How do Finns prosper more — with so much less, ostensibly, than we have?

[eridani]

http://www.eoionline.org/blog/how-do-finns-prosper-more-with-so-much-less-ostensibly-than-we-have/

So how do the Finnish people prosper with so much less, ostensibly, than we have? The answer is, they make shared investments to build their kids, families and communities.

Look at the economy in terms of peoples’ lives: When a baby is born in Finland, the family gets a baby box with clothes, diapers, bedding, towels, a picture book, a teething toy and other items. Paid family leave kicks in for at least a year, at 80 percent compensation with a guarantee you can return to your job. When mom or dad decides to go back to work, the cost of day care is subsidized so the maximum monthly payment is $322.

As kids grow up, their parents can devote real time to them. Every worker gets five weeks vacation, and the family budget is enhanced with a monthly stipend of $110 for the first child. The stipend increases with each child, so the stipend for the fifth child is almost $200. Pre-kindergarten is universal and free for all children. Schools provide meals for all children. In school, children are immersed in a system focused on creativity, teacher and student autonomy, foreign languages, math and music. No surprise: 15-year-old Finns are the top in the world in education. And when a student goes to technical college or the university, there is no tuition. Instead, the student gets a living allowance!

The Finnish health care system covers everyone. A friend of mine recently had surgery which required two nights in the hospital. His total bill: $103.74, inclusive of surgery, hospitalization, care and medicines!

In retirement, people receive about 55 percent of their average earnings along with a $560 monthly housing allowance. The average pension, including the housing allowance, comes to about $29,000 a year. Full pensions start at age 63. It’s guaranteed, like our Social Security, so the Finns don’t have to worry and hope that their 401(k) performs well. They don’t need 401(k)s! How is this financed? The Finns pay 5.7 percent of their wages into the pension system, and 7.2 percent after age 53. Compare that to our 6.2 percent tax for our Social Security. Employers pay more: 23 percent.

[EdwardBernays]

1. Society

Turns out it's more important than individuals.

[bjo59]

2. Finns stereotypically have a totally different philosophy of life than do Americans,

stereotypically. You could say that Americans have a rather deep rooted fondness for a Social Darwinist world view... "every man for himself" and the "fittest" will always "rise to the top." In this country today the fittest are the wealthiest and the most corrupt. None of that has anything to do with the common Finnish understanding of social life.

[longship]

3. Sisu! It is simple. Sisu!

Sisu.

R&K

[Sherman A1]

4. Thanks for Posting!

A very good read.

[LibDemAlways]

5. The Finnish government clearly cares about its citizens and

Last edited Fri Jun 3, 2016, 05:09 AM - Edit history (1)

invests in them. The US government is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporations and is largely run by a cadre of corrupt wealthy individuals who do not give a rat's ass about anybody but themselves and seek only to stuff their own coffers. That is the difference.

[Moostache]

8. Let me clarify one thing about "government"...

The Finnish one or the American one are the same on one fundamental level that we Americans are brain-washed into denying. That one thing is this: GOVERNMENTS ARE THE PEOPLE.

It's a reflection of what the people are willing to accept and/or willing to impose on their fellow citizens.

Of the people.
By the people.
For the people.

Finn's are simply more egalitarian thinkers and better people than Americans, period.

We can have a country where everyone is treated to a standard of living commensurate with the nation's wealth and compassion for its own...or we can have a delusional society that allows fear to be its currency of choice - fear of loss, fear of eviction, fear of starvation, fear of 'the other' - which dominates all else.

Americans are considering electing Donald Trump. More than 40% of us. Let that reality sink in. A walking, talking caricature of a human is the preferred choice of 4 in 10 Americans RIGHT NOW!

Make America Great Again?
Bullshit.

Make America Compassionate Again
Make America Matter Again
Make America Worthy Again

Make America a place I want to stay, not a place I want to flee from...

[vanlassie]

17. Standing on my chair clapping.

[JNelson6563]

36. Well said!

[Califonz]

6. Amazing what a country can do for its citizens

when it's not spending $6000 per taxpayer on a huge military industrial complex.

[Recursion]

27. We spend more tax money per capita on health care than Finland does

We could have exactly the medical system they have, if our doctors made $70K / year like theirs do.

[Recursion]

7. Their median household income is lower than Mississippi's

So is the UK's, for that matter.

[Bad Dog]

9. You have a source to back that claim up?

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Likely the extreme neolib mises institute.

I doubt he wants to provide that link.

[Bad Dog]

13. I think you're right.

Some people think they just have to make a claim and that's it.

[elleng]

31. Sorry, sir;

you got that wrong. See below.

[Bad Dog]

33. Have you clicked on the link?

I have, and got a lot of blue boxes, no actual information.

