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But then they put the Swedish flag in front of each shop. What a hypocrisy!
by pqs 9y ago
But then they put the Swedish flag in front of each shop. What a hypocrisy!
- mseebach 9y agoThe Swedish flags predates the Swedish welfare state by several hundred years (and IKEA predates it by a couple of decades).
- pqs 9y agoIt still seems an hypocrisy to me. In any case, they use the flag as a marketing tool, something which, from my point of view, doesn't show much respect for the flag.
- mseebach 9y agoBeing Swedish is about a lot more than paying taxes and maintaining the welfare state. What you're proposing basically amounts to the welfare state and its needs owning the Swedish nation, rather than the other way around.
- wyager 9y agoI think there is an unfortunate belief among many of HN’s primary user demographics that regional identity is the same as what political apparatus controls a region. I think it’s easy to fall into this trap when you and your community lack any kind of coherent cultural origin story, as many Americans do.
- senorjazz 9y agowhy should a flag be respected? I believe the US has some law stating it must be, but I think this is fairly unique worldwide.
- xxpor 9y agoThe US has the flag code, which are really more guidelines than anything else. Flag burning is perfectly legal here.
- oblio 9y agoThe hypocrisy is that IKEA is now registered basically nowhere, technically in the Netherlands, but definitely not in Sweden. How would you feel if Apple would keep portraying itself as an US company after moving its HQ to China? :)
- mseebach 9y ago"registered basically nowhere" != "moving its HQ to China" Registration is a matter of paperwork. Incorporation is a legal fiction. IKEA is a Swedish company for all intents and purposes, except tax liability. Taxation isn't the essence of Swedishness. If Apple did some legal magic and moved its company registration to Sweden (and paid any and all due taxes in Sweden), it still wouldn't make the iPhone a Swedish product (to the extend the iPhone claims a nationality, which is doesn't really, so it's not a great comparison).
- bjourne 9y agoYeah, I think that is a little rich of IKEA. They get tons of goodwill from the Swedish system but contributes very little to it themselves. For example, the Swedish King or some government official is often present when IKEA opens a new store somewhere in the world. If an new one is opened in Sweden, the local politicians help them out by adding bus stops and even new bus lines servicing it. It's kind of crazy given that IKEA in reality is a Dutch charity for tax reasons. At this point in time, IKEA is about as Swedish as Media Markt.