Should the U.S. copy Finland's success?

HELSINKI, FINLAND - Fifty years ago, Finland was known for little more than the wood pulp from its endless forests. A poverty-stricken land of poorly educated loggers and farmers on the edge of the Arctic Circle, few paid it any attention.

Today, this small Nordic nation boasts a thriving hi-tech economy ranked the most competitive in the world, the best educated citizenry of all the industrialized countries, and a welfare state that has created one of the globe's most egalitarian societies.

Envious policymakers from far and wide are beating a path to Helsinki to learn the secrets of Finland's success.

"We have a saying here," chuckles Stefan Nygard, a university lecturer, as he swings his baby daughter gently, soothing her to sleep. "If you are Finnish, you've won the lottery."

But as the leaders of other European countries desperately seek ways to preserve their expensive systems of social protection in a competitive globalized world, Finland's circumstances and mind-set aren't easily copied. "Finland is an exceptional case Europe," cautions Riisto Erasaari, professor of social policy at Helsinki University. "We are a small homogenous country, heavily state-based, and our social model as a whole is so typically Finnish that it won't travel. But parts of it," - such as the government-funded focus on innovation and education, "are exportable."

i dont know if it could work for the U.S. because of geography and demography as well as other factors. i also wonder as to why Finland has one of the highest suicide rates though, higher than the U.S. dat makes me wonder......wats the catch.

juumm....there are black people over there or inmigrants??

GPD per captia: $29 000, Unemployment rate: 8.9%

Not that good really, higher unemployment and lower GPD per capita than Australia, the UK, Japan, Canada, the US and many others. I guess you could argue Finland has better welfare programs than some of these countries but such systems have been proven to fail in the long term if unemployment remains high.

www.cia.gov...

[edit on 26-10-2005 by Sabre262]

Originally posted by vertexc
juumm....there are black people over there or inmigrants??

Oh! *smacks forehead* Is that all we have to get ride of to make the world a happy little place? Gosh, who'da thunk it was that easy (besides this guy)

Compulsory drafts, super high taxation on everything, the social security system is partly based on revenue from the very high petroltax (that's why I think it might start to collapse soon) -- that's also one reason why the Finnish government won't allow alternative fuel cars here.
We have kind of a good welfare program, that's probably why the suicide rates are so high, many unemployed people just live, they don't do anything with their lives, low self-esteem, they have no ambitions, no hope etc.
The media here is very controlled, although it might not at first seem that way, you hardly ever hear anything controversial. The alternative media is very small.
Finland is not even Finland anymore, our foreign policy, agriculture, fishing etc. is largely controlled from Brussels by foreign unelected bureaucrats.

Finland is far from perfect. I'd rather live in America, if it wasn't becoming a fascist police state ... well actually America is already a police state.

My 2 cents, as a Finn.

news.yahoo.com...

i forgot to put the link on my first post. sorry guys.

Oh yes that is right, the US has never had any sucess, except at engineering and science...and what do these matter anyway. It appears they have Nokia and Linux going for them and this makes them more competitive economically than the US? In what sector?