Ilta-Sanomat and other evening newspapers are at their yearly exposé again:

So do you want to know who is who in Finland? Its all there. Eat the rich.

The Global credit crunch and the recession that has been its after-effect has slowly been gnawing at the Finnish economy. The wailing over a shortage of labor has switched over to a louder wailing from people being laid off or terminated. The latest figures from the Ministry of Labor state that the trend is looking worse.

Meanwhile, the Government, lead by “things don’t need to be discussed” PM Vanhanen has been taking steps to stall the recession. The first measure was to remove a part of the employer contributions, known as the “social insurance payment” to enable employers to keep their laborforce on for longer. Maybe a cosmetic change, nevertheless KELA wasn’t amused as their budget is tightening. Last week a new proposal was made changing the highest pension age from 63 to 65. While I am quite assured I’ll be 75 before I get to pension, the proposed change has caused more than a little stir with both the labor unions and the opposition parties. (*)

There is also fears that in the current economic situation and the fact that the last years of your employment directly relate to your pension has made more and more people in the ages now allowed to go on pension to “take the money and run” and not chancing being laid off and loosing out. Which of course puts more burden on KELA and the pension insurance companies. And as we’re in a recession there isn’t as much revenue coming in and the investments of the insurance companies are in the red, it seems we will not be seeing too many tax cuts. And we won’t seeing too much improvement in public services – any public services.

What does this mean in real life one might ask. If you aren’t depending on such services you might miss the situation, but if you depend on services you might feel the full blast. One small streamlining operation by the tax office for example will effect small enterpreneurs. Basically your monthly returns must be both in time, and correct, or you’ll be hit with a fine. Which also is a bit rude as if you figure out you made a mistake and go correct it you still be fined for it. And as tax fines are non-negotiable… Oh yes, I bet the revenues will be certain for a while at least.

(*)The HS International Edition has a pretty extensive coverage of the ins and outs.

Oh wow, wonder why. Lets not build new roads and the problem will just go away. The HS writes:

All the main arterial roads in the Helsinki area threaten to become blocked because of excessive traffic volumes within the next ten years. Blockages threaten at least some sections of every single main highway. The maximum capacity of at least some of the main trunk roads has already been exceeded.

No shit sherlocks. I can see it daily past my office window. Quite used to the traffic noise. And whats the solution? Congestion charges. yeah right.

OK, Phil, start taking a bicycle to work. its all you Espoo yuppies to blame, especially the Westend voters who don’t want the metro to bring in the rif-raf.

(Sorry the article didn’t get all there the first time because of the database hiccups.
Hank W.)

Going once, going twice, gone… and there go the jobs in the paper industry. As the global recession dawns upon us there is going to be more and more “pops” when the weasels take our jobs and run away with the money. And what will the politicians do? Build garden cities. Yes, and meanwhile “Finland needs more workers”… sorry, did someone say “a cheap exploitable labor force”? There is always someone out there desperate enough to be brought in to do the job cheaper.

I always contradict people saying there is a “shortage of nurses”. There is no “shortage of nurses”. There is a “shortage of money and tenures” which results in people not wishing to enter the profession which has created an illusion of a shortage of nurses. Finnish polytechnics churn out about 3000 nurses per year – after 5 years maybe 500 remain in the profession. And why is that? The job is hard, the pay lousy and you have only short-term contracts. So instead of making the profession something people want to do – the answer is to bring in people from someplace where the conditions are if possibly worse and they think they are getting a good deal.

There wouldn’t be all these Finnish nurses working for the NHS in the UK or Norway unless it was the same situation – the Finnish nurses think they get a good deal. While on the one hand economically bringing in foreign nurses is a business decision – we wait 10 years. That nurse has either gone back home after saving enough money for a new house and childrens college, or then the nurse has a family here. She wants a better salary and a continuous job contract, but as the culture of exploitation is there – what is the answer? To bring in some other – cheaper nurse working for peanuts and not complaining of actually having to support a family on those wages. So it continues on and on and on without anyone needing to address the core problems of the system itself.

