Drinking home-made vodka, "hembränt", is practically mandatory at any house party for high school students.. you can buy the distilling equipment anywhere (distilling is illegal but there many loopholes such as claiming you need to distill water for a car battery). Since it is cheap and accessible it is extremely common- especially for young people in smaller cities. Older generations in rural towns are the other group that still distill at home which they mostly do for holidays such as Midsummer and Crayfish parties. At the end of the 18th century Swedes were consuming over 2 gallons a month of the concoction which can be spiced in many ways and then becomes "brännvin" or "akvavit". These days however Sweden and Norway have the lowest alcohol consumption rates in Europe (this doesn't necessarily mean less alcoholics however as it costs Sweden around $124 million/year in health care costs and productivity losses). If you wonder where to find all these alcoholics just wander around any public park in summer, or to view all of them at once try boarding any Silja Line Cruise boat to Finland.

I would much prefer Sweden to Norway- Norway is about ten years behind. For instance in the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are at the top of the list after Switzerland whereas Norway is number 12. In the Wall Street Journal's 2006 Index of Economic Freedom Norway fell behind all the other Scandinavian countries with a rank of 30 (Finland, Denmark, and Sweden ranked 8,12, and 19 in that order). Norway's oil reserves may not last more than 20 years. Sweden has implemented plans to end oil dependancy by 2020. Norways economy consists of oil and natural resources (hydropower, fish, etc). In Sweden the structure of exports has shifted from traditional industries such as steel and paper to services, engineering, pharmaceuticals, IT, and telecommunications which makes it less vulnerable to international fluctuations. While Sweden was busy developing it's own cars and airplanes and starting world famous companies such as ABB, Ericsson, IKEA, Saab, Scania, Volvo, SKF, AlfaLaval, Astra, Electrolux, Securitas, Nobel, Skanska, Pharmacia, and H&M Norway was busy serving up salmon steaks and fishsticks. Sweden has many more famous athletes and is also the third largest music export country after the US and the UK. Sweden is trendsetting and world famous for Scandinavian design and interiors, award-winning advertising campaigns, and dental and cosmetic materials. They feature many internationally acclaimed fashion brands and while most Swedes would not be caught dead wearing clogs anymore Norwegian fashion is still synonymous to patterned wool pullovers.

Although Sweden certainly has it's own problems and is merely a shadow of what it once was I would think most people would prefer it to Norway which is a lot colder, more expensive, less enterprising, and simply not as fun a place(assuming comparison of big cities; living in Oslo is probably better than rural areas in Sweden).

As for the "Big Brother" mentality in Scandinavia- I agree that is annoying when you come across it; on the other hand the corporate culture is less "Big Brother"- there is a lot less hierarchy than in the Americas and employees get more accomplished because they do not have to get everything approved by management. They favor informality and the philosophy is to under-promise and over-deliver (a direct contrast from say Silicon Valley culture). They are quick to embrace new technology and value entrepreneurship and creativity (in contrast to Germany where individualism is suppressed). Jack Welch wrote that "Pound for pound, Sweden probably has more good managers than any other country." Sweden also has low tariffs, low set-up costs and low corporate taxation compared to the rest of Europe.