AMERICAN REACTS TO 5 THINGS SWEDEN DOES BETTER THAN AMERICA

[@periaadoc]

Taxes: In January the employer sends you a note telling you how much you earned and how much tax you paid. The banks send a note on how much you paid in interest and how much money you earned in stock or interest rates. In Mars, you can go to IRS (Skatteverket) website. Log in on your personal page (with bank ID) and check if they have the same figures that you do. Sign with your Bank ID and you're done. It can be done on paper and snail-mail but almost all do it by cell phone or computer. Time max 5 mins.

[@Ferdawoon]

The recycling is interesting. Sure we have recycling stations where you take your old TV and old frying pans and all that, but there is also the household recyling which has its own system. So a while ago, the Government said that if a company produces a container (aluminum cans, plastic bottles, milk cartons, etc) then that company is also responsible for the handling of it after the consumer is done with it. If there's a lot of littering of soda cans everywhere then the street cleaners will clean it up and send the bill to the company who made the cans. So spread around the cities there are areas with various bins to recycle household containers and it is managed and paid for by the manufacturers. They were not forced to do it, they could have done it any way they wanted (they could have ignored it and just kept paying the bill from the county cleaning up) but the companies all had a meeting and decided to make their own recycling system. It was simply the cheapest option for them.

[@aniieesteiner]

Average student debt in Sweden is actually just about USD 15k, so more than Andrew said but still less than in the US. It's also true that you have the rest of your working life to pay it off. But the icing on the cake has to be the interest rate. US student loan interest rate is 5,8%. In Sweden it is 0% this year. 0%! This changes year to year and the highest interest rate for the last decade ahs been 2,4% if you studies in the 80s or earlier, and 1,9% for newer students. last year the interest rates were 0,05%

[@karljuliuz]

I have no idea what he's talking about, about the dept. I’m a Swede and I got free school all the way. But I'm guessing he means after collage, like higher education if you want to pursue your career in your 30s or whatever lol haha.

[@vanmakt124]

He's talking aboute the CSN loans you have to take if youre going to study after the gymnasium, to pay the living costs. (if you're not still living at home with mom that is :)). The medium dept in sweden for ppl have taken a CSN loan is aboute 150000kr and that is the dept you have when you're starting your working careeer.