So I would rather say “Finland needs more jobs” – but theres always the patent answer of creating your own. Oh yes, even back in the days of the big recession of the 1990’s the magical answer was for everyone to put up an enterprise and start selling soap and vitamins. Fixed the statistics greatly but how many people selling soap and vitamins to each other do we need? Does the economy of a village run on everyone selling soap and vitamins to each other? Because the fact is that the production industries are outsourcing and if there is no production there is not much money in the economy after a while. Not that there is a lack of the “enterpreneurial spirit” in Finland. Or would this “make money and become rich” spirit. Now as everyone knows one cannot come rich in Finland with honest work. The welfare state has its hand in your pocket. But as the human animal operates on greed we have now had not only one but two pyramid schemes where someone has gotten the great idea of making a fast buck off peoples greed. The WinCapita system allegedly had 10 000 Finns “invest” hundred million euros into the pyramid… that is quite a mind-boggling sum to think of. Another smaller scheme called GPP has just unraveled selling “pension insurance”… So what does *that* say of the country? We do remember Albania had a revolution in the 1997 due to a pyramid scheme taking all the money out of the system – they were probably high up in the “global competitiveness” figures back then – before the weasels popped the bubble.

It is questionable how far Finland could afford to copy the Nordic Welfare State model with its limited resources in the first place. It has worked so far, but even Sweden has been showing a hiccup… Norway has oil and gas to support their regional policies, but Finland just thinks it has resources. The current political parties – the three largest having equal 21% of the vote at the moment cannot come into consensus of what needs to be done – so everyone does something and the direction… The decisions made back during the big recession of the 1990’s was to “liberalize” the economy have now in 15 years resulted in the liberated industries escaping away. You look at the latest survey on the “hi-tech” Finland and its broadband connections. Even if done by Cisco which has its own interests. The government expects private market forces to take care of the infrastructure – and what is the result? Finland is now in 13th place. Really is this the way to go? We are living interesting times as they say in the Chinese proverb. But Finland isn’t as much alone any more – the rest of the EU is to be considered, but is the direction of the EU any clearer? Surely each country is pulling into its own direction – and is the EU not a giant on clay feet?

So what will Finland be like in 5 or 10 years with the global competition? Weasellandia 2018? Scrapped remains of a welfare state turned into a cut-throat globalized capitalist state with huge income gaps and poverty – a polarized society with ghettos with proles the weasels use as a resource pool of easily exploitable cheap labor that can be popped off when not needed?

The only thing your average Finn can do thinking about this is drink cheap alcohol imported from Estonia and look at how the country is going to hell in a handbasket – and that is my positive outlook of the day.

Cliff Notes: Paha maa

Milk has gotten much more expensive. Juice has gotten much more expensive. Beef has gotten expensive. In the news they say bread is going to get more expensive. Fuel has gotten more expensive. My electricity bill has gotten more expensive. The TV permit is going up 4%. Day care has gone up. Housing prices have gone up. Public transportation, and so on and so on.

I don’t really believe much in what the Minister of Finance, Jyrki Katainen has been saying about lowering taxes and us getting more buying power. I will believe it when it happens. Lowering VAT on food 5% might help a bit with food prices, but if the past teaches us anything, the stores in will jack up the prices to fill the gap quickly. Salaries just are not going up at the rate of all these prices, and we are heading for a face first plunge economically, if this keeps going on. I am not the only person affected. The reality will hit when people start not having enough money to live on and we fall into recession.

Haven’t posted anything in forever, apologies to all of you (and YOU’RE WELCOME to others ). I just received my portion of George Bush’s $145 billion economic stimulus package…well, $300 of it. I’m rich bitch! HONK!!! I think I’ll buy a big bag of crack, that’ll help the U.S. economy! Or maybe I’ll spend that $300 here in Finland, that’ll help the U.S. economy equally.

So you think the government is retarded for giving out billions while racking up trillions in debt, right? How could they make it even more retarded? By spelling “Espoo” with a ‘5′, check it out below…

LOL!!! I’ll be “laughing all the way to the bank” when I cash this thing. I’d like to think George Bush himself wrote that check. Reminds me of Mr. Burns’ illegitimate son spelled “Yale” with a ‘6′ in his Yale application. Too fucking funny, man.

Finland has no mandated “minimum salary”. Someone asking that question will get the question back – “what will you be doing?” as the minimum salary in each job is more or less mandated by the comprehensive union agreements that differ a bit if you’re working in the public or private sector and also between industries (A lot of strikes recently have been about a job being outsourced and the new company having a different union agreement, cooks of bank cafeterias and cleaners at the paper factory come to mind). So everyone gets “union wages” in Finland.

