Original article, in Finnish.

Data protection board: Personal ID number, phone number, and address aren’t enough to identify the loan applicant.

If I was running one of those quick SMS loan companies, with that information above, I could go to Asiakastieto and look up the person’s credit history. With the bank account number, I could ascertain if the name of the applicant is the same as the owner of the account. Currently, I could also have the Finnish taxpayers’ incomes (Veropörssi) all downloaded to my computer from the Internet to see what kind of income the person makes and if the municipality matches. (this is another Personal Data Protection Law issue, which is going to the oral hearing in the European Court of Justice in the middle of February) I could also call the person and ask a few questions to see if it sounds like the same person and double check the address and personal ID number. Most people know their own address and personal ID number by heart. One could also check the public registry to see if the name and address match. After all that, certainly I would be willing to risk a few hundred Euros in order to get a return of 15% or more interest on a few weeks’ investment. That’s what business is about - taking a calculated risk, hoping to make some money.

Is possible identity theft the real issue? One company, Tammi Rahoitus, reported 8 incidents of misuse when giving a few thousand loans. I think it is a novel new business idea. The government has been after these new businesses from the beginning. I would only be thankful for the new tax revenue. Maybe they want to take all of it over and put it under a government monopoly. Some have been arguing that people can get the loans too easily and some restrictions have even been made so that people take the loans during the time of day when most people are sober. Is the problem that someone is bothered by someone making really good money with a novel new business idea while doing very little actual work, in a business where they only need to invest a few thousand Euros?

Well, it doesn’t bother me anyway. When I need a loan, which I rarely do, I can always find a friend or relative to borrow money from, and they don’t charge interest.

When studying the public tax records of Finland, it has become clear to me that some pretty nasty things have been happening to people because of the tax records not only being public, but being in magazines, newspapers and nowadays, the Internet. Have a look in piratebay.org, right there where the pirate movie torrents are for “Veropörssi” if you don’t believe me.

I came across this little comment in a discussion in the Internet about the very recent news that publishing tax records may soon be forbidden altogether. Link to the discussion.

Reason for assault said to be wealthiness

I know of one long term hate relationship (ie. insults, minor physical assaults), where the perpetrator has said while being drunk that the reason was the victim’s being rich. The victim asked what was the information source but he was not told.

Social benefits and so on also public

Then this person goes on to say that last line. He or she wants even more public information, such as social benefits received, even after making a comment like that. But rest assured, publishing information which reveals social benefits received (not meaning farming subsidies) is quite explicitly illegal in the EU Personal Data directive, for the exact reasons we see above.

I work in a Dilbert cubicle style office environment, and there is always an irritating level of noise around: computers buzzing, people talking, phones ringing, alarms alarming, etc. I am also a very social person, so I am easily distracted and drawn in by the conversations and joking going on around me. The employer has been gracious enough to supply everyone with a set of Sennheiser noise cancelling earphones (NoiseGard Mobile HDC 451). They are quite good and definitely reduce noise. When I put fresh batteries in and turn them on, they definitely reduce the level of ambient noise.  However, they are quite old. I think that the technology has probably progressed since the time these were brand new. Also, they are the type that sits on top of the ear with a plastic flexible U bracket in between. I want to try something that either goes in the ear, or covers the ears completely. I started looking around in the stores. Soon I found a set of earbud type earphones in Anttila of the Philips brand. (Philips Active Noise Cancelling SHN 2500). I paid the 44 EUR, thinking it wasn’t too much and went home. I opened up the package, put the battery in, put them in my ears and turned it on. It was nothing like the Sennheisers at work. They did not reduce the ambient noise at all. In fact I heard more noise after turning them on. I heard a slight hissing sound plus the same level of ambient sound.  When I put music through them and turned them on, they slightly amplified the music. They sounded OK, but they did not have the “active noise cancelling” that I was expecting. I started reading customer reviews about them in the Internet. Many customers said the same as what I noticed: they sound alright, but they don’t reduce noise - they only amplify the audio going through them a bit. What I also noticed was that the average price I was seeing was about 20 dollars, or about 15 euros. I paid 44 euros in Anttila. So I got ripped off 300%. Needless to say, I took them back and got my money back. After reading customer reviews, it looks like I might buy a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones, listed for about 100 dollars in Amazon.com. They seem to have very good reviews and many compare them favourably to the Bose model that costs 300 dollars. I definitely know the name Bose, which is associated with professional audio systems.

