Thats because you have a negative population growth. Everybody wants a high paid job, but we have a much much greater population so providing jobs in the first place is important. you have a 1: 20 disadvantage in population and a 1: 33 advantage in per capita income which gives you a slight advantage in over all economy, nonetheless your growth is stalled where as we are one of the fastest growing economies so the time is not on your side. Same situation is being faced by UK. Asian and South American economies are over taking European economies because of the above mentioned reasons. Rise of China, Japan, Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, even Vietnam and many other countries is an undeniable fact you people have to live with now. Days of colonization are gone when europeans used to plunder the wealth of poor Asian and African nations. I respect Sweden as i never heard they colonized any one and i also respect the social welfare in your country. As far as UK-US romance is concerned i think their days are numbered and further accelerated by decisions like Brexit and selection of Trump ( the clown) as president.