New article: A welfare state or a betrayal?

A welfare state or a betrayal?

Who should Sweden be for – and where did the "Folkhemmet" go?

There are moments when we must stop and ask: What are we doing? Who are we building society for? And who is paying the price?

In Bäckebo lives Ingemo Keib, aged 78. She is a widow and in poor health, a person who has done everything ”right” in life. She has worked, paid taxes, looked after her family, and tended to her home. A person who has never asked for more than to live her final years in security. 

But in today's Sweden, that's no longer enough.

She is now forced to pay for a VA connection she never ordered, an ”opportunity” she cannot use. She is forced to mortgage her home to finance a decision she was never involved in. She is forced to live on 800 kronor a month while the municipality takes 72,422 kronor in seizure. 

She is forced to confront an authority with unlimited resources, while she herself can't even afford to take a new water sample.

This is not befitting a country that once built its society on the idea of security, solidarity, and justice.

This is not worthy of a country that called itself a people's home.

What is a 'folkhem' if not a promise? A promise that the weak will not be crushed by the system. A promise that the elderly will not have to fear their own municipality. A promise that authorities will stand by the citizen – not above them.

Today we are seeing something else. We see how regulations, written far from people's everyday lives, are applied without regard for the consequences. We see how municipalities refer to ”strict legislation” while people lose their homes. We see how financially weak households are forced to bear costs that would break even a well-off family. We see how the balance of power has shifted – from the citizen to the authority.

People like Ingemo, who have helped to build this country, are now being forced to give up the little they have left.

It is not only unfair, but inhuman.

When people can no longer defend themselves against such decisions, when they are forced to remortgage their homes to comply with incomprehensible municipal regulations – then something important in society has broken. 

That is why the association ”VA i Tiden” (Water Supply in Time) exists. That is why we write and protest.

Ingemo's fall is not an exception, but one of many cases that show we have a systemic error.

We are not demanding privileges or special treatment. We are simply demanding what was once self-evident: that people be treated with dignity and that authorities take responsibility for their own mistakes. That laws be applied with reasonableness. Is this truly too much to ask?

Mikael Richter
Ambition Sverige