Yes, Sweden of today is pretty rich and we could afford hobbies like restoring old American cars to mint condition.
The major reason behind this is the fact Sweden has had a major rethink and shifted its national policy from a Socialism to Capitalism mindset.
From 1870-1970, Sweden was the most successful country on Earth in terms of annual GDP growth. During 1970-1990 it was the least successful of all industrialized nations.
Today, we could compete with China and India in these domains.
Income taxes are still very high in Sweden and so are the taxes on consumption.
But the good news is that corporate taxes are very low over here. The business life in Sweden indeed looks very healthy.
>>The major reason behind this is the fact Sweden has had a major rethink and shifted its national policy from a Socialism to Capitalism mindset.
I remember reading an article about Sweden in National Geographic some time ago. I’m thinking ~15+ years, as it has probably been that long since I dropped my subscription due to their obnoxious knee-jerk Leftism on many things.
There was a comment from a Swede in that article that I always remembered. Paraphrasing, it went something like “We are better off than you are. While we may be more socialist than you, we have figured out we were going down that wrong road and have turned back, while you are still going.”
I hope we turn around soon.