But it is. We have over one million unemployed, hiding out in makework schemes and reeducation. The government takes a net 70 % of Joe Average's salary and uses it to pay for multiculture, foreign aid and support to "cultural" activities. You can go to jail if you preach against homosexuality, and the media brands you as a Nazi if you voice the slightest opposition to unlimited immigration. Under the last government, people were forcibly retired if they were on sick leave for more than a month or two. And everything's regulated; we have no freedom. Getting permission to own a gun is next to impossible. The government has a monopoly on all sale of off-the-shelf alcohol (except beer), all gambling, and an oligopoly on electricity, among other things.
And then THINGS ARE STILL MUCH BETTER THAN THEY WERE TWENTY YEARS AGO!
Sweden might be a dream for liberals, but it's a horror for anyone who values his freedom.
I will admit that I do find it interesting in Australia where I am how right-wing and left-wing people tend to idolise different nations. For instance right-wing Australians tend to want us to become like the USA, whereas left-wing Australians want us to become like Sweden. (By the way in Sweden, who do your left-wingers look to for a model?). As a left-winger myself I tend to look to Sweden and the other Nordic nations as a model (and one of the politicians I admire the most is Olof Palme, so I'm a bit of stereotypical social democrat I suppose!).
The reason I admire your nation is that I think the model of social democracy you have is better than that tried in most other nations, espeically in English-speaking nations, in that left-wing politics was never as virulently anti-business as in places like Australia and the UK. For instance, from what I can gather, strong unions in Sweden don't necessarily mean workplace conflict, whereas here in Australia the era of strong unions meant constant strikes.
Also when you say that there is little freedom in Sweden, I suppose it depends on what sort of freedom you are talking about. Are you talking about the freedom to have good quality healthcare? Or to attend university without getting into massive debt? Or to earn a living wage?
Of course if you are talking about the freedoms that tend to be exercise by the rich, such as being able to operate business untrammeled, then Sweden would rank lower than the USA. However as a Danish woman from an article I was reading about their welfare state said when comparing their nations with the USA (and the same would apply for Sweden I assume), 'Nothing that good will happen here, but nothing that bad will happen either'.