But what are the wages then like? Taloussanomat did a survey on the average wages in Finland according to the average salary statistics by job classification and by gender, and compared the lowest rung of the ladder to the higher within the same profession. (The categories are by the Finnish Statistics Centre). Now it is said that the “wage differences in Finland are not that big”. Lets rephrase that, about as like the “cars are the cheapest in Finland” it makes everybody laugh as you need to remember the taxes on top. So the wage differences of the bring-home-pay are not as big in Finland – due to the progressive income taxation.

So who has the suckiest average salary doing a regular 9-5 workday your 38-40 hours a week? (Military not included.) A fraction under the 1600 euro limit would be for women a “farmhand” and for men a “laundry worker”. Thats about the lowest you can get… even a “cleaner” gets in the ballpark of 1700 euros average. But does education help? Do specialists get more salary? Do managers? That again depends on your profession. The lower rung of the specialist ladder is again farm work, a seminologist is in the 1700 euro ballpark. And if you get into mismanagement, the worst salaries are in the hotel- and tourism business.

Now as we’re talking of average salaries the survey also looks into the highest salaries. A stock and currency exchange banker or then your chief surgeon might get into the 5000 -6000 euro category, but thats the top end of the average “rich guys” salary. So what is the salary difference like? According to the nifty tax calculator provided by VERO ( just ballpark figures counted with 13 mo salary ):

1600e/month your income tax% is 16,5, take home pay ~ 1336 euros a month
6000e/month your income tax% is 36,5, take home pay ~ 3827 euros a month

So before taxes the income is 3,75 times, after taxes only 2,8… yay, socialism! BTW the SDP party secretary makes 6900 euros a month… yay socialism!

Growing up in Finland I heard a lot from the politicians “its a lottery win to be born in Finland”. When I had grown up I realized “you require a lottery win to be able to live in Finland”.

Things are expensive in Finland – maybe not that expensive in comparison with the other Nordic countries with a similar taxation and geographical structure, but expensive to the average consumer as the purchase power in Finland is low. The Finnish financial magazine Taloussanomat wrote about the purchase power in Finland earlier this month. According to the article , “Finns are paying themselves sick” for goods and services. Lack of competition is given as one of the a reasons why for example groceries in Finland cost one fifth more than the EU average. Finland has been quite notorious for keeping foreign competition out, and now that there are no more barriers it seems nobody is really interested in coming over as the volumes aren’t there. So Finland remains a keskolandia.

Now being somewhere at the EU average is one thing, but starting to compare things globally doesn’t make the prices look any better. When Phil goes to buy a chicken in Finland, his cousin in the USA can buy four chickens with the same price! The Iltalehti had a comparison of prices for groceries in Helsinki, Stockholm, London and New York, and it seems in the UK and USA (and London and New York are expensive cities), you can get by with about half of what you pay in Stockholm or Helsinki. Of course one explanation is the sheer volumes that bring the prices down, but it still is peculiar while milk or potatoes cost approximately the same, in some products, like meat, the price differences can be quadrupled.

With the global food shortage being blamed on the biofuels is causing food prices to go up, it still doesn’t quite explain why in Finland you need to pay your ass off just to buy your basic stuff. Then again if Norwegians come to buy “cheap booze” from Finland, we can say theres a place where things are worse. Or are they – the purchase power in Norway is higher than in Finland . Your avarage consumer is faced with the problem of rising prices and already now the shopping habits of people are changing. Maybe next year this time I’ll be sharing a potato and brown sauce recipe.

One small piece of news in the Iltalehti today struck me as a reminder of a past era. I guess it was the so-called “IT boom” in the late 1990’s in Finland that drew me along, so much I decided to change careers. Of course those guys who were in the forefront starting it went much higher up catching the stars – but they also burned in re-entry. According to the IL Jaakko Rytsölä was sentenced for more or less for “deliberately misallocating money from his debtors – read: tax office” to a year and six months in jail (probational) and 50 hours of community service.

Now you might ask “who”, but the Rytsölä brothers, Antti and Jaakko especially were branded as the icons of the new success story Finland was launching in the late 1990’s. Two brothers from a regular family had started from scratch in 1995 establishing DLC, one of the first ISP’s. Jaakko had started his own IT business when he was 16 selling computer parts, and when his little brother Antti joined him in Helsinki, he was selling hotdogs at the Helsinki Railway station to make the ends meet while the ISP business was in its fledgling state. A few mergers later the Saunalahti was formed and the young men in their twenties were all of a sudden millionaires, remembering that in 1992 the whole country had been more or less bankrupt. Of course the press hounded the new IT millionaires – after all a Lamborghini Diablo as a “company car”? The two young men were favorites in the tabloid headlines. Finnish envy nonwithstanding the flamboyant lifestyle annoyed some, so the police found a red Ferrari in Helsinki traffic a red flag and Jaakko Rytsölä was fined a whopping 100 000 euros for speeding in his Ferrari (oh, he had about seven cars at one time).

