Pity the Poor Finns

Pity the poor Finns. What a terrible life they have to live. Once an idyllic nation, making do with a economy based solely on wood pulp, they are now a thriving hi-tech economy ranked the most competitive in the world, they have the best educated citizenry of all the industrialized countries, and a welfare state that has created one of the world's most egalitarian societies.
Some of the abuses that come with living in this welfare state are…
There is no cost for a university education. None. Zip. Nada. How are you going to learn anything if you don’t pay for it?

Free healthcare. Sounds like a bunch of communists to me!

Having a baby? The government will pay you 66% of your salary to stay home and care for your child until it’s time for day care…which the state pays 4/5ths of the cost. Criminal!

Lose your job? Finns get 70% of their salary for up to 18 months while they look for a job.

Retired? You can look forward to an income of 60% of their last salary. What are these people thinking?

Of course there is a cost: Finland levies some of the highest taxes in the world, a successful citizen will pay more than 45 percent of their personal income toward taxes. Most don’t object. "I feel that is what keeps our society and country running," one explained. "We can't keep the welfare state running unless everyone pitches in and helps with the costs." What kind of an idea is that?

It has been said that Finns do not regard social spending as a drag on economic growth and job creation, but as a positive force. Well of course they are wrong!

Riita Lampola, head of international relations for the Finnish Board of Education, which oversees schooling says, "As a poor country with a small population, if we wanted to be a modern society and to develop our country, we needed everybody here," she says. "That meant everybody had to be educated."

One educator wrote, "When people can fulfill their potential they become innovators," …"The innovative economy is competitive..."
Although it may look like a success, reality is…For the past 10 years successive governments have grown stingier than they used to be, and though social spending has held steady, services have not improved in the way they used to. See? Government is doing what it always does best. Now that’s more like it.