and Stock Markets Portal.

Income inequality said to be is growing fastest in Sweden - Surprise challenge to the over hyped welfare state.

Thursday, 16 May 2013
Sweden has emerged as the unlikely country where income gap is growing fastest of all 34 OECD countries, a new report shows which also exhibits that the over-hyped Swedish generous welfare state is really not there.

This comes after the Swedish bank Swedbank in its Swedish incomes development reports in Tuesday also said that income inequality was expanding in Sweden at an alarming rate.

This is not how Sweden was designed to be - a country where some people are having more and others are having almost nothing. Income equality campaigners are asking if this is right. One of such voices are within those seeking to find their way in to a job such a Nina who is concerned about the development.
"It's not good; I had wished that the gap between rich and those seeking jobs was smaller. It is tough when you are unemployed, you have to think at all-time about money each month, how to get food, how it will be tomorrow," said Adolf Rodriguez.

Much of Sweden has better over the past few decades, but at the same time income inequality started increasing rapidly, according to a new OECD report.

In 1995, Sweden had the smallest income gap of all 34 OECD member countries. Today, Sweden has slipped down to 14th place, and is the country where both income inequality and relative poverty increases most.

Relative poverty means having an income below half of the median income in the country. Median income is the income that many Swedes find themselves.

In 1995, it was barely four percent of Swedes who lived in relative poverty - in 2010 it was nine percent. While the survey shows that among those who are best off in Sweden as incomes have risen further - that is, the gaps have widened.

According to Statistics Sweden the are reasons for this phenomenon which include higher pay and higher capital gains, n recent years the introduction of the earned income tax credit. This has meant that the unemployed and benefit claimants have been falling further behind.

The opposition party, Social Democrat economic policy spokesperson Magdalena Andersson is critical.
"We are now seeing increased gaps but we do not see more jobs and we do not see more growth," she says.
The People's Party's economic spokesperson Carl B. Hamilton, however, is not worried, but thinks it is fine with increased income inequality.
"The People's party want people who have attained education to have greater returns. We want to remove austerity tax. It pays to work, train and more skilled jobs," says Carl B. Hamilton.
by Scancomark.com Team

What do you think about this article? Did you spot an error? Please make a comments and join our network