Sure; US effective tax levels brings relative tax rates up much higher than you would expect. That coupled with things like free university education, cheap childcare, state pensions, etc means that I'm highly dubious that all the avg American would have to do is to not get paid for 18 months and they'd be in the same boat. Face it; 18 months leave is a huge perk (snarky comments about going crazy not withstanding).
Furthermore, why the he'll should only the rich get to spend time with their kids?
The costs of the assorted govt benefits is included in the figures I cited. The figures take Swedish income proportions, but scales them upward proportionally to GDP.
I thinks he refers to the fact that the above post by yummyfajitas says that Americans have a higher standard of living than Swedes.
While they may earn more, they also benefit from much much higher social security (for instance family allowances). Also I don't think the gap between Americans and Swedes is such that just by saving a couple of years you can match the paid leave. You must also consider various expanses that Americans have but not Swedes : a personal pension plan (or at least, a more consequent one), tuition fees for the older child, or saving for that of the child just born.
Finally the claim that people don't stop working to take care of their children is a proof it isn't enjoyable is laudable because it doesn't factor in psychological and sociological parameters.
tl;dr Swedes don't have a lower standard of living than Americans. Maybe the reverse is even true.
