and a government-sponsored Klippan sofa for every family

Among liberal people I know (i.e., Brooklynite hipster-socialists), Sweden is often held up as this sort of mysterious, utopian model of "the way things should be."

But no one I know actually seems to know all that much about it. Something like "they all have health care and women's rights -- plus IKEA!" And then I think the mystique grows ... there's no murder ... they all speak five languages ... the meatballs grow on trees ... etc. So, I've had this idea to go to Sweden with the cowboy and write a book.

I've looked up some rather more serious books about Sweden, but none seem to really address the "mystique" the nation has for American liberals. This book, I think, would be kind of a light book about what, exactly, Sweden is doing better, and what is a total liberal myth. It might be called "Is it True About Sweden?"

My friend David from college married a Swedish woman a year or two ago and has been spending some serious time in Sweden. I wrote to ask him his thoughts. He wrote back with a little list of amusing facts he's been collecting about Sweden, including the following:

• As of 2004 you can pay your Swedish taxes by sending an SMS message from your cell phone.
  
  
• The government sends you a completely filled out tax form and if it looks good you just go online and click okay to pay your taxes.
  
  
• Taxes are generally between 33 and 50% of your income.
  
  
• All employees (inculding graduate students!) get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.
  
  
• You can take sick leave during your vacation if you are ill.
  
  
• Parents get a total of 13 months of paid maternity leave and the father is required to take at least 1 month of it.(As of 2005 there is discussion of changing this to 15 months and requiring the father and mother to each take 5 and then split the last 5 as they feel appropriate.)
  
  
• All employers (as of 2004) are required to provide free massage.
  
  
• Any product you purchase is guaranteed for 1 year, and the retailer must exchange it if it fails in that time.(This includes things like clothes and shoes.)
  
  
• All non-military property that is not fenced in, or is not a farm or someone's personal garden is open to anyone for hiking through or camping for one night.
  
  
• Swedish university students are required to pay a membership fee in the student union, but no tuition.

Another friend, Amber, cited a study (I haven't read it myself) in which Swedish people rated themselves as having a higher standard of living than Americans rated themselves as having, even though Americans make more on average per capita and own much more stuff.

While Swedes are not living what we might think of as luxurious lifestyles (for example, many seem to pack lunch at home to bring into work), apparently not having to worry about how you'd pay for chemotherapy if you needed some is a pretty big consideration in their standard-of-living calculus.