Reaction To 5 Things Sweden Does Better Than America 

Sweden recycle so good that powerplants that run on waste have to import waste from other countries and get paid for it, like for example from the UK.

Sounds like taxes work exactly the same here in Sweden as in the UK. The employer takes care of everything and we never have to worry about taxes. Once per year we get a prefilled form where the tax agency details exactly what we have earned and how much taxes we have paid (and if we are entitled to any money back :)). We usually just skim through the document and sign it digitally with Bank ID.

4:30 swish was made collaborately between more or less all the big banks which is what made it work so well and flawlessly immediately at launch :)

Swish is a collaboration between Swedish banks and the Swedish central bank which means you need a Swedish bank account to use it. The difference between Swish and most other money transferring services is that EVERYONE in Sweden uses the same one. And I do mean everyone; 99% of people between the ages of 18-50 uses Swish and more than 8,3 million people in total, meaning more than 80% of the population uses the service. Meanwhile, other similar services are more spread out between different ones. For example, Venmo and CashApp are very popular in the United States but they only have 80 and 50 million users respectively. And I'm not entirely sure but from my understanding, those services are more like electronic wallets acting like separate accounts, whereas with Swish, the money is instantly transferred from/into your bank account.

he said that we don´t really have homeless people in sweden , and thats wrong, last count they made was 2017 and it was 33000 known homeless, this year they are doing a count again and im pretty sure that the amount are pretty much higher

Sweden was actually the first in the world with a deposit on glass bottles years. 1885.

Swish and Bank-id is a collaboration between banks in Sweden to create a safer and better way to transfer money and to ID yourself in different situations. Just as in England, all taxes are already deducted by our employer when we get your salary and most people will just need to approve the tax every year as the video says, that your employer deducted correct on your salary, your bank will also send in information about your savings, loans, and interest and you control that it is accurate. If you have other deductions, for travel in work, ROT, or RUT (- services to households like renovations or cleaning,) stock market, own company and so on,, you may add that to your tax papers so you pay correctly.

When he talks aluminum cans and recycling he forgot to mention PET bottles that are the same (getting money back when recycling I mean). Like soda bottles and some others too.

Btw recycling is in our DNA

Love that scottish accent! To me you sounds like Jimmy Perez in the TV serie Shetland. I'm swedish and may be wrong.😊

Sweden actually make the paper for euro bills.

The recycling win is incinerating thrash that doesn't emit toxic stuff. To produce heat, warm water and electricity. All that used to be oil-based so we already had warm water radiators everywhere so the transition was easy, build incinerators and dig down big pipes in the ground. To my knowledge UK system is more gas than oil-based so different infrastructure and a bigger transition. Sweden even gets paid to import trash from the UK and Norway to keep the incinerators burning and still has less than 1% of trash going to landfills.

The main difference between Swedish and American tax declaration is that in Sweden the gouverment has to declare how much tax you will pay and you agree with signing or disagree by making different corrections on the form. In USA it is the opposite. You have to declare your incomes and the state agrees or disagrees. That is why it is so much easier to do your taxes in Sweden.

students that live 2km or more away from the school get free public transport some people living in the contry side even get free taxi by the city

we pay tax every month which is deducted directly from the salary before we receive it and it is a certain % which is deducted every month. When we make our declaration to the tax office once a year, there are certain things we can get money back for.. for example, if we have a long journey to work, we can get compensation for the trips we made to our job, we can also get money back if you have a loan through a bank, we get money back for the interest. In some cases, we can get compensation for work clothes depending on what you do for work and also for other benefits. Since there are unforeseen compensations that happen every month, it is regulated every year when we declare. It could also be that we paid too little tax, if, for example, we sold a house/apartment/cottage and the profit is a certain percentage more than we bought it for, we have to pay a certain amount of tax on the profit between what I bought them for and what I sold them for.

I think the recycling complaints are valid. Ofc recycling should be accessible, AND it should be easy.

Bob Marley supposedly said "If traveling was free, you would never see me again"

The tax agency want to do good stuff for our society. Do it easy to do taxes makes more people do them. I was late with my taxes, really late and they wanted to make me pay for that lateness. I wrote to them and tried to do explain my current situation and said that I do better in the future. They withdrew that sum so i did not have to be punished. And of course I will be in time with my tax return in the future because they were so generous. Kindness pays off, if you are a good person and a good society wants good people and good people want a good society. hey its a loop, what about that.