The laws of physics say what goes up must come down, unless the escape velocity is fast enough. A Lamborghini is too slow in Finland. When the “IT-boom” as the “dot.com bubble” was called in Finland turned into the bubble that burst, Jaakko Rytsölä lost overnight a record 6 million euros of his calculated wealth of 10 million in the autumn of 2001 when the Jippii group stock crashed 90%. By the spring of 2002 the tax office had filed him bankrupt, but the tax office was still after money, and the result of the trials that followed was handed out today. Jaakko Rytsölä has claimed innocence and stated that the money wasn’t hidden anywhere but was invested and thus was lost in the stock crashes.

The boom/bubble era had a lot of similar from rags-to riches-to rags stories. Many of the people were young and maybe perhaps been hearing from their parents the “no money” saga growing up so once money was coming from the doors and windows the “crazy years” of the 1980’s came back overnight. It was an era to seize the moment – but there were other people running away with the money. As the dot.com bubble burst in the USA, the flash downed several Finnish companies who had gone venturing to Europe such as Jippii and Sonera which lost huge investments in Germany. And the aftermath was bankrupcy trials, insider trading suits… USA had Enron but we had our own scandals we remember the 2000’s for.

Comparing to the “crazy years” of the 1980’s the dot.com bubble years in the 1990’s could be called “riot years”. If you haven’t seen it before, try to find the documentary Riot On!, its about a small Finnish gaming company Riot-E which got 20 million dollars of venture capital… and ” where the f*ck did it all go?”.

But at the end of the day – regardless of how far the frontier is – the tax office is the last man standing.

The Helsingin Sanomat has written about some British & Irish paving labourers who apparently have not had “trouble finding work without speaking any Finnish”. So that proves false the assumption Finns are discriminating xenophobes and racists. Doing a paving job for 3500, sans receipt, when the Finnish quote is 8500-10K and the material cost alone is between 2-3K though might have something to do with the equation. Also the claim that Finnish officials are xenophobes and racists is proven wrong, as if a local Finnish resident would be driving drunk, stealing and doing black labor without paying the social fees and VAT; they’d be in serious trouble. But EU citizens are free to do whatever they effin please. So apparently there is a “need for workers” in Finland indeed and the EU has once again proven to be the source of multiculturalism that enriches the nation. Again three basic theses regarding immigrants in Finland have been proven wrong. I find this quite hilarious, though there’s an owner of a campsite full of complaining Finns (as opposed to whining foreigners) that might not think I am so funny.

Cliff notes: Snatch in Järvenpää

It’s time for my fourth annual summer board game auction, yay!! This time I’ve teamed up with my neighbor and close friend, Saku S., to bring you even MORE great games – here’s how it works…

Below are the starting prices. Simply leave a comment below with your bids. Each bid must be 1 euro higher than the previous. Please include both your name and e-mail address. (if your message doesn’t immediately appear, it may have got caught in my spam guard – I’ll check my spam throughout the day so just wait a few hours and it will show)

I will update this page daily with the highest bids – however, when placing a bid, search through the comments to be sure you are the highest bidder.

I’ll be at Ropecon 2008, so I can bring the games there. If you won’t be at Ropecon, I can meet you in Espoo, or send the games in the Post (at your expense). I’ll accept bank transfer or cash.

The auction begins now (July 30th) and ends on Friday, August 8th at 12:00.