 Pretty soon I want to blog about how every article I have ever read about the “open office” style workplace has been negative, saying things like it reduces peoples’ productivity, increases stress, and it takes 15 or so minutes for a person to get over a distraction and get back into their work. Some of the studies use empirical evidence, such as looking at the amount of stress hormones in peoples’ urine or how they behave. This basically means that a large part of office type workplaces in Finland are bad for your health and therefore the people are much less productive than they could be. This doesn’t just mean Finland either - many countries use the Dilbert cubicles and some workplaces even go so far as to have totally open offices. For now, I have to make my head swim in music and “active noise cancelling”. One person at work actually uses a pair of Peltor ear protectors, which is what you use for chainsawing, grind-cutting metal, using a jackhammer and stuff like that.

I am thinking of making a motorcycle helmet type thingy with air ventilation or peltier air conditioning, noise reduction, with high quality stereo speakers. At least I can put my head in a closed office that way. As I write I am unsuccessfully trying to ignore a conversation next to me that has been going on for about 20 minutes.

http://www.winneronline.com/articles/january2008/finlandnetlosses.htm 

The Social Ministry is drafting up a new law which would refund money back to people who lose in online Poker. This will make it difficult for Finnish online poker players in the future. Online poker businesses will not want Finnish customers if they will have to refund their money back when they lose. This will be interesting to try to apply this law on jurisdictions that aren’t under Finnish law. My wife and I speculated that it could only be done by making the credit card companies refund the money since they are typically nationally based. (ie. A Finnish person doesn’t usually go around using a French credit card, for example)

I personally feel that if someone is betting their money in online poker and loses, they deserve to lose their money. It is not a very smart move to bet your money in online poker. Why should the nanny state make special, hard to apply legislation to take care of people who knowingly throw their money away. When one enters into a poker game, they are full aware of the possibility that their money will be lost.

 I believe there is also no online poker in Finland, since I believe it is illegal to have here, that the law might be seen as nationally discriminatory. I don’t believe the Finnish gambling companies are required to refund money to people who lose in gambling games. The law seems to target poker specifically, but gambling is gambling and losing money is losing money. What can you say when a country officially sanctions gambling, monopolizes it and even encourages people to gamble their money, showing how it will be used for charitable purposes. Take the Rahaautomaattiyhdistys RAY for example. Then they get all bothered when people gamble online. You can find RAY slot machines in just about every kiosk, bus station, grocery store, etc. The whole country almost is like one big casino. The people always gathered around the machines don’t appear to be the sharpest pencils in the drawer, nor do they appear to be people who have a lot of disposable income to throw away.

Other countries have problems with people playing online poker, but not to the extent that there is in Finland. Apparently, there is a disproportional amount of people playing online poker here.

I recently visited the USA. I found some things there that are ripoffs, and found some prices there that show me that some things here in Finland are ripoffs.

 Property taxes in the USA can be around 1% of the taxation value of the property per year. Imagine trying to make money on investments in property with that as a constraint. The problem is that the counties and cities who take that taxation are very limited on ways that they can collect tax for the services they provide. And they are the ones who provide most of the services that people use everyday like schools, school tranportation, medical care, libraries, etc. However, collection of taxes on property can be seen as being in conflict with human rights. Owning land does not necessarily indicate the ability to pay and property prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Some people in the US have been forced out of their homes of off their land because their property tax has become too high. The way counties typically collect taxes in the USA using property taxes is wrong and must be changed. In Finland, the municipalities collect what is called “äyrit”, which is a flat percentage of your income, ranging from 16 to about 20 percent. In my opinion, the Finnish system wins, except in the cases where the municipality collects the tax but does not provide the services or provides substandard services keeping people illegally waiting in line for necessary medical procedures, for example.

A new basic chainsaw of a known brand, Poulan, was 107 dollars in Walmart. That is about 75-80 Euros. I have never seen a chainsaw for under 150 EUR in Finland. Rumour has it that Hong Kong has them for 99. It is probably from some brand like “Leaping Tiger” or something similar. I have to go check that out.

