Sweden's Redneck Greaser Subculture

The Faster Times and The Guardian report on a thriving youth subculture in Sweden called "raggare" that Katie Natopolis describes as:

[...]a delightful mix of the style of a’50s greaser, the corpulence and bad hygiene of a biker, the love of the Confederate flag of a southern redneck, and the enthusiasm for drinking of a British soccer hooligan. Basically, every stereotype about poor white trash spanning both time and globe, rolled into one.


The Faster Times then presents a gallery of fourteen photos of raggae folk. Conor Creighton of The Guardian further describes the subculture:

The raggare have always tended to be drawn from country folk: farmers, petrol station owners, low-skilled workers. The growth in their numbers is the result of the differing fortunes of the US and Swedish economies over the decades: successive oil crises and a poor exchange rate saw Americans trading in gas-guzzlers for more economical models; the Swedes, relatively rich in comparison, bought their cars for a song.

For young Swedes, these giant American cars, which contrasted with the safe, boxy Volvos their parents drove, were the ultimate symbols of rebellion. And they were dirt-cheap. "They were stupid," Georg says about the Americans. "Some of the cars were limited edition. They built maybe 70 of them and they were selling them to us for a few thousand when they were collector pieces."


Faster Times Link and Guardian Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Christer Ehrling

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@krikkit
60% of my income goes to taxes? Really? Last I checked, and that was when I declared my taxes 2 months ago, I was taxed 32%. And for that we have free education and healthcare that everybody benefits from.
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Wow-- the girl on the far right has hair EXACTLY LIKE MINE!! I've only ever seen about three people like that...

Well, what do y'all want? That's the kind of profound comment this story evokes.
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"the Swedes, relatively rich in comparison"

WTF am I reading?

Not only do they not make as much, but over 60% of their income goes to taxes.

If anything they are taking to this subculture because they are all anti-establishment.
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