The film gives a voice to the members of LO unions who have the chance to express their concerns, hopes and wishes.
The film is about 20 minutes long and it is divided into two parts. The first part presents statistics on the consequences of the government’s tax-lowering policies. Of the tax reductions proposed by the government in the current year’s budget, over 25 per cent would go to the 10 per cent of the population with the highest income, whereas the 10 per cent with the lowest income would only get one per cent.
It is also obvious that those who would gain the least from the tax reductions are the ones who have paid the hardest price for them, in the form of deteriorated unemployment insurance and sickness insurance. What is most striking however is that unemployment is higher today than it was when the right-wing government came into power in 2006 and that there are 100, 000 more people out of job today.
In the second part of the film we meet people who live, work and struggle on in today’s Sweden. Real people who without a manuscript tell about their lives and how they have experienced the changes that have taken place in Sweden, the country that they love. People who have dreams about changing jobs but who do not dare to do it because of the probationary period. People who are anxious about their children’s future, as unemployment is growing and insecurity spreading.
- This film is the opposite of short YouTube-oriented 90-second clips and twitterfied 140-character slogans. It provides an opportunity for people to think and feel. The film shows that the choice is to be made between further tax cuts and investment in welfare and more jobs, says Tobias Baudin, LO First Vice President.
- The fact that the Prime Minister himself is attacking the movie before he has even seen it shows that the film's content is something that worries Fredrik Reinfeldt. The government seems afraid of figures, facts and statistics, which provide evidence of how Sweden has changed over the last eight years. It is difficult for the Prime Minister to face the fact that the gaps increase most in Sweden throughout the OECD area. The fair promises of overcoming social exclusion, reducing unemployment and simultaneously protecting welfare are long gone. Most of all, however, it seems to be reality itself that frightens. A reality that does not consist of figures and statistics, but of people who feel the changes, says Tobias Baudin.
Sweden can do better!
The website www.reinfeldtssverige.se (In the lower right corner of the YouTube-player you can easily adjust to English subtitles).