People or Tasks?

Task Oriented or People oriented?

Efficiency, it seems to be defined a bit differently here in Sweden. As a norm, we take efficiency as the combination of competitive pricing, low transaction costs, and other task oriented factors which provide us with the best product at the best price. For the most part, we develop economic systems, and let natural selection determine the rest, with a bit of fiscal policy help of course. Here, however, things are very different.
It seems that the definition of efficiency combines factors which are mostly oriented at creating the best people-friendly system possible. The social infrastructure here is simply amazing, and of course it comes at a price. Taxation averages, in the mid 30% of income, and in certain cases even reaching the 50%. This, however, is a price Swedes are willing to pay. The reality is that this in not a revolutionary model, many countries of the former Soviet Union region, attempted to use similar models - they however, failed.
So what makes this system here different? What is it that stimulates the growth in the Swedish economy and keeps it up at the status of a developed nation? Is it really true; are Swedes really able to overcome human selfishness?
These are just some of the questions that I have been asking myself since I arrived in Sweden. My impression so far is that this system, just as any other, has its faults; they however, seem to be very insignificant when it comes to the grand scheme of things. Efficiency in this country truly does take on a different definition, and this difference seems, for once, to take in the factors which most developed nations, at least on the contrary of views, seem to lack.