One of the worst ripoffs, and perhaps one of the most dishonest, is the price of rechargeable batteries. They are twice as expensive or more in Finland. A pack of 4 Energizer rechargeable AA batteries is under 10 dollars in Walmart. Here they are 15-20 EUR a pack, so 2-3 times more expensive. So next time you make an order through the Internet or travel, don’t forget to throw in a pack or two of rechargeable batteries. Nowadays, you can even get pre-charged rechargeable batteries that hold their charge. A pack of Kodak pre-charged rechargeable AAs was about 7-8 dollars. Rechargeable batteries can be recharged 300-500 times, and will save you a lot of money in the long run, even if you do pay the ripoff Finnish price. It is much more green to recharge your batteries 300-500 times than to buy at least that many packs of disposable batteries. Also disposable alkaline batteries are a ripoff in Finand, but not such a drastic one.

While I was there in the USA, I needed to travel to an island that was 8 miles offland. The only way to get there was on a postal delivery boat that goes there twice a day, every mail delivery day. In order to ride the boat that goes there anyway, I needed to pay 16 dollars per trip. So I paid 32 dollars to get to and from an island, 16 miles total. That was a dishonest ripoff, in my opinion. In Finland, the Ã…land ferries cost me around 50 marks to ride with my car. They are free with a bicycle or by foot. I don’t expect it has increased much since then. And that trip was much longer than 8 miles. The Ã…land ferries are a good working part of the the Ã…land transportation infrastructure that people actually use a lot.

The car tax changes now at the beginning of 2008. Some cars will get cheaper, some will get more expensive, based on the emissions or simply put, the size of the engine. The size of the engine is often an indicator of a luxury car. On the other hand, a Lestadian family might want to get a minibus to be able to tranport the family around. While it may be cheaper for them to buy 5-6 Fiat Puntos with the new system, is that really smart? Last I looked, a VW minibus was about 73,000 EUR. Will that even go up now?

Some people also might want to collect cars, just to drive every once in a while. We call the tax a tax on emissions, but is a car emitting when it is sitting in the garage?  People who have Ferraris, for example, don’t usually drive them a whole lot. They are expensive to drive. For some, purchasing cars could be an investment. But if a resident of Finland wanted to invest in cars and collect them, the cars would have to be owned, registered, and stored in another EU country in order for that to be feasible. You can’t collect a car that has a fake tax-induced value and expect to sell it and make money. Many people also have a more practical reason for wanting a large engined car, such as for tranporting horses, but the car won’t be used very often. So it will have a tax based on emissions, and it won’t be emitting.

Finland previously had a nasty car tax with all its protectionism beaurocracy surrounding it - that will stay the same or even become worse. Taxing a car based on its engine size is not new - that is the way Russia does it or has done it in the past. We are really lacking one of the great liberties that citizens of almost all the other EU countries enjoy - to be able to buy a car from anywhere in the EU without being slapped with thousands in taxes for importing it. Not any change here, really, in the freedom of movement of goods and people between countries, which is one of the basic tenets of the EU.

Soon something has to give in. This is like it was to live in one of the Soviet satellite countries. One Hungarian told me how he smuggled currency from East Germany into Germany by gluing stacks of bills to his back bone, exchanging it in Germany, and then putting his hard German currency into a bank account. That’s not liberty. And all kinds of border control and customs and taxes and temporary licenses and beaurocracy to get something from one EU country to another is not liberty either.

Ok yipii, I can buy a Fiat Punto now for about 1000 EUR cheaper. I should be ecstatic, but I am not really. It looks like a quickly thrown together scheme to alleviate all the EC complaints and infringement procedures and make it “look” like the taxation has some valid reasoning behind it. I suspect the new taxation scheme will be incessantly complained about to the EC just as much as the former one.  But I am genuinely happy that diesels have gotten a lot cheaper. They don’t emit as much CO2 and are more efficient - basically none if burning biofuel, but the petrol based diesel fuel does emit some other noxious gases, as well as plenty of soot. And diesels can be more difficult in the cold winter.