[Recursion]

24. Ah, yes, the rabidly right-wing organization "OECD"

http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=66670

There's not one single metric by which Finland's median (or mean) income is higher than Mississippi's. Not by individual PPP, not by disposable per capita, not by individual nominal exchange, not by per capita nominal exchange, not by anything.

[Bad Dog]

32. Your link leads to a graph,

that doesn't say anything. There's no mention of Finland or Mississippi.

[ReRe]

10. They live on less...

... and have a better quality of life. Capitalism is our culprit.

[Recursion]

25. Yep. That's exactly true (nt)

[Festivito]

11. Comparing DISPOSIBLE income versus gross income would be misleading.

17 United States $49,965.27 2012
18 Isle of Man $49,817.44 2007
19 Austria $47,226.20 2012
20 Japan $46,720.36 2012
21 Andorra $46,418.42 2008
22 Finland $46,178.59 2012

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita

We have to buy all that FREE STUFF ourselves and at higher prices (which is the stupidity of the right wing in a nutshell).

[nxylas]

14. Lots of tax havens near the top of that table

I'm not an economist, but I can't help wondering if that distorts the figure by including money that the 1% have offshored.

[Festivito]

23. Profits hidden offshore would distort GDP a bit.

I'm not an economics major either. Robert Reich or Alan Grayson could tell us if it would distort by more than 1% or less than 1%. My guess is that it would be less because the cost of making the profit which is included in GDP is generally far greater than the profit that should be included in GDP.

[AntiBank]

20. BS, that simply is NOT TRUE

http://www.stat.fi/til/pra/2014/pra_2014_2016-04-07_tie_001_en.html

Median of earnings of full-time employees EUR 2,946 per month

3281 USA x 12 = 39,372 USD per year median income in Finland (2014) that's ONE person

USA

http://www.mybudget360.com/how-much-do-americans-earn-what-is-the-average-us-income/

The median wage in the US per person is $26,695. (2011) I will say it was around 27.5 to 28K in 2014



2 further points

GDP per capita is bullshit when the USA is measured

The USA counts financial transactions that benefit almost none but the top .01% plus it counts NEGATIVE TO SOCIETY transactions such as prisons, etc, that many countries do not

Point 2, both per GDP capita and average (not median) wages for the USA are skewed WAY up by the multi millionaire/billionaire set's insane chunk of the wealth


GINI Coefficients for the scandinavian countries are top 10, top 5 in the world (wealth distribution equality) The USA has fallen to 139th the last time i checked. Iran was 138th


anyone who thinks Finland, my current country (Sweden), Denmark, and Norway's average person (median wage wise) is poorer than the USA as a whole and especially some horridly well off place like Mississippi is on serious drugs

fuck the von Mises bullshit quackery

[secondwind]

15. Schooling is the same for all children in Finland.. The King's grandson goes to school with the

baker's daughter...

[Depaysement]

16. We have hedge funds and the F-35

So there!

[Sancho]

18. Voter participation...

US - 42%
Finland - 67%

http://www.idea.int/db/countryview.cfm?id=231
http://www.idea.int/db/countryview.cfm?id=74

Start with the basics...

[mwb970]

19. Fewer conservatives and religious people?

Just a guess.

[AntiBank]

22. Gospel of wealth, retrograde christianity mindsets are a sledgehammer against wealth equality.

[MisterP]

35. the Whites won its side of the Russian Civil War, has a strong conservative presence,

has a heavy extractive sector, revanchism, racism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War and almost four-fifths in a rather strong and dour quasistate church

but Nokia never went around funding a histrionic far right--that's the dif; if there's something a society needs they have no qualms about supplying it--their conservatives are even proud of state infrastructure, since that means more entrepreneurialism and national strength

meanwhile in the US we've had carefully-synchronized and poshly-funded backlashes in the 1910s, 50s, and 70s (the last one even hit the pharmacists!)

[Enthusiast]

21. But don't the Finns grow lazy and dependant?

[Recursion]

26. Their labor participation rate is 55%; ours is 63%

I don't consider that "lazy" but a lot of people in the US (even on this site) would freak out if we had as low a labor participation rate as they do.

[JonathanRackham]

28. What's the level of corruption in the Finnish government?

What's the level of corruption in the US federal and state government?

Maybe Finland spends more time taking care of it's citizens.

[beachbum bob]

29. small country with a

homogeneous population.....makes all the difference

[ret5hd]

30. So healthcare etc isn't scalable...

when there are black people around???

[Warpy]

34. Our oligarchy wants us to live in fear so we'll work harder

It seems to be working well for them.

It always does until the whole thing explodes and a few oligarchs are dead. There are anemic reforms for a while, then they play the same damned game again.