In Finland's Footsteps

Here's another article that asks whether the U.S. might not be better off adopting some form of the Scandinavian welfare state. This time Finland is the country that is examined for comparison, and the author, Robert Kaiser, notes the various perks that the Finnish state provides: free child care, effectively free higher education, the best schools in the world (judged by the achievement of students on standardized tests), universal health care, etc. There's much to admire, and perhaps envy, about life Finland, no question about it. Regardless of your purported ideological position on the role of the government and so forth, it's hard to imagine that anyone could claim that Finland is anything but one of the must successful democracies in the world. After all, this is a country that is committed to equality, which means making material inequalities disappear.

But after admiring the Finn's commitment to inequality, here's the conclusion Kaiser reaches regarding whether American might try following in Finland's footsteps: "I found Finnish society beguiling on many levels, but in the end concluded that it could not serve as a blueprint for the United States. National differences matter. The Finns are special and so are we. Ours is a society driven by money, blessed by huge private philanthropy, cursed by endemic corruption and saddled with deep mistrust of government and other public institutions. Finns have none of those attributes."

Plug yr nose people, you don't want to inhale too deeply when the air is reeking of nationalistic, identitarian bullshit. Kaiser presents us with a classic right-wing, conservative, greedhead argument (it's a dog-eat-dog world in America, things ain't ever gonna change, so love it or leave it) couched in the most facile identitarian language of the p.c. pseudo-left (no need to take a position about which system is actually better for the majority of the people who live in it; the U.S. and Finland are both 'special,' so let's celebrate our 'difference'). Kaiser's logic boils down to this: America could never become more like Scandinavia because of fundamental differences in national identity. Ameican society is basically greedy and corrupt, and Americans are paranoid about their government and public institutinos. But this decadent situation, apparently, isn't so bad because some of the rich are philanthropists. My guess is that Kaiser probably thinks of himself as a reasonable, realistic, moderate.

Ira's been missing Sweden lately. I don't want to show her this article, but know that I must. In other news, I may finally break down and get a cell phone. Will it be a Nokia (Finland) or an Erikson (Sweden)?