The Rational Humanitarians 77
he feels secure in a large, well-established organization. He is loyal employee, punctual and conscientious.
He votes with the Social Democrats and cannot imagine himself doing otherwise, even if some of the Party’s proposals leave him cold. Economic growth is self-evident and unproblematic for Sven; the
major — in fact, the only — problem is the equitable distribution of the benefits from this growth. The cornerstone of his party loyalty is precisely the egalitarian stance of social democracy.
Sven’s wife Anna is considered to be a pillar of strength in the neighborhood of comfortable apartment houses where they have lived all their married life. When their three children were small, she remained at home to take care of them, but she has now gone back to her part-time (twenty-eight hours a week) job at a check-out counter in the local cooperative department store. A dual income is essential for the average Swedish life. The extra income enables her to buy new clothes now and then-nothing extravagant or flashy of
course — to keep up with the other Svenssons. It also enables Anna and Sven to make improvement on their modest summer home located a few miles away, which they bought twenty years ago and where they always spend their vacations.
The Svenssons pay 40 percent of their combined income in taxes. About half of Sven’s paycheck is deducted for income tax, but because the incomes of husband and wife are not added together for tax purposes (except for the special tax on capital and property), Anna, who earns less than Sven, can keep more of her wages. So Anna’s job means a great deal in terms of cash. Prices are rather high; a value-added tax of about 25 percent is included in the tag on all items they buy. The Svenssons honestly hate inflation.
The Svenssons admit that taxes are high, but they hasten to point out that they get a lot in return: pensions, medical care, dental care, nursing homes. Their grandchildren, they add, will receive subsidized day care and free
schooling — including textbooks — and will be able to attend college without paying tuition fees. Old enough to remember the economic struggles of an earlier generation, the Svenssons fell they are well of and in a real sense fortunate.
Both the Svenssons are fond of tradition. Every Thursday Anna serves pea soup whit pork and pancakes. Christmas is a sacrosanct family holiday, when her mother and Sven’s father join them to feast on the invariable Yuletide ham, meatballs, and many other dishes
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