Poverty
Poor Sweden is back
It is obscene
Lena Mellin
This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.
Updated 13.37 | Published 05.58
We didn't think so. But poor Sweden is back.
More and more people are looking for help to get food.
It is obscene.
Over a hundred years ago, people emigrated from Sweden because they were poor. They saw no possibility of changing it in their home country. They took the boat to the USA, the land of dreams.
Now poor Sweden is back. The gaps between the richest and the poorest have been increasing for several decades, a trend that no government has been able to stop for more than a few years.
Oxfam, a global organization that works against poverty and injustice, states in a new report that the five richest people in Sweden together own more than 60 percent of the entire population.
The need for financial assistance is greatest in Malmö, Filipstad and Hällefors. There, between 12.5 and 14.4 percent of households cannot manage without financial help from outside.
You can think what you want about increased gaps. However, I assume that everyone believes that it is wrong that more and more people cannot afford food. They need help not to go hungry. In Sweden, one of the world's richest countries, in 2024.
Four years ago, the Church of Sweden in Örnsköldsvik distributed 40 food bags a week to those who did not have money to buy their own food. Now they are up to 150. In a fairly small town where the social networks are often more robust than in the big city.
Sweden's City Missions regularly carry out various measurements to get an idea of how poverty in Sweden is developing. In short, it can be said that the increase in those seeking help increasingly consists of people or families who have been long-term dependent on financial assistance from society. The value of it has been eroded.
Almost two-thirds, 64 percent, of those in need of help at the city missions are in that category and want, among other things, help to get something to eat. Through food bags, subsidized meals or food vouchers.
According to the aid organizations, the situation for families with small children is particularly worrying. Last year, over 600 families with children were evicted by the Kronofogden and it was the highest figure since the financial crisis more than 15 years ago.
According to Sifo surveys commissioned by the Red Cross, four out of ten of the "normal" families with children worry about their financial situation.
In lower incomes, one fifth of the single parents indicate that the family has not eaten enough recently. They have also had difficulty buying adequate clothes for the children.
The digit stream is endless. But it points in the same direction. While the stock market is breaking new records, poverty is increasing at the other end of the economic scale. And nobody does anything.
Three important reasons why people become poor are increased prices, eroded value of society's financial support and long waiting times for benefits such as subsistence allowance, social security and sickness benefit (early pension). It thus includes groups whose position is fragile right from the start and very little is needed to definitively put them over the edge.
Poor Sweden is back. And it is not society that rushes forward to help. The voluntary organizations do that.
It's not just eye-catching. But also outrageous.
It is scandalous that there seems to be no one who has an overall picture of what the new poor Sweden looks like. In order to fix a problem, you cannot guess. Then you need to know. Otherwise, you stand still.
The voluntary organizations do their research and they do the best they can. But what should be carried out is a thorough government investigation that maps the situation. And on the basis of that suggest actions.
The parties in the Riksdag find it difficult to agree on anything at all. One reason is that they don't see the same thing when they look out over the country. The new poverty is surely no exception. Also from that aspect, a thorough survey that everyone believes in would be desirable.
But poor people are not a vocal group. They use their right to vote to a lesser extent than others.
The parties thus have little to gain by getting involved with the new poor Sweden. It will not attract new voters.
The profit is on a different level. It is spelled decency.
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