[Otter74]

A good friend of mine is Swedish and lives in Stockholm. He is a producer for the national nightly news program. I met him when he came to Detroit for a month years ago - his union (unions are widespread and strong in Sweden) had an annual award where they basically gave you a chunk of money and you could go do whatever you wanted exploring with it. He had always wanted to see Detroit, so he spent a month there. He has a nice apartment in Ulrikagatan (I think) and drives a Golf. Owns a country house with his mother and brother. Tons of vacation. Pays about 30% of his salary in taxes, health benefits as above (about 30 bucks to see a doctor, 10 a day if you're in the hospital for something; says the health system is somewhat underfinanced so it's hard to staff it but the health care itself is excellent.)

American car culture is huge in Sweden. I didn't spend a lot of time outside of Stockholm but one Saturday night stumbled into a huge cruise scene that took place every weekend for months in Sveavegen (sp?). And of course there is Power Big Meet out in the boonies, the largest American-car show anywhere.