>> If you pull up a list of countries by tax rates and some quality of life index they seem to be pretty corrolated
Try correlating restrictive immigration policies and quality of life index. Should we tax people a lot and make it very hard for immigrants to become citizens? Scandinavian countries do precisely both.
Compared to the US almost every country has lax immigration policies. Specifically for Sweden, I would say that it doesn't have significantly more strict immigration policies (language, job skills that are required) than any other EU country that someone would actually want to emigrate to.
Try correlating restrictive immigration policies and quality of life index. Should we tax people a lot and make it very hard for immigrants to become citizens? Scandinavian countries do precisely both.