Nope...
Using Ignorance as a method discussion doesn't really work
Yes they did
Sweden's radical economic policies during the Cold War decades inspired socialists worldwide. However, its wage earner funds found little support and instead generated a new vision of Sweden, a society centred on free market principles rather than collectives.
engelsbergideas.com
The free school system is a good example of how, since the 1990s, Sweden has deregulated earlier public monopolies. It also complicates the image that liberals — especially the
American left-wing — have of this
socialist utopia. In addition to deregulation, policymakers from both sides of the political aisle have lowered taxes. In fact, Sweden, ironically, has become one of the most
economically liberal countries in the world (well ahead of the UK and the US), with no taxes on estate or wealth, while capital gains taxes can be avoided through a certain type of savings account.
The policy shift away from Keynesian demand management towards market-based reforms and lower taxers was a global phenomenon in the 1980s and 1990s. But in
Sweden, the ‘market turn’ went further than in other countries. A major reason was the reaction to the wage-earner funds (
löntagarfonder), implemented by a Social Democratic government in 1984 and dismantled by a centre-right government in 1991. The idea originated from the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, whose members were upset over large corporate profits and a skewed distribution of wealth. Chief economist
Rudolf Meidner came up with a radical proposal: to give the unions ownership control over the big firms by having them pay a profit-tax, not in cash but in their own stock, to union controlled funds. Over a number of years, depending on the size of profits, the unions would run big business. Although this was considered a radical proposal, even by Swedish standards, the issue of private versus public ownership was not new. In the years after the Second World War, labour and business interests had clashed over the state’s involvement in the economy and the ownership of Swedish industry.
