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I, as an American, decided to move to Sweden for all of the reasons GP posted, and despite your list of supposed downsides. A few observations after six months
by maukdaddy 14y ago
I, as an American, decided to move to Sweden for all of the reasons GP posted, and despite your list of supposed downsides. A few observations after six months here:
* The Swedish summer more than makes up for the dark winter. Not that much colder than Chicago either.
* Taxes are high, but the benefits you get from the taxes are astounding, especially from an American perspective. Great roads, clean cities, amazing public transit, free healthcare, etc.
* Six weeks of vacation, over a year of maternity leave, etc. Enough said.
* Yes, the rental market in Stockholm sucks.
Honestly, Sweden is truly a democratic model that other countries should try following. I'm very happy with my decision to move here and wish I had discovered it sooner.
- hermanhermitage 14y agoI'm a joint Australian/UK citizen, I work in Stockholm from time to time (usually 3-6 months bursts). Because of my pattern the tax issue is a non issue for me. I would agree with all the positives posted here. The only notable negatives I've noticed (in order of annoyance) are: * The intrusive personnummer. * The rental market (and the bloody laundry madness...) in Stockholm. * Something similar to but not quite as overt as Racism. The personnumer is used as a primary key by many businesses. Some visitors may not have a personnumer and this makes it difficult to do a range of things like visit some Gyms and so forth. The rental market situation is a nightmare. Even worse than Sydney. If you look like a non native Scandinavian this can lead to significant non-confrontational discrimination in some "exclusive" sub-cultures.