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The Secret to Finland's Success With Schools, Moms, Kids—and Everything Else
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/the-secret-to-finlands-success-with-schools-moms-kids-and-everything-else/277699/
A Finnish child being happy, as usual. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
It's hard not to get jealous when I talk to my extended family.
My cousin's husband gets 36 vacation days per year, not including holidays. If he wants, he can leave his job for a brief hiatus and come back to a guaranteed position months later.
Tuition at his daughter's university is free, though she took out a small loan for living expenses. Its interest rate is 1 percent.
My cousin is a recent immigrant, and while she was learning the language and training for jobs, the state gave her 700 euros a month to live on.
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Bannakaffalatta
(94 posts)Make a commitment to the children and carry it through.
Maybe people are more important than profit?
Laelth
(32,017 posts)And that's all this is ... a truly liberal (but still capitalist) society at work ... making the economy and its benefits as fair and as just as possible ... distributing society's wealth relatively fairly. The results speak for themselves.
-Laelth
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)But first we need to ditch the rich.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Then we can have nice things like universal single payer health care and free higher education........
byeya
(2,842 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Karmadillo
(9,253 posts)that's Axis of Evil talk in the US.
niyad
(113,348 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)just doesn't make much sense to me.
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
Finland isn't spending a fortune bombing the shit out of the rest of the World
and I'll bet they don't have as many guns in their homes, cars and pockets as the USA.
Sorta makes for a happier life methinks.
Just my opinion . . .
CC
cali
(114,904 posts)but still, I have a hard time comparing huge, diverse countries with tiny ones, with very little diversity.
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)Something I wouldn't expect from someone who claims to be liberal/progressive.
Economies of scale say that it would be far easier for a large country than a small one to maintain a decent social safety net. All it really is is extending the insurance model to politics and social constructs. The more people contributing, the softer the blow to all.
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
"maintain a decent social safety net" ??
USA can't compare on that scale with the milder countries that do not spend a fortune on war.
"contributing" - to what though? - an ongoing war machine?
Bombs, and the means to deliver them are expensive.
Who pays for that?
USA taxpayers - that's who.
Finland ain't bombed anyone in my 62 years on this planet that I know of . .
Correct me if I am wrong . .
CC
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)My point is that it should be easier for a large country like the US to provide decent services than small ones like Finland, and yes, Canada. 'Should' is the operative word in a world where lip service is paid to important social obligations.
But we don't. And the only reason we don't, really, is that the for profit, carpet-bagger capitalists have our government by the short hairs.
I totally agree that the US should spend far more on social safety net issues than military adventures oversees, but the 'other side' won't even acknowledge that as a problem.
pampango
(24,692 posts)not 100% of policies can be copied to another country.
All countries that have strong worker rights/unions, an effective safety net and an equitable distribution of income share a commitment to certain public policies. We would be foolish to think that the US is so different (exceptional) that what works in other countries is irrelevant to us.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)But it's all about priorities. The people as a whole aren't a priority in the US. Money, power, "success..."
Not much room for peace, happiness and no hungry children in there.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)We have decided that our priorities would go towards capitalism. Our resources would go to the rich. If we decided to make a REAL change and start passing REAL socialist policies like free education for all, sinlge payer healthcare, paid sick leave and vacation, and a real living wage, then we would start seeing prosperity and happiness too.
cali
(114,904 posts)to a huge diverse one. It's far easier to come to consensus in the former than the latter.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Being quite homogeneous allows them extraordinary social trust. More diverse countries lack a lot of social trust.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Homogeneity ones help but diversity does not preclude social trust if a society treats respectfully and fairly.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Singapore has three major social groups but the government enforces diversity (but the Chinese still mostly run things).
USSR was very diverse but had a great deal of social peace...because of the gulag.
China can be considered diverse but the CCP is for and by the Han.
Sweden and Norway does have a lot of immigrants but they are not well integrated. Even worse than the US.
pampango
(24,692 posts)the US."
Immigrants may not be well integrated in Sweden. (The integration of immigrants is kind of hard to quantify.) However, Sweden keeps accepting them in large numbers and every political party (except for the far-right, Sweden Democrats which does not want immigrants) has a stated integration policy.
In Norway it is the far-right, Progress Party, that in "1993, it was the first party in Norway to use the notion of "integration politics" in its party programme. While the party has made numerous proposals on immigration in parliament, it has rarely received majority support for them. Its proposals has largely been rejected by the remaining political parties, as well as the mass media.
