EQ Magasin vår 2024

EQ Magasin 1 EQ Magasin Ansvarig utgivare har ordet: Är nyfiken het nyckeln till framgång? EQ Magasin David Ibison: "Mamma Mia! Vad får vi fö r pengarna?" ANALYS Diskrepansen mellan vad politiker vill spendera skatte –pengar på och vad skattebetalarna vill att de spenderas på är stor. Men tänk om skattebetalarna själva fick välja var delar av pengarna satsades? Det skulle återuppliva förtroendet för det sociala kontraktet mellan staten och medborgarna, skriver David Ibison. Texten är skriven på hans modersmål, engelska. ABBA were shrewd manipulators of Sweden’s monolithic tax system. Their famously flamboyant onstage outfits were deliberately designed to be completely unwearable in real life, thus making them tax deductible. That, as they sang, is the Name of the Game. The game, however, is changing. Sweden’s relationship with taxes is a curious one. Seeing as Swedes pay some of the highest taxes in the world, it is extraordinary that they are so relaxed about it. Research consistently reveals Swedes believe they are happy to make a positive contribution to society with their taxes. This is the heart of the famous Swedish social contract. Citizens pay high taxes to a government that is trusted to spend their money. You pay a lot, but you get a lot back in the form of a health, education, welfare benefits, pensions and infrastructure. It is a shame, then, that this contract is being ripped up page by page. Trust in the way the government spends its citizens money is being eroded. People are seeing levels of educational achievement sink, the health care system struggle, crime rates soar, public infrastructure decline and welfare benefits tighten. One effect is that immigration is taking the blame. It is a growing public perception that tax revenues are being used to finance immigration policy at the expense of health, education and security. Sweden has moved to the right politically in response. Within this context, one of the most important questions facing Sweden today is how to rebuild trust between the government and its citizens? What clause needs to be added to the Swedish social contract to make it relevant again? Tax, oddly, might provide one of the answers. The feeling that peoples’ hard-earned money is being spent in ways over which they have no control lies at the heart of the trust issue. People resent having no agency in the way their money is spent. Most people would like their tax money to be spent on textbooks and nurses, for example, rather than tanks. One way to tackle this problem of agency might be to allow Sweden’s citizens to decide themselves how some of their tax money is spent. For example, every taxpayer in Sweden could be permitted to allocate 10 per cent of their taxes in any way they wished. People who would rather their money be spent on operating theatres than jet fighters can click the health care box. Anyone who wants schools to be better and isn’t so fussed about the arts can tick education. Research in this area is limited, mainly because governments hate the idea. They prefer to be left alone to waste money as they see fit. But academic research in the US has unveiled some interesting findings. The first is that money is allocated in a completely different way, shifting towards education, training and social services. Generally speaking, areas that created jobs and improved standards of living were backed financially. Second, the political differences that shape spending when it is controlled by elected politicians disappear. Members of the general public, no matter if they vote left or right, support spending in the same areas. Current spending is politically partisan, whereas the actual taxpaying public is bipartisan. Third, allocating funds to areas that were not supported by the public became increasingly difficult to justify. This implies that over time, the difference between what people want to spend their money on and what politicians think they want to spend it on would become impossible to ignore. Fourth, even though the percentage of taxes being controlled by the taxpayer might be very small, the sense of control it creates is considerable. Irrespective of whether people could control 10 per cent of their taxes or 100 Mamma Mia! Vad får vi för pengarna? 10 VÅR – 2024 EQ Magasin Mikael Ericson, finansmannen som blev V D på EHAB. EQ Magasin Psykologen Soroush Shouri om ACT - Acce ptance and Commitment Therapy. EQ Magasin Anders Wall har befunnit sig i svenskt näringslivs toppskickt i över 60 år. EQ Magasin Idéhistorikern Johan Gärdebo skriver om hur vi gått från kreativ till reglerad förstörelse. EQ Magasin Envimas VD Anna Axelsson reder ut vad s om gäller kring de nya CSRD-direktiven. EQ Magasin Ametalis VD Kim Lehmusvuori om visioner na framåt. EQ Magasin Susanne Najafi ger sina tips på framtid ens bästa investeringar. EQ Magasin Lycenna vill garantera den bästa vården , oavsett var i världen den erbjuds. EQ Magasin Viktor Ström skriver om hur lärdomarna från forskningen används som nycklar till framgångsrika föret EQ Magasin Möt forskarna bakom EHAB:s Thought Cent er EQ Magasin Playbook, EHUB och lågt hängande frukt. Så bygger Lotta strukturkapital i EHAB EQ Magasin Rebellions VD Amin Omrani avslöjar sina innersta tankar och sanna natur i EQ´s Proust Questionnaire.