The Berlin Wall - coming to a city near you

Apparently Gothenburg motorists are next in line to be subdued by the Berlin Wall of traffic, the road tolls. This abomination is striking arbitrary and with no regard to people's personal economy, and is providing yet another means of surveillance for the government. All in the name of making money. Tons of money.

I've said it again, and I'll gladly repeat it: Have a look at what's in store for you Swedes now that the pandora's box has been opened with the "congestion charges" in Stockholm.


Yes, this is a map of road tolls in Norway, with tons more tolls being built as we speak. And if you're interested in why road tolls are the work of the devil, read my post about it here.

Why road tolls are the work of the devil

I've already written about how the Swedish politicians are increasingly adopting the terrible Norwegian way of financing basal infrastructure, where billions of kronor are wasted every single year in administration of toll roads and interest on loans.

It seems Socialdemokraterna are prepared to take this even a step further, because obviously increased income and housing taxes and a new net wealth tax that they've already promised isn't enough:

Kongressen fattade på torsdagen beslut om att i högre grad än i dag låta
bilisterna själva betala nya infrastruktursatsningar med så kallade brukar- och
trängselavgifter.

We need more road tolls, and we need to finance the roads in the worst possible way, both from a social point of view and from an economical point of view. If you're still wondering why this is such a bad idea, let me explain:

Socially
Road tolls are anti-social in nature, as they are a flat-rate tax on transportation that will hit low-income citizens unreasonably hard in comparison to the wealthier citizens. Would any social democratic politician dare to suggest a flat income tax of 100.000 SEK a year, no matter how much you actually make? Probably not.

Furthermore the tax hits you not based on income or wealth but solely based on where you live in relation to your job, the kindergarten, shops and public services.

I have to say I'm particularly shocked that a party claiming to be socialist is proposing something like this.

Economically
Now this, on the other hand, isn't really the socialist democratic party's strongest skills, but still... Collecting road tolls costs a lot of money. In 2008 the road tolls in Stockholm cost 380 million SEK, approximately 50% of the total income. In Norway, a country where they have made the collection of road tolls into an artform, 15,5 billion NOK out of 46 billion NOK that has been collected in road tolls during 1990-2007 was spent on administration and interest on loans. That's more or less 30% of tax payers money wasted on nothing. In one particular example the motorists are forced to pay 3,79 billion NOK in road tolls on a road that only costs 3,5 billion NOK to build...

There is absolutely no good reason to remove the building of new roads from the national budget and increase the costs of these dramatically by turning them into toll roads.

Sweden turning into Norway

The introduction of the road tolls in Stockholm in 2006 sure opened pandoras box. Or the gates to hell, depending on you point of view. We've already seen the city of Gothenburg eager to plague their motorists with a similar toll ring system. Tolls will be collected on E4 near Sundsvall. Road toll plans have popped up regarding the new Skurubron in Värmdö and now even more road tolls are planned on E4, this time outside Örnsköldsvik.

All this because the 70 billion kronor that Swedish motorists annually pay in various car-related taxes apparently isn't enough to pay for a bit of road here and there...

I'm sad to say this country is turning into Norway fast. And no, I'm not talking about the oil, if only it were that well. I'm talking about punishing the motorists in every way possible. You guys who have ever had the "pleasure" of going to Norway by car know what I'm talking about (and you probably think twice before going back). And for the rest of you, have a good look at what's in store for you:


Looks nice, doesn't it? Norwegian motorists will pay almost 6 billion NOK in road tolls this year, half of it wasted on administration costs. We might as well just give Vägverket our credit card and let them charge us at will, because this toll road hell is exactly what awaits us if the current politicians get to decide. Bloody leaches.

All work and no fun

Apparently the average monthly salary in Norway is 41.000 kronor, as opposed to the Swedish average of 27.100 kronor. And this figure is supposed to tempt Swedes into moving. First of all, I'm assuming the Norwegian numbers have been converted into Swedish kronor, which means the average salary in NOK is 32.800, far from as impressive.

Second, you're gonna need every little bit of those extra kronor living in Norway, where a car costs as much as a house, having a beer at a restaurant will set you back about 500 kronor, and a big old steak costs more or less an arm and a leg.

Sure, you can make a few more bucks working in Norway, but unless you're planning on living in a box and eating out of a dumpster that money will disappear before you can say "kjempemorsomt".

FRA in Norway

The Swedish FRA-law seems to have been implemented by mistake in Norway as well... The Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg has had his e-mail and internet activity monitored by the Norwegian defence.

Get used to it, Stoltenberg. I'm sure you'll soon implement a similar law in Norway, and why should you be treated any different than the rest of the population?

As the fans of increased surveillance always say: If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about. Right?