I, as an American, decided to move to Sweden for all of the reasons GP posted, and despite your list of supposed downsides. A few observations after six months here:
* The Swedish summer more than makes up for the dark winter. Not that much colder than Chicago either.
* Taxes are high, but the benefits you get from the taxes are astounding, especially from an American perspective. Great roads, clean cities, amazing public transit, free healthcare, etc.
* Six weeks of vacation, over a year of maternity leave, etc. Enough said.
* Yes, the rental market in Stockholm sucks.
Honestly, Sweden is truly a democratic model that other countries should try following. I'm very happy with my decision to move here and wish I had discovered it sooner.
I'm a joint Australian/UK citizen, I work in Stockholm from time to time (usually 3-6 months bursts). Because of my pattern the tax issue is a non issue for me.
I would agree with all the positives posted here. The only notable negatives I've noticed (in order of annoyance) are:
* The intrusive personnummer.
* The rental market (and the bloody laundry madness...) in Stockholm.
* Something similar to but not quite as overt as Racism.
The personnumer is used as a primary key by many businesses. Some visitors may not have a personnumer and this makes it difficult to do a range of things like visit some Gyms and so forth.
The rental market situation is a nightmare. Even worse than Sydney.
If you look like a non native Scandinavian this can lead to significant non-confrontational discrimination in some "exclusive" sub-cultures.
* The Swedish summer more than makes up for the dark winter. Not that much colder than Chicago either.
* Taxes are high, but the benefits you get from the taxes are astounding, especially from an American perspective. Great roads, clean cities, amazing public transit, free healthcare, etc.
* Six weeks of vacation, over a year of maternity leave, etc. Enough said.
* Yes, the rental market in Stockholm sucks.
Honestly, Sweden is truly a democratic model that other countries should try following. I'm very happy with my decision to move here and wish I had discovered it sooner.