Swedish Pensioners Regret Losing Wealth Tax 20 Years Ago

A group of Swedish pensioners is reflecting on a choice their generation didn't fight hard enough against, and their honest reckoning offers lessons for the rest of us.

Twenty years ago, Sweden abolished its wealth tax. At the time, most citizens barely blinked, assuming their famously equal society would stay that way.

They were wrong. Today, Sweden has one of the world's highest ratios of dollar billionaires and is home to unicorn companies like Spotify and Klarna worth over $1 billion each.

"We got lazy and complacent," admits Bengt, 70, who watched his country transform. "There are now 42 billionaires in Sweden. This didn't used to be a country where people could easily become this rich."

Kjerstin, 74, feels the loss even more personally. "I was born after the end of the war and built this society through my life, together with my fellow citizens," she explains. "With taxes being lowered, we're not building anything together now."

The numbers tell the story. Sweden's inequality measure has jumped from 0.2 in the 1980s to 0.3 today, matching the European Union average after decades of being far more equal.

For much of the 20th century, Sweden embodied the opposite of the American dream. The goal wasn't individual exceptionalism but reasonable living standards and universal services for everyone, a concept they called "the people's home."

The wealth tax was introduced in 1911 alongside the first welfare state programs. After World War II, rates rose to 4% for the wealthiest individuals, though exemptions made the actual burden less clear.

Marianne, 77, remembers not worrying much when the tax disappeared in 2006. "We didn't have lots of rich aristocrats who owned everything," she says. "Abolishing the wealth and inheritance tax seemed like a practical thing, not so political."

That assumption proved costly. The pensioners I spoke with built their welfare state through communal effort, viewing it as everyone pitching in together rather than taking from the rich to give to the poor.

Why This Inspires

What makes these Swedish pensioners remarkable isn't that they got everything right. It's that they're willing to admit they got something important wrong.

Their honest reflection shows the kind of civic courage we need more of. Instead of defending past choices or blaming others, they're acknowledging their role in changes they now regret.

"We didn't protest this," Bengt says simply. "We didn't realize we were becoming this country of rich people."

Their willingness to speak up now, sharing hard-won wisdom about protecting equality and the common good, gives younger generations the chance to make different choices. That kind of intergenerational honesty is a gift.

Sometimes the most inspiring thing isn't getting it right the first time—it's having the courage to say "we should have done better" and hoping others will learn from your mistakes.