What Germany should learn from Sweden

Germany sees a growing number of millionaires as a problem. Sweden sees it as a sign that more people should be investing.

Dear Reader,

When the Boston Consulting Group released its annual Global Wealth Report last week, it set off a familiar debate in Germany about taxing the rich.

Across the political spectrum, newspapers focused on a single figure: there are now more than 5,000 “super rich” people living in Germany, defined as those with financial assets worth more than $100 million, up from 4,000 a year ago.

The German left seized upon the report as proof of the avarice of the upper classes. For Die Linke, which wants to abolish billionaires, it showed that the wealthy elite are “a danger to democracy”. Left-wing daily taz grumbled that the super rich were “siphoning off wealth from society” and deserved “our deep contempt”.

There may be good reasons for levying a wealth tax. But these displays of resentment and cheap moralising did not provide any.

Curious whether a s…