"cradle to the grave. In fact, though, a major study released in May 2002 by the Swedish Institute of Trade (HUI) decisively punctured the myth of welfare-state "prosperity" in Sweden: by the end of the 1990s, Sweden's median income was $26,800, compared to $39,400 in the United States. More to the point, the HUI economists specifically pointed out: "Black people, who have the lowest income in the United States, now have a higher standard of living than an ordinary Swedish household."