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When you ask the Hanson family how they get along, they will tell you that they get ~along all right, but that it is a struggle. The Hansons go on living like their parents in a small cottage
in the country. Their daughter is an unwed mother mother in a small flat in town. The Hansons view the world around them as hostile, and they are themselves suspicious of others, particularly immigrants. They
lean toward authoritarian norms
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simple rules, law and order. The older generation Hansons are religious.The Subsistence-Minded embody much of what the Swedish l9th-century writer C J L Almqvist wrote in his book On the Sigificance of Swedish Poverty : “Being poor means being reduced to oneself.” Many of them are single in fact. But Sweden of today is very different from what it was in Almqvist’s days, and “finding one— self strong in one’s poverty” is very unusual today. Some of the Subsistence-Minded are drop-outs and social misfits, and are living proof that also in the mature welfare state there are pockets of need and misery. Most of them are not down and out, however. But many of the urban ones are disillusioned and aimless.
In our present—day society the small income of the Subsistence-Minded is supplemented by allowances and grants. Some do get into official statistics as entrepreneurs or owners of small businesses. A business of a subsistence-Minded will ususally not survive him: it merely maintains the owner at a level well below that of a worker employed in industry.
As consumers they concentrate on their basic needs. Price, of course, is paramount - they want the cheapest they can get of everything. They are attracted by rebates and special sales and yesterday’s bread at half price.
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