The World’s Most Innovative Economies
&gt;The Swedes themselves promote an atmosphere of great personal ambition — unlike some European neighbors that emphasize the collective — and that’s a boon to innovation, he said.<p>&gt;“In the culture, people are super individualistic — this means that people have ideas and are very interested in pursuing them in this way in order to become wealthy,” said Henrekson.<p>This is very true, and a thing which is often misunderstood about the Swedish mindset. The sterotype of Swedes is frequently that we&#x27;re a bunch of socialists who all believe that everyone should work for the collective good. That&#x27;s totally wrong.<p>Sweden is perhaps one of the most individualistic countries in the world: we value the individual over the family or community, and we believe that everyone should have the same opportunities regardless of the circumstances of their birth. This is the reason we have the social safety net we have: it is a substitute for family and community and other more traditional support systems.