Wage Earners, Taxpayers or Everyman Capitalists? The Making of a Mutual Fund Culture in Sweden

This chapter explains how a mutual fund culture, which strengthened the link between households and the stock market, emerged exceptionally early in Sweden. We explore the popularisation of individual shareholding through state-subsidised fund savings schemes, the Tax Funds (introduced by the centre-right government in 1978) and the similar Everyman’s Funds (introduced by the Social Democratic government in 1984). Although initially politically controversial, these programmes ultimately paved the way for a seemingly mundane investment culture. Through this case we argue that neoliberalisation in Sweden involved the creation of hybrid subjects that combined older forms of identification rooted in a welfare statist culture (the wage earner and the taxpayer) with identity positions associated with a new everyday capitalist identity. One explanation for the exceptional Swedish development lies in the turmoil surrounding the so-called wage-earner funds with individual share ownership posited as an alternative to the collectively owned funds. In the other Nordic countries, the conflict between labour and capital was less intense. One fallout of this conflict in Sweden was a nation of everyman investors.