The party in addition seeks a more restrictive immigration policy and tougher integration and law and order measures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_(Norway)#Populism
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)By Jordan Shilton
10 June 2013
The riots that gripped Stockholm in Sweden last month are being exploited to launch attacks on immigrants and all those living on welfare benefits, as part of a campaign to intensify labour market reforms.
The violence, which only subsided after seven consecutive nights, saw clashes with police on the capital’s streets and the burning of cars and public buildings. Anger erupted after the police shot dead a Portuguese immigrant earlier in the month. Over the course of the week, riots spread to Malmo, Sweden’s second largest city.
The riots were driven by frustration among mainly young people at the desperate economic outlook they face. Although Sweden has been hailed for its relative economic resilience in the face of the European crisis, the latest figures show that the economy grew by just 0.6 percent in the last quarter. At over 23 percent, youth unemployment is more than three times the national average, and there are more than 77,000 16- to 29-year-olds who have not been in education or employment in the past two years. In some of the suburbs where the violence took place, overall joblessness is twice the national average and youth unemployment is above 40 percent.
In response to the disturbances, the trade unions have launched a nationalist campaign, urging the right-wing Conservative government of Frederick Reinfeld to impose restrictions on immigration in certain economic areas. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) complained that more than two thirds of work permits issued to people from non-Nordic countries were related to economic areas where there was already high domestic labour competition.
~ snip ~
pampango
(24,692 posts)further clampdown on immigration to the country. The current right-wing coalition government has itself imposed several restrictions on immigration numbers since coming to power in 2006."
"... union spokesman Thord Ingesson stated to Dagens Nyheter, “?... we think giving permits should be based on some kind of list from the employment agency that shows in which areas employers are having problems finding people.”
"By scapegoating immigrants, this is precisely the scenario being facilitated by the trade unions. They divide the working class, and the employers rule the roost by pitting each against all."
According to the article, unions are only asking that immigration be oriented to different industries, not reduced overall in the way that the far-right Sweden Democrats want.
As the party considers Sweden to have had too much immigration in later years, which it claims have seriously threatened national identity and societal cohesion, SD wants to reinstate a common Swedish national identity which in turn would mean a stronger inner solidarity. SD rejects the policy of multiculturalism, but accepts a multiethnic society where cultural assimilation is promoted. SD wishes to strongly restrict immigration ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats
Igel
(35,320 posts)Playing to Americans whose primary goals are related to money and race. And, to be quite honest, most discussion of race in the US is also all about money. Sometimes "power" is used, but often they're interchangeable.
Much of the key to Finland's academic tranquility is social cohesion. People have the same goals and believe in the same means to achieve those goals. They're all in this together. That produces the possibility of a decent welfare state and where there's empathy leading to a lessened desire for a lot of money if that would hurt others. You don't want bling if it's going to make you stick out. You may be a stellar athlete, but you are first and foremost part of a team and don't think of the team as being accessory to make you look good.
It also produces a situation where parents and teachers work together for the kids' learning and where there's a lot of shared responsibility--because everybody has the same goals and the same understanding of where responsibility lies and has to lie. Usually that means that the population accepts the goals and conditions that are necessary.
Everything else emerges from that.
It doesn't have to be absolute, that cohesion. It just has to be enough.
We don't have even that in the US. That's conformist, assimilationist, lacks diversity, doesn't respect cultural differences, fails to properly appreciate individuals' needs and wants and abilities. It overlooks the natural animosity between classes. There's diversity in Finland, to be sure. But it's clearly subordinate to the benefits almost everybody sees of social cohesion.
If you could impose the Finnish system and conditions on the US, within 10 years it will have completely disintegrated.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Lucky us 
telclaven
(235 posts)It amazes me how blithe people are to the 2nd and 3rd order effects of the "American Empire". Europe gets to have nice things because they didn't have to foot the majority of the bill protecting Europe. Ask the Fins how that Winter War thing was without allies. There's a reason why NAZI Germany allied with Finland, yet Finland escaped any repercussions of that association. Small countries caught between clashing empires seek out the best deal they can get. Right now, that's us. So long as the "American Empire" sustains a global bias towards free trade and enforced international peace, other nations can prosper.
Think we can do without a World Police? Um, okay, but it's never worked in the past.
duffyduff
(3,251 posts)I am sick and tired of people peddling the Finland "miracle" as an excuse to trash American education. Different culture, tiny country, tiny population, no diversity.
