[lohi]

There's just no way salaries can keep up with social changes. Housing prices have doubled in the last 10 years. Salaries are already high and hamburgers expensive in Sweden.

A 19 year old in Sweden would make $14/hour at 7-11. That's around $1900/month after taxes. To double that with progressive taxes you would have to make roughly as much as a fairly well paid software developer here. A rental unit could easily be $1200-1400 and to buy a 330 square feet apartment would cost you around $300k, which is essentially the same as SF. Say you save $500/month then it still takes you more than 7 years just to get the cash contribution. It's not happening.

http://www.valueguard.se/index http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index