Like almost 400 000 outside of job market, a lot of people getting their food pretty much the same way as any third world nation (begging, stealing etc.) Really pretty picture in this link:

http://www.yle.fi/a2/juttu.php?tunnus=1587

I’m not saying we did the right thing necessarily but it’s just the psychology of most people not to “risk” it when they’re already in a comfortable situation. Something about a frog and boiling water comes to mind.

Really glad that Estonia is showing us the way here, undoubtly Finland will admit this and follow. Some day.

The recurring problem with the people here is that you criticize the contrast between reality and the hype concerning Finland’s economical and technological proof. Yet you accept the same kind of hype from other countries as undeniable fact about that country.

It’s also sad that so many people choose to believe in some sort of mythical “finnish envy” that denies us otherwise easily obtainable glory. That’s just fucking stupid.

Yes I’m sure things would go much better if instead of “pro-finland” we were raised to “this place fucking blows”, that’d get things forward. I think the actual problem is the growing number of people who live in an illusion that there are truly these places with the infinite economic growth, no taxes, free education, free restaurant and taxis, non-intrusive goverment. Truly if these places exist why aren’t you there yet yourself?

And really I rather have the goverment check my tax records, than what books I like to read or if I happen to be interested in googling for bomb instructions or checking at which angle I raise my right hand.

Your mentioning the estonian workers in Finland reminds me of an article in Helsingin Sanomat a couple of weeks ago. It was about estonian workers having to pay the ridiculously high autovero
because they reside here too long. So how did the authorities find out? The finns — undoubtedly driven by their envy of their well-to-do neighbours — reported them.
That’s also the reason why our tax records are publicly available to everyone. Makes reporting your neighbour a lot easier, doesn’t it?

I was taught in the first grade that being born in Finland is like winning the lottery. It’s not easy to unlearn this as the seed for pro-Finland thinking is planted so early in one’s life. That’s why we shouldn’t be too hard on people like ‘tard. On the other hand, if all of us joined the chorus of praise for Finland, this country would never go anywhere.

Seriously stop churning this anti-finland crap. We all know it could be better in Finland. We also know Estonia is still a very poor, underdeveloped booze shopping mall for finns and a few techy gimmicks to show off won’t change that in any kind of hurry.

But I guess the American spirited would find it cousy in Estonia, after all like US it’s a place of glass towers of money, whilst the back yard has the poverty, drugs and crime.

And since this is a blog also about US, why hasn’t anyone mentioned the neanderthal state of all telecommunications over there?

However, bear in mind that Estonia was already there in 2001; Oulu wasn’t. I still remember my former boss commenting how we could easily host the backup servers at his farm in the middle of nowhere, because Estonia’s whole phone network had been rebuilt from scratch with fibre optic for the trunk lines and new copper lines in the villages. Back then, most people were still on dialup in Finland and the few cities where broadband was available charged an arm and a leg.

Meanwhile, Wifi everywhere and parking fees by SMS already existed in Tallinn back in 2001. They also enacted the Digital Signature Act back then and started using digital signatures immediately, despite the protests of a district court judge trying to dismiss evidence submitted by digitally signed e-mail. The Law prevailed and the judge was forced to admit the evidence. (picture the same case happening here and the bureaucracy would indulge the judge’s Luddite tendencies with utter glee and reverence, instead blaming a hastily adopted Law for shoving new technology down the poor judge’s throat)

The nightlife in Tallinn also squashes the one in Helsinki. Green city? Yup, that too. Tallinn is there and Helsinki not even on the radar.

In Helsinki, open your laptop and find that the only thing available is Sonera’s commercial roaming network. Of course, as a rare exception, Library 10 also offers free wireless, but the Pahoinvointivaltio requires you to have a library card and to login to use it.

In Estonia, you can open your laptop on the beach or in any restaurant and have instant connectivity.

Really, guys, what is there to vote for? Face it: Finland is not competitive on anything. Some of us would love for Finland to get there, but we’d first have to get rid of the Soviet nanny state to achieve anything remotely noticeable.

Issue 05:
http://www.monocle.com/Magazine/volume-01/issue-05/
Their take on the worlds Top-20 most livable cities was pretty interesting. Helsinki was sixth.