Well, for Sweden there's the tax thing. For the person transporting and selling commodities to make a profit, first all social fees and taxes needs to be paid for. That is the main reason in most cases. I'd say that somewhere around 60-75% of all incomes for the sales person goes to tax. And on top of that there's the sales tax of a whopping 25%. It's just crazy... They've also found through bench-marking that Swedish shop owners expect more profit than there European counter parts which means that they try to sell things for as high price as possible instead of trying to get a good turnaround. It's almost impossible to get rich in Sweden on your paycheck so I guess that this is the result... There's almost no differentiation in income... I have a masters in engineering, I work in international projects and have people reporting to me. I earn perhaps 20-30 percent more than an unskilled worker in the manufacturing industry. But then, I also pay a larger percentage in tax... so the worker who might pay 33% taxes... mine are somewhere above 40%. It has become a little bit better in the last 8 years... but this year is election year. And there are silly, silly commercials from the unions on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqgMIRF7acw
I'll get off my soap box now.