I don’t know if anyone has tried this yet, but when the government heavily taxes cars coming into the country from other parts of the EU, they should also be obliged refund a similar amount if a Finnish resident were to sell  his or her car to someone in another EU country, or otherwise permanently unregister it and take it out of the country. There should also be lookup charts of what will be refunded if a Finnish resident were indeed to sell a car to someone in another country, corresponding to the tax that would be required from the same car coming in. Otherwise, the whole scheme is nationally discriminatory against the people in Finland.

See the new prices.

Source:

http://www.promenadi.net/uutinen.php?lngID=102818

A dance club in Pori told a 31 year old Russian woman that she could not enroll for a dance course because the course was intended for only “natural Finnish people”. She was told that this is in the club’s rules. The woman read that the course was for everyone (”kaikille”) in the advertisment. It was found later that there was no such rule. This was clearly a case where somone in the club was just clearly discriminating against the woman.

But, Oops, I guess they forgot this part of the Finnish Penal Code:

Chapter 11 - War crimes and offences against humanity (578/1995)

Section 9 - Discrimination (578/1995)

A person who in his/her trade or profession, service of the general public, exercise of official authority or other public function or in the arrangement of a public amusement or meeting, without a justified reason
(1) refuses someone service in accordance with the generally applicable conditions;
(2) refuses someone entry to the amusement or meeting or ejects him/her; or
(3) places someone in an unequal or an essentially inferior position owing to his/her race, national or ethnic origin, colour, language, sex, age, family ties, sexual preference, state of health, religion, political orientation, political or industrial activity or another comparable circumstance shall be sentenced, unless the act is punishable as industrial discrimination, for discrimination to a fine or to imprisonment for at most six months.

Apparently, there is an official you can turn to if you have been discriminated against. The article mentioned a Minorities Ombudsman (”Vähemmistövaltuutettu” Not sure how that is officially translated. ). The contact person mentioned in the article was Rainer Hiltunen. In cases of discrimination, you can also press charges (=tehdä rikosilmoitus) at the local police station as well.

Source

Finnish state prosecutors will launch an investigation into some members of the Helsinki Drug Squad, who are suspected of malfeasance, Finnish news agency STT reported on Monday.

But about 20 persons of the drug squad took sick-leave last Friday. The squad has about 35 members.

Jari Aarnio, Chief Inspector of the Helsinki Drug Squad, fears that the mass sick-out could hamper the investigation of serious drug cases.

Before the sudden bouts of illness, the drug police had been informed by Finnish State Prosecutor Ari-Pekka Koivisto that a decision would be coming soon on whether or not there is reason to suspect illegal activities among the drug police, said STT.

Last spring suspicions were aroused that the drug police had established close relationship with certain criminal groups. The police had agreed to overlook crimes committed by those in the criminal underground giving tip-off in drugs.

On TV last night, the spokesman for the drug police team was insistent that the policemen have been doing an excellent job and that this investigation that is being launched is “like having a bucket of shit dumped on our necks.”

Well, drug police have to have their snitches in order to make busts. If they arrest their snitches, then they don’t have any more snitches and don’t make any more busts, so it seems logical that they must turn a blind eye to some of the things the snitches are doing. It sounds like this is where the misunderstanding lies.

Nearly two thirds of the drug police force in Helsinki are on sick leave. They have cited “burn out” as the cause for the sick leave, which is, no doubt, some sort of protest.

Inspired by this article

Canola field, source

141 is the number of the Article of Accession to the European Union that keeps Finland’s farming subsidies in place. Finland is pretty eager, it seems, to hold onto the subsidies. It is widely believed here that farming in Finland will not succeed without the subsidies. The subsidies for sugar beet farming were recently abolished, and the result was one of the two large Finnish sugar factories were closed. There is one left in Säkylä, and its future is also in question. Salo was the location of the other one. I wonder what they will do with the huge factory sitting on the hill there in Salo… It’s a good location for a theme park, in a town where you can actually find parking located also near Turku, which has no theme park, whereas Tampere does.

Sweden and Denmark are fighting against Article 141, according to the above linked article, saying that it gives Finland an unfair advantage. Well, SkÃ¥ne is in an altogether different climate zone from Southern Finland, and that’s where most of Sweden’s farming occurs. There are plenty of trees that grow there that don’t grow at all or very little in the wild in Finland, such as Ash, Hornbeam, Elm, Oak, etc. SkÃ¥ne doesn’t even get much snow in the winter. It is the same story with Denmark. But there is am economic bubble in Southern Finland that is just asking to be popped though. Why are fields in a place this far North selling for as much as 12,000 Euros a hectare? In Sweden, they can be around 2,000 a hectare for better producing land. The subsidies are what cause it. Or is it the threat of loosing the subsidies that is causing farmers to make their farming operations as large as possible, thus buying up all the fields and driving up the prices.