More public transportation, and especially biker and pedestrian friendly cities, aren't just good for the environment. It is great for the health as well! I think we should all use Amsterdam in the Netherlands or Ghent in Belgium as examples.

In Sweden it's the employer that makes sure your salary is properly taxed too. If you have a business or an extra income on the side. Than it's up to you.

Student debt is only if you want to study in another city and need accommodation. For that there are so called "study loan" (swe: studielån) which you have like 50 years to pay off and it's currently 0.59% interest 2023. On top of study loan, there is also "CSN" that gives you money for studying (that you don't have to pay back). Depending on your study speed, 100%, 75%, etc, you get varying amounts. So for instance, I studied in my home town so I didn't need a study loan, but I did get CSN which was around $240~ per month back then. This year it's $320~. So not only was the university for free, I actually gained 240 per month for just studying :)

For a 3 year bachelor’s degree the debt would be about $25,000. You get to loan about $1000 every month you’re studying, which is 9 months a year. However, the interest on that loan is extremely low

We don't have the death penalty and then go about forcing women to give birth to children that are not wanted. I don't know what the hell they call that maybe... a inconsistency.

I paid my student loans in 10 years. Was in the uni for three years.

Haha funny that he used the clip with the angry man missing the train =P That thing went viral hah

The bank-id app is only connected to your personal phone and/or a thingy you connect to any computer. Swish is one of those things that I thought of as "Bah. It's just fancy unnecessary humbug, like most new things it's probably overhyped", but dude it's really practical! However DON'T swish someone who's on welfare! Even if you're paying back a lone to that person, the swish will count as an income and they'll get that amount subtracted from their next welfare check.

Something important I think England is doing better than Sweden is their fire alarm signals. England's got a rather long signal, and then some silence. While Sweden's shorter on both ends. When there's a fire, you NEED TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE! * beep * Where's the children?! * Beep * They're upstairs! * Beep * WELL important! I sent in a suggestion to a fire alarm company. Hopefully they're changing this rather devastating oversight

Doing your taxes in Sweden: if you don't own a company (i.e. are self employed) you just sort of sign and accept the Skatteverket verdict (using BankID of course). Pretty simple. But if you are self employed, well, there is a bit more work (but still, pretty reasonable I figure)

Swish and BankID is a collaboration between Swedish banks.. its also helps the banks/goverment effort in tracking money flow. So.. you know.

Our taxes is paid. Once a year you get a summery. You write your name and its done. But if there is something you want to add or want money back, you change it. Irs checks it and you get your returnes.

We all recycle here in Sweden. It's basically built in to our system. It's not even something most people give much thought about.

One thing I did NOT like about his original video is the money conversions 1 SEK is not $0.06, its more close to $0.11.

If you study a 3-year program at university (the most common degree) you'll be in debt about 26 864 dollars. I am currently around 38000 dollars in debt from uni, but since i have so much time paying it back and thanks to the interest rate on the student loan being so low, I am not overly worried although i have respect for the amount that at some point has to be paid.

Yes. We are probably one of the best countries when it comes to recycling and that is why we have even been able to take in other countries trash.

Cashless is nice when there's alternatives to cash everywhere. Cashless is horrible when it's "we don't accept cash here" " we don't handle cash at this bank" "we don't accept your cash without you writing an explanation of how you got them" like it is in Sweden. We are screwed as a free people in just a generation on two, depending on luck depending on how long we get a "good guy" in govt, it's a doomed system though, just a matter of time before we're under a totalitarian society, which "we" probably doesn't even understand is totalitarian due to people being born into a system where zero financial freedom is the normal.

And yeah: the student loans is very charitable (I'm guessing pretty much on par with most progressive European countries)

I haven't used cash in several years. Not many people use ATMs any more. You pay with your phone (e.g Google Pay) or Swish. Cash is hard to handle as not many banks will let you deposit any money anymore and they will look at you like you are a criminal.

Swish is fkn aces!

Use Swish several times a week ❤

the qestion is what does America better than anyone?

Sweden has not been to war in 209 years, so no, I´m not for NATO. I undstand the reallity of the world today, but I still think we will manage.

Last I heard Sweden had 70% income taxes. This seems to mean socialism or even perhaps communism. Of course they do have good looking women there. When people like Bjorn Borg virtually had to leave because of the taxes, that goes against the grain for Americans that expect capitalism.