Good luck! E-mail me with any questions: phil >>at>> finlandforthought . net

Latest update on the bids: Friday, August 8th at 15:00, Winners updated

	Age of Napoleon / Das Zeitalter Napoleons, Phalanx	5 EUR, Kalle Miller WINNER: 10 EUR, Valtteri Pirttilä	German version with printed English rules. Unplayed.
	Heart of Africa / Ins Innere Afrika, Phalanx	WINNER: 5 EUR, Mika	German version with scanned printed English rules. Unplayed.
	Elasund: The First City of Catan, Kosmos	5 EUR 6 EUR, raaf WINNER: 7 EUR, Mirko	German version with printed English rules. Played maybe two times.
	Quarto!, Gigamic	5 EUR	Good condition.
	Marco Polo Expedition, Rio Grande	WINNER: 5 EUR, barber	English version. Good condition.
	New England, Goldsieber	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo6 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 10 EUR, Hessu	Played condition.
	Scene it!, Screenlife LLC	10 EUR	First Edition (2003). Played condition.
	Space Dealer, Eggert Spiele	10 EUR 15 EUR, Kalle Miller WINNER: 18 EUR, Valtteri Pirttilä	German version with printed English rules. Good condition.
	Die Weinhändler, Amigo	2 EUR, Mosse 3 EUR, JoeLamer 5 EUR, Mosse WINNER: 6 EUR, metsku	German version with printed English rules. Good condition.
	Taru Sormusten Herrasta/Lord of the Rings, Tactic	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo 7 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 12 EUR,  Mirko	Finnish version. Unplayed.
	Combat Commander: Volume II – Mediterranean, GMT Games	15 EUR WINNER: 30 EUR, Vesa	In shrink. Unopened.
	Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery , Tropical Games	15 EUR 21 EUR, Patrik Lervik WINNER: 33 EUR, Tombad	With the components for extra player shipped with pre-order, box a bit caved in during shipment.
	4 x card games package	WINNER: 2 EUR, JoeLamer	Lao Pengh, Up & Down and Turbo from Adlung Spiele (all with English rules) + Herzlos from Winning Moves (German with no English rules)
	Amyitis, Ystari	5 EUR12 EUR, Mosse 13 EUR, Opettaja H. WINNER: 15 EUR, raaf	Played   3 times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Augusburg 1520, Alea	5 EUR, Ossessione 9 EUR, Mirko WINNER: 15 EUR,  Mirko	Played 4 times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Before the Wind, Mayfair	3 EUR WINNER: 9 EUR, Ossessione	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Blue Moon City, Kosmos	5 EUR 10 EUR, oskari 12 EUR, raaf WINNER: 13 EUR, Mika	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Chicago Poker, Phalanx	WINNER: 3 EUR, barber	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Darjleeing, Abacus	5 EUR 8 EUR, Jhua 9 EUR, metsku WINNER: 10 EUR, Jhua	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Double or Nothing, Uberplay (Reiner Knizia)	5 EUR	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Evergreen, Goldseiber (Wolfgang Kramer)	WINNER: 2 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Great Wall of China, Kosmos (Reiner Knizia)	3 EUR WINNER: 5 EUR, Timo Tikkanen	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Limits, Amigo (Uwe Rosenberg)	2 EUR, JoeLamer WINNER: 3 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Lucky Loop, Queen	3 EUR	Played twice, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Rage, Fundex	2 EUR, barber WINNER: 3 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Saludos Amigos!, Goldseiber	5 EUR	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Sleuth, Face-2-Face (Sid Sackson)	5 EUR WINNER: 10 EUR, Timo Tikkanen	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Walhalla, Amigo	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo 6 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 10 EUR, Hessu	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Ziegen Kriegen, Amigo	2 EUR, JoeLamer 3 EUR, metsku WINNER: 5 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Shogun, Queen (Dirk Henn)	10 EUR 25 EUR, Mosse 31 EUR, Mirko WINNER: 40 EUR, Jhua	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Thurn & Taxis: All Roads Lead to Rome, Rio Grande Games (Andreas Seyfarth)	5 EUR 6 EUR, JoeLamer 7 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Hessu WINNER: 11 EUR, Hessu	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Buccaneer, Queen (Stefan Dorra)	5 EUR, Hessu 7 EUR, Hessu WINNER: 13 EUR, Eikku	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Imperial, Eggert-Spiele	10 EUR 30 EUR,  Timo Tikkanen WINNER: 31 EUR, pillar	Played   once, like new.  English edition.
	Canal Mania, Ragnar Brothers	10 EUR 11 EUR,  Niko WINNER: 12 EUR, Hessu	Played   once, like new.  English edition. Signed by the designers!
	Eketorp, Queen (Dirk Henn)	10 EUR 11 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen 16 EUR, Hessu 20 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen WINNER: 22 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules

Evidently Sirkuspelle’s efforts are finally showing some fruits. From the STT

Publishing individuals’ tax records in the media may in future be completely banned, provincial daily Keskisuomalainen reported on Wednesday. The paper added that the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) had asked the the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a precedent on the issue. The ECJ will hold a discussion on the topic 12 February and the KHO would make its decision based on this precedent. The issue came to the forefront when Veropörssi, a Satakunta-based company that publishes tax information, listed over a million individuals’ tax records and then sold them to directory services firm