Finland is as far north as Alaska. Southern Alaska has a similar climate as Southern Finland, perhaps a bit colder. It is also warmed and buffered by the sea. They don’t bother trying go grow crops there like they do here, but rather import the necessary food from Canada and the the lower 48 states. On the other hand, Finland has an obsession - understandably so - to be as independent as possible. The wars and periods of rationing are still there vividly in many peoples’ memories. But some claim that farmers in Finland are doing too well, with their massive amounts of new, top-of-the-line equipment. So should we do away with the 141 subsidies? Who knows what the results will be.

If Finland fights back and keeps the subsidies, it would be immoral to try to sell the subsidized products outside of Finland. Otherwise, it could be viewed as dumping or giving an unfair advantage to Finnish agriculture. It also stands loosing its good ties with the Commission. Finland has been a good trooper in the EU, following the rules as much as possible. (except with personal data) Or could Finland do with a good marketing strategy and market unsubsidized food for a more expensive price, and use the arguments that Finland is cleaner. I can say from personal metal detecting experience that Southern Finnish fields have very little metal scrap in them, such as lead bullets or shrapnel. Go with a metal detector through farming areas in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and see what you turn up. Lead and other metals gradually leech into the soil. Central Europe is also much more densely populated and more polluted. For these reasons, I would personally rather eat Finnish wheat or rye any day. Well, we should know if Finland gets to keep the subsidies in about a year or so.

Today, Finland is 90 years old. I suppose in 10 years, people will be really celebrating, when Finland reaches 100 years.

One might be wondering why it is such a serious holiday. When Finland became independent, it got off to a very rough start and didn’t have much time to celebrate. Civil war followed shortly after becoming independent, as well as the Great World Wars. Read Hank’s history article for more details or the Wikipedia article. The picture is from Wikipedia.

Many people in Finland watch The Unknown Soldier (”Tuntematon Sotilas”) on TV, and/or watch the Presidential Ball and all the celebrities, diplomats, sports people, and so on going there. Some people will take candles to the graveyards where people who have fallen in the wars are buried.

Happy Independence Day!, Hyvää Itsenäisyys Päivää!, God Självstandighets Dag!

partly from this article, from hs.fi (in English)

Apparently, Swedish people are moving their mutual funds investments from Sweden to Finland. The article indicates that there is a slight tax advantage and there is a lot less beaurocracy in Finland. The Swedish capital gains tax is 30% as opposed to Finland’s 28%, Simultanously, mutual fund investments are going from Finland to Luxembourg. Luxembourg’s capital gains tax is 22.88%, which offers a small tax advantage, but another advantage offered by Luxembourg is strict anonymity (banking privacy) and less bureaucracy with the identity of the owner of the money.

I also suspect that Finland abolishing the wealth tax may end up also contributing to this inward flow of money phenomenon, if people are able to feel safe keeping their money here. I am not sure if a Swede would be charged wealth tax on wealth in Finland, but that can also make bureaucracy even easier, when wealth need not be reported. On the other hand, it was high time for it to go. If you think about it, having wealth tax is like taxing someone for his or her job skills, as opposed to taxing the money he or she earns doing the job. France and Sweden still have wealth tax. Doh!

Other countries in the EU have similar tax levels for mutual funds, but Belgium stands out with its exempt status for private individuals on both short and long term mutual fund investments. It is very smart of a country to do all it can to encourage its citizens to save and increase their money. It is good in the long run for the economy, as opposed to thinking “what can we get right now?”. In the US, one can fall into a 35% capital gains tax category and Australia even more. Canada charges 30% on half the capital gain, which is 15%. (Yes, it’s a silly way of doing things.) The tax competition inside the EU seems to be doing some good.

 

 Picture of Åland. Picture, thanks to Wikipedia. Click to view Wikidedia article.

