| The following was extracted from an article in the Christian Science Monitor
entitled, "Day Care in Sweden: the debate runs deep" by staff writer William
Echikson.
In Sweden, the state has traditionally owned and run all day-care centers. In
1986, Eva Husbom challenged that public monopoly and opened her Pysslingen Day
Care Center in Nacka, a suburb of Stockholm. The ensuing battle posed the
question of whether limits should be placed on Sweden's implementation of the
welfare state.
Swedes used to assume that their government could provide them with ever more
protection, from free baby care to large retirement pensions. Now, like other
West Europeans, many consider this idea outdated.
Even Sweden's ruling left-wing Social Democrats accept that public spending
cannot keep on growing indefinitely. It has already cut from 67 percent of the
gross national product in 1982 to 64 percent in 1986. That still represents the
largest percentage of any industrial economy, and the Social Democrats concede
that further expansion of social services must result from more economic growth
and greater competition in providing the services.
Correspondingly, many Social Democrats want to reduce the tax burden. Swedes pay
the highest personal taxes in the industrialized world -- up to 80 percent of
income. Because these high levels swell the underground economy and squelch
incentives to work harder for more pay, the government proposed a sweeping
overhaul earlier this year, which would lower income tax rates, reduce tax
avoidance, and broaden the tax base.
"All of us are aware that our resources are limited," explained Bengt Lindqvist,
deputy minister of health and social affairs. "We don't want to reduce social
expenditures. We just want to use them more efficiently."
Everybody, including conservatives such as Husbom, agrees that social services
should not be cut. They simply want to make the social system more efficient by
encouraging private initiative.
We don't want Sweden to become like in the US, where many people are left
without social insurance," Bengt Westerberg, leader of the Liberal Party, said
in an interview. "But we want to give the people freedom of choice between
private and public services."
Social Democrat minister Lindqvist disagrees. While he suggests that private
garbage collection would be permissible, he rules out privatizing health,
education, or child care. In the name of equality, he says, government should
provide these "human" services.
"We must prevent profit interests from determining the type of care our children
receive," he argues. "We don't want to give young business managers the power to
discuss services for our children like producing cheese or cars."
The argument over private and public services exploded back in 1984 over
Pysslingen. Husbom and some friends from the Electrolux household appliance
company decided that the booming demand for proper day care could be met only by
the private sector. With 88 percent of Swedish mothers with preschool children
holding jobs, parents have to wait two to three years to obtain a day-care spot.
To eliminate the queues, parliament has voted to spend 5 billion kronor
(slightly more than 800 million US dollars) through 1991 to build new centers.
A university-trained day-care professional herself, Husbom believed that private
firms could provide better day-care services at a lower cost than the
government. Instead of hiring a cook, she and her fellow teachers would do the
cooking. Instead of hiring a cleaner, she and the children would do the
cleaning.
"The goal isn't just to save money," she says. "I think it's good for the
children to cook and clean with us." Her thinking provoked a wave of protest.
Former prime minister Olof Palme derided her ideas as a way of producing
"Kentucky Fried Children." Her ties to giant Electrolux, which produces vacuum
cleaners, were mocked. "Do you want your children cleaning up for Electrolux?"
asked angry Social Democrats.
"Pysslingen became a symbol about the debate over welfare politics and freedom
of choice," says Mats Svegfors, an editor of the Stockholm daily, Svenska
Dagbladet. "It cut to the heart of the Social Democratic vision of the welfare
state."
Behind the Social Democrat slogans, minister Lindqvist says there were serious
concerns. In neighboring Norway, private day-care centers long have been legal
and provide 45 percent of all day care.
"Norway created a segregated system," Lindqvist complains. "All the wealthy
children are in the private day care centers, while the public centers are full
of immigrant, handicapped, and disturbed children."
These arguments infuriate Husbom and pro-Pysslingen politicians such as Mr.
Westerberg. They say continued public financing of day care centers would ensure
equal treatment. Since public funds would pay set fees for all children, poor
children could just as easily choose to go to private day care centers as rich
children. "The price for private and public day centers would be the same," says
Westerberg. "Let the parents decide which they want."
In the end, the Pysslingen battle ended in a compromise. Husbom was allowed to
open her day-care center, but only after she dropped her connection with
Electrolux and agreed to form a nonprofit association. Nacka city authorities
built Husbom's day-care center. They pay the teacher's salaries and Husbom takes
children from the public queue. Any money left over from the state subsidy must
be reinvested in the center.
Even so, Pysslingen differs from public day-care centers. In the public centers,
the staff is composed both of university-trained professional teachers and high
school graduates. Husbom decided to hire fewer staff, but to make sure that all
of them were university graduates. And as she promised, her children clean and
cook for themselves.
The public apparently likes the results. In a recent poll published by the
Stockholm daily, Dagens Nyheter, 70 percent said that private companies should
have the right to provide day-care services. Only 22 percent said no.
Polls taken during the 1985 election campaign also showed strong support for
opposition ideas about privatizing social services. When the time came to vote,
the electors returned the Social Democrats to power. Many opposition politicians
fear a repeat of this scenario in the 1988 elections.
"Swedes say they want change, but they want security even more," argues
Lindqvist. "At the last minute, they get scared and turn to the Social
Democrats."
This urge for security does not frighten Eva Husbom. By 1991, she hopes to have
opened 50 day-care centers, and eventually to make them completely private. "We
need more Pysslingens," Husbom concludes. "We must take a little more
responsibility for ourselves."
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| Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 08:40:08 GMT
In Sweden there are municipal child care, parent cooperative child
care, personel cooperative child care and child care run as ordinary
corporations.
My daycare centre gets about SEK 42000/year in subsidy for each child.
According to the municipality, this is the same as their own daycare
centres get (I confess that we have no real way of verifying this). We
charge the parents on the average SEK 16500/year/child, for a total
income per child of slightly less than SEK 60000.
Since this is a parent cooperative, the parents do some unpaid work
(administration, cleaning and limited maintenance). Considering that
our fees are slightly lower than what we would pay at a municipal
centre, I think it evens out in the end.
You can also make an interesting calculation about the net effect on
the public economy of the daycare subsidies. If there was no daycare,
one parent would have to stay at home to take care of the kids. Assume
that this parent earns about SEK 15000 a month from his/hers
employment. The direct income tax that the municipality would get in
this case would be in the order of SEK 50000. This is already higher
then the subsidy my particular daycare centre gets! E.g. it *SAVES* the
taxpayers money to subsidize daycare. If I included the effect of the
tax that the employees of the daycare centre pays, the saving would be
even greater. Also, the state gets tax incomes from VAT (and from state
income tax, though not from a person earning 15000/month).
Good, subsidised daycare, benefits the society by getting more people
working (it is no coincidence that Sweden has among the highest
proportion of people in employment of industrialised countries).
--
Lars-Henrik Eriksson Internet: [email protected]
Swedish Institute of Computer Science Phone (intn'l): +46 8 752 15 09
Box 1263 Telefon (nat'l): 08 - 752 15 09
S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN Fax: +46 8 751 72 30
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