Photo: John and Suzanne’s Mom.
Beautiful clouds and farm. How much is enough?
Although there are people in every country who strive for balance in their lives — people who are happy with having just enough — in Sweden, it’s a way of being that has its own name.
Erika Page reports at the Christian Science Monitor about the Swedish concept of lagom.
“The ladder she’s standing on rattles in the wind, but Havana Dadian’s paintbrush is steady. With freezing fingers, she lays color inch by inch onto the whitewashed wall. The street below is empty, as residents shelter from an approaching storm.
“The muralist was hired to spruce up the working-class neighborhood of Södra Sofielund in Malmö, just blocks from where she grew up. More than that, Ms. Dadian is painting for the future of her country.
“ ‘I wanted to shine light on the beautiful soul of Sweden,’ she says, gesturing to the sketch on her phone. She is painting a scene from the 1940s, back when this building was home to a neighborhood laundry house. It was a time of community, frugality, and hard work – which she sees as the foundation of Sweden’s egalitarian prosperity.
“ ‘Something has happened, and it’s not so certain anymore – the safety, feeling that you have everything you need,’ says Ms. Dadian.
At stake is a uniquely Swedish philosophy: lagom. It’s a difficult-to-translate word meaning not too much, not too little, but about right.
“The lagom amount is just enough. The lagom solution is reasonable, appropriate, and moderate. … To be lagom is to respect the rules of the group.
“ ‘Lagom is one for all and all for one,’ says Ms. Dadian. ‘It was a way for everyone to come together, for everyone to get their share.’
“Yet Sweden appears to be reaching a turning point. The threads of lagom seem to be fraying, as social services come under increasing stress and politics reach unprecedented levels of polarization. Public discourse, dominated by talk of rising rates of violent crime and gang activity, is bringing to light fears about the erosion of social trust. Some wonder whether the economic pie is still big enough to go around. Others question the very foundation of a growth-based economy, pushing instead for a return to ‘just enough.’ …
“The country was a poor, agrarian society of low taxes and limited government until the mid-19th century. Without a feudal system, farmers in decentralized villages worked primarily for themselves, laying the foundation for a society with a relatively flat hierarchy that rewarded hard work. These farmers were of minor importance to the government as individuals but powerful as a collective, making cooperation key. …
“While socialists in other parts of the world sought complete control over the means of production in the early 20th century, the socialists who gained traction in Sweden took a more lagom tack. They believed in harnessing the power of the market through taxation and redistribution to achieve social goals. By the 1960s, Sweden had one of the most robust social support systems in the world and one of the most egalitarian income distributions.
“ ‘A lagom economy is a pragmatic economy,’ says [Andreas Bergh, an economist at Lund University, near Malmö]. ‘At its best, Sweden has combined the benefits of a capitalist, well-functioning market economy with a relatively generous social welfare state.’
“Salaries may be lower than those for comparable job titles in the United States or United Kingdom. But for many people, that difference is compensated by free education from preschool through university, universal health care, generous pension and unemployment systems, housing allowances, and other social safety measures. …
“Social trust – including faith that people are not taking advantage of the system – is a key ingredient in the lagom mentality, ‘where people share similar interests and work together for the benefit of the group,’ says Dr. Bergh. … Recently, however, a new narrative has taken hold among some, suggesting that perhaps Sweden was once the land of lagom – but no longer.
“A financial crisis in the early 1990s led to near political consensus that the welfare state had become too hefty. Over the past three decades, the government has slashed taxes and public spending. Sectors from education to health care and elder care have increasingly been privatized.
“To some, this privatization is lagom, allowing for a healthy balance between the public and private spheres. … Others take the privatization as a sign that Sweden is losing its lagom-ness.
“Tax cuts mean there is less funding today for social services. Wait times for health services have grown notoriously long; during the pandemic, the weaknesses in Sweden’s elder care system became impossible to ignore. And since the 1980s, income inequality has increased more than in any of the other 37 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though still low by international standards.
“Sweden has a reputation of being one of the most welcoming countries in the world for migrants and refugees. [But recently] neighborhoods have become more segregated, with unemployment rates higher among immigrant communities. …
“ ‘My Swedish friends have an innate safety feeling,’ says Ms. Dadian, the muralist, whose mother is Swedish and father is from Lebanon. ‘[For] my friends with mixed backgrounds … it’s starting to feel more like a movie sometimes: drugs, guns, no trust, and much involvement with the police. It can be like different worlds.’ …
“Jon-Mikko Länta, one in a long line of Sámi reindeer herders, has struggled to find that [lagom] balance in his own life as the cost of living has risen.
“ ‘I was working a lot, all the time, working, working, working. All the money went to buying new stuff, buying new stuff, replacing old stuff,’ he says.
“But then he began to simplify. He stopped buying the latest tools and took new pleasure in repairing old things. He bought a piece of land outside the town, where he is building a campsite for visitors – and for his reindeer. He’ll be able to continue herding while supplementing his income and spending more time with his wife and three young children.
“It’s a different kind of satisfaction, says Mr. Länta during a lunch break in his kitchen. Dishes are stacked waiting to be washed; half a bottle of milk has been left behind by their 2-year-old. Mr. Länta’s work pants are patched with tape.
“For him, [a controversial local] mine would bring ‘catastrophic’ changes to Jokkmokk, eroding respect for reindeer herding and the natural world. ‘It pinpoints exactly what’s sick with the Western society. … [It’s] built upon growth, and as much growth as possible. And that’s completely unsustainable.’
“He wishes debates about the mine would take lagom into account, he says, helping residents ‘feel the contentness of enough.’ ”
More at the Monitor, here. No paywall. Subscriptions encouraged.
I liked the pictures that went with this article. They had a peaceful feeling.
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