 Sweden was the poorest country in Europe in the 1860s, 1870s. 1870, it liberated its economy, basically created the freest economy in Europe, one of the freest in the world, if not the freest at the time. From 1870, World War II, Sweden basically grew its own the fastest economic rates in all of history. Basically, it eradicated extreme poverty in Sweden without any welfare, or with very, very little welfare in the 20s and 30s, but almost none. It then adopted socialist policies of massive redistribution of wealth in the 60s and 70s and through the 80s. By 1984, Sweden was basically bankrupt. Since then, it has been reforming its welfare state, shrinking the size of the welfare state. It's still big by US standards, but it's significantly less than what Denmark has and it's significantly less than what it had in its past.