What does Åland have in common with Jersey, Guernsey, The Canary Islands, Mallorca + Menorca, Madeira, San Marino, Andorra, The Isle of Man, Gibraltar, and so on? Well, many of them are remote places, separated from the continent by water. Some of them are in the mountains. All of them are small places with a small population of people. Some of them are sovereign states while others are autonomous territories of another country. Many of them get a lot of tourists each year - some get more in the winter (ie The Canary Islands) and some get more in the summer (Åland). The Åland Islands get 1-2 million people going through there a year.

Ã…land is an island archipelago which has a lot of rocky island outcroppings located between Finland and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The main island is large enough to give an impression that there is a lot of open land there. The outer archipelago is a different story, though. In Brändö, they say there are 500 people there, but 1000 islands. It is the photo-negative image of Finland with its plentiful lakes - Ã…land has plentiful islands. It has a bit warmer and sunnier climate. There are trees that grow there that don’t in Finland, like Taxus baccata (European Yew).

Statistically, Ã…land shows that it has wealth clearly above the Finnish average. If you are in Mariehamn, it does look neat and clean. There are some shipping businesses based there. Much of the Finnish potato chips come from there because the potatoes are bigger, due to the plentiful sunshine in the summer from Ã…land being too small to disrupt the weather patterns enough to cause rain and thunderclouds in the summer, unlike what happens over mainland Finland and Sweden.

If you visit the outer archipelago, it won’t appear very wealthy at all. In fact, it looks quite impoverished with run down buildings and things generally in bad or worn out condition. I lived there 2 summers in the outer archipelago in Brändö, and the people there work many different careers in order to make ends meet. People fish, hunt, farm what little land there is, have greenhouses, build, repair, work for the municipality, pick tomatoes, pack fish, farm fish, work in tourist cafes, rent cabins, and so on. The second summer I was there, Finland had joined the EU and, instead of making trade and movement of goods more free, it worsened there. Many of the goods were bought from Finland, and were charged with 17.5% or 22% VAT. They were charged 17.5% or 22% VAT again in Ã…land. Then the person buying the goods needed to apply separately for a refund for the VAT paid to Finland. This happens because Ã…land has the same status as The Canary Islands and The Channel Islands of being outside the VAT area of the EU.

What Ã…land doesn’t have in common with those other places is that it is not a tax paradise. Because of their geographical disadvantage, most or all of those other places have lower or no VAT and, in many cases, have other lower taxes in order to make it easier for people to live there. Many of those other places give special tax discounts or tax free status to businesses that are based there, but do business elsewhere, not locally. Some of them also have banking opportunities, and are known as “safe” places to keep your money. So instead of being Scandinavia’s tax, shopping, and banking paradise, it is an expensive tax hell. The only tax-free shopping is for alcoholic drinks and tobacco (addictive drugs) on the boats going to and from there. Ã…land has special status, along with the Canary and Channel Islands that it is outside the VAT area, but its government only chooses to use it to sell addictive drugs on ships.

Åland, if made into a Swiss or Liechtenstein style banking location and tax/shopping paradise, it would make a LOT of money and could possible help repatriate expatriated Finnish wealth where it can be used and invested in and near Finland, but it could also bring in new wealth. The whole Baltic area could and would use it. Russians especially like to keep their money safe from the teeter-tottering of politics, but Russia is not the only country in the neighbourhood that has teeter-tottering politics. But that is up to the Åland people and their government. They can do what they want, since they are autonomous and have their special VAT status. They can have a tax hell or a tax paradise.

Lately, Finland is starting to have a pretty good selection of coffees. When I first moved here, you could get Finnish style coffee and that was about it. If there were any “espresso” or “cappucino” type coffees, then they were from the Scanomat press-a-button, bzzzzzzzt, and “blat!”, something falls into your cup kinds of coffee, made from instant powder mixes. You still often see the Finnish preference for an automatic machine in many places, but chances are, the machine is making you a real cappucino, latte, or espresso. You can usually tell if is making real coffee from the taste and smell and if there is a bean reservoir on the top or a pipe that takes in real milk. Some machines use real coffee but use powdered milk, which is not a good compromise, in my opinion. In one cafe where I visited, there was a proper, expensive automatic espresso/cappucino machine, but they had put traditional Finnish roast coffee in it. It caused an immediate gag reaction in me, since I was expecting the taste of espresso. I have had a similar experience in Tallinn as well where they had used continental roast coffee in an expensive automatic espresso machine. That is a big no-no.

