You could argue that the wealth of Swedes comes from the (indirect) exploitation of the poor. IKEA and H&M are household names that give Swedes and the world cheap clothing and furniture, virtually all of which is made by comparatively much poorer people in China, Bangladesh, etc.

I think that's definitely true but we have some heavier examples than the ones you listed and at the same time massive natural resources which include iron (and many other metals), hydro and timber as well as significant local value generation in high-tech and services. The lack of inequality comes definitely from the very strong labor movement though.

> The main industries include motor vehicles, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, industrial machines, precision equipment, chemical goods, home goods and appliances, forestry, iron, and steel

> The 20 largest Sweden-registered companies by turnover as of 2013 were Volvo, Ericsson, Vattenfall, Skanska, Hennes & Mauritz, Electrolux, Volvo Personvagnar, Preem, TeliaSonera, Sandvik, ICA, Atlas Copco, Nordea, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Scania, Securitas, Nordstjernan, SKF, ABB Norden Holding, and Sony Mobile Communications AB

Volvo - exploits poorly paid non-union workers in countries like Mexico to make cars and/or car parts

Ericsson - charges telecom companies a fortune for crappy gear because there's only 2-3 leading edge 5G equipment providers, which in turn makes it more expensive for people to get telecom service

H&M - sweatshop labor for clothes manufacturing

I only went through the first half but there are a number of companies in there that exploit poor people. I'll also add this link [0] which shows Sweden has very low corporate income tax and most of Swedish government income comes from taxes on labor and goods (VAT), which is hardly the high corporate tax model that most left wing Democrats are pushing today.

[0]: https://www.oecd.org/ctp/tax-policy/revenue-statistics-swede...

Yeah, Sweden is anti-progressive. As a worker I pay ~40% income tax and 25% sales tax.

Meanwhile there is no inheritance tax, relatively low capital gains tax (or none on ISK accounts), and low corporation tax.

It's designed to preserve wealth for those who inherit property.

> I only went through the first half but there are a number of companies in there that exploit poor people

I didn't say that they didn't, I said that they did but the GP listed weren't the biggest examples.

That's an interesting point that measuring inequality as a property of a country may be less meaningful with more and more globalization.

Sweden does however, have a very high wealth Gini coefficient.