The traditional Finnish (Scandinavian) style coffee is very lightly roasted. It is prepared usually in a drip-type coffee maker, although there are more roughly ground types that can be made in with the grounds in the coffee pot when it is on top the stove. Finnish or Scandinavian coffee has quite a different taste from French coffee, which is very darkly roasted. Italian espresso coffee is dark roasted but not quite as dark as the French roast. The continental roast used in Germany is a medium roast. In the USA the American coffee is typically medium roast, and prepared quite weak. The Greek and Turkish finely ground style of coffee is also medium roasted. From my observation the finely ground coffees quickly loose their aroma. Lebanese coffee, which is also finely ground, can even have cardamom added to it, and has an interesting taste.

Espresso originally comes from Italy and has been drunk there for perhaps a hundred years. It is also drunk a lot in Cuba and parts of South America. This new way of preparing and selling different types of espresso drinks in cafes is quite a new culture, and has spread out from Seattle, where Starbucks had its beginnings.

The tea culture in Finland still has a lot of room for improvement. Cafes usually have a large selection of bagged teas that have different aromas added to them. Some people, however, prefer loose leaf tea. The bagged teas naturally taste a lot like the bag that they come in. Loose leaf tea tastes only like tea. There are also hundreds of types of tea, some of which you never see as bagged tea. Some teas don’t do very well as bagged teas, such as Sencha, which should look a bit like blades of grass. Also bagged teas are often quite powdered, and the small granules cause them to loose their aroma.

Among the caffeinated drinks you may find Yerba Mate nowadays. This comes from South America and is neither a tea or a coffee, but it is often prepared like a tea. It should be sucked through a filtering straw (bomba) from a gourd (mate) and made with about 80 degrees C water. The gourd is filled about halfway to two thirds full with Yerba Mate, and it is steeped 6-10 times before it tastes “washed”. South Americans and others claim it is quite healthy.

I found a very intersting article on the World Bank’s website that was written by the Korea Institute of Public Finance.

One of the big subjects that has been talked about here in Finland is the underground economy or “harmaa talous”. One of the arguments used for having public tax records (”transparency”) is to reduce the amount of the underground economy. There was a even a huge attempt at a crackdown on the underground economy in the mid to late 1990’s, in an attempt to bring the level down. Lately, there hasn’t been much talk about it due to other, more pressing news.

What is the underground economy?

It is the unreported exchange of money. This can happen through illegal activites, such as drug trafficking, prostitution, and human trafficking, or it can happen through legal activities, such as bartering goods, unreported work, wages from self employment, employee discounts, payment without a receipt, etc.

In Norway, according to the government tax authority’s web site, 45% of people over 18 years old have purchased unreported labour. It was described as “underground economy” labour. There are probably similar levels in Sweden and Finland as well.

Why is it a problem ?

People may go underground to escape tax and social security burdens. As a result, this can weaken the tax and social security bases. As a result of this, there can be an increase in the budget deficit and tax rates. As a result of this, there can be further growth in the underground economy, and finally there is a weakening in the system, or the country, as a whole.

Growth of the underground economy

The article showed that there was, among all the European countries featured, the most dramatic growth of underground economic activity in the Scandinavian countries between the years 1960-1995. (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) Finland wasn’t included in the paper, but we can assume that Finland has very similar scores. The growth in Scandinavia was much higher than that in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the US. Norway had the most dramatic increase of all the European and Western countries featured in the article.

Causes of Underground Economy

• Higher tax rates and social security contributions
• Increased regulation
• Forced reduction of weekly working hours
• Earlier retirement
• Unemployment
• Decline of civic virtue and loyalty towards public institutions

I take the liberty to define another cause here, because I believe it is a factor. These countries that have had the highest increase in underground economic activity also have or have had public (published) tax records. The published information is name, salary, capital income, and municipality in the case of Finland, and until recently included wealth. In Finland’s case, the information has been published in tax calendars, newspapers, and other publications which sole purpose is to publish this information. In Sweden in recent years, quite detailed information could be looked up online, but anonymous lookups were stopped during this past Summer. Norway has had press heydays when it has opened its records up for 3 weeks a year. In all these countries, it is toted as some sort of noble democratic ideal and called “transparency”, but it ends up basically being a feeding frenzy for the press and tabloid type entertainment.

There seems to be a psychological factor, a desire of people to take what is their own, that is the money they have worked hard for, and put it in a safe place away from prying eyes. When even peoples’ wealth is published, it should come as no surprise when the government finds that there are billions in Finnish money in the Cayman Islands and other tax paradises where the governments don’t reveal the identity of the owner of the money.

I might also add “fear of the tax official” in the case of Scandinavia, and wanting to avoid dealings with the tax collector because of an unclear definition of one’s rights and responsibilities as a taxpayer. There is an expression “the tax collector is always right” in Finnish. “Verottaja on aina oikeassa.” Noone is comfortable dealing with a boss, for example, who is “always right”.

Methods of Estimating the Size of the Underground Economy

A number of different approaches were used to estimate the size of the underground economy. There were indirect approaches like taking surveys, looking at discrepancies between the national expenditure and income statistics, discrepancies between the official and actual labour force, currency demand approach and physical input. The currency demand approach looks at the demand for cash currency which points to underground payments, because cash is often used with underground payment. The physical input looks at the demand for electricity, since electrical consumption goes hand in hand with economic development. If a country is using more electricity than is accounted for in its GDP, then the rest can be suspected as being used for the underground economy. (read the article)

Most studies try to associate the tax burden with the underground economy, which certainly must be a factor in the case of Scandinavia, due to the high taxes. However, the tax burden in Scandinavia is pretty similar with that in other EU countries, such as France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, etc. But one differing factor is certainly the pubicizing of peoples’ tax and income records from the tax officials. I maintain that this causes people to want to hide their money and their money transactions away from prying eyes.

The conclusion: The use public tax records to reduce the underground economy in Scandinavia has failed quite quite miserably. Or then, I might add, it was always just an excuse used by people who are addicted to “peeping” at other peoples’ private economic affairs and is perhaps the actual cause of this dramatic, disproportional increase in the underground economy in this region.

Many people don’t understand what culture shock really is. Many think that it is the feelings of amazement or bewilderment one has when entering an exotic new culture. In reality, the process of experiencing culture shock can last even for years. Wikipedia says:

Culture shock is a term used to describe the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. Often this is combined with strong disgust (moral or aesthetical) about certain aspects of the new or different culture.

The term was introduced for the first time in 1954 by Kalervo Oberg. Other researchers who have subsequently worked on culture shock include Michael Winkelman.

Notice the name Kalervo Öberg. Doubtless he was a Finn. The well-written Wikipedia article goes one to list the phases one may experience when going through culture shock.

Phases of Culture Shock

Severe culture shock (moving to a foreign country) often consists of distinct phases. Not everyone moves through the phases and not everyone is in the new culture long enough to pass through all three^[3]:

• The “Honeymoon Phase” - During this period the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light, wonderful and new. For example, in moving to a new country, an individual might love the new foods, the pace of the life, the people’s habits, the buildings and so on.
• The negotiation phase - After a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, minor differences between the old and new culture are resolved. One may long for food the way it is prepared “back home,” may find the pace of life too fast or slow, may find the people’s habits annoying, etc.
• The “Everything is OK” phase - Again, after a few days, weeks or months, one grows accustomed to the new culture’s differences and develops routines. At this point, an individual no longer reacts to the new culture positively or negatively, because it no longer feels like a new culture. An individual becomes concerned with basic living again, as they were in their original culture.
• Reverse Culture Shock - Returning to one’s home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce the same effects as described above.

In some cases, it may be impossible to deal with culture shock. Some people will give up on assimilating into the newer culture and return to their own culture.

Other references show how the culture shock experience can be like a U curve, starting out with the honeymoon phase, dipping down into the negotiation phase, and then back up in the Everything is OK phase. This can last for years. Sometimes the curve can correspond with getting fluent in the language. In the case of Finland, with its exotic language, this can take a long time. For me, my culture shock in Finland lasted about 5 years. Getting out of student life and into work life brought me out of it quickly.

Some of the people in hanging out here are in the process of experiencing culture shock, in the negotiation phase, hence the griping and complaining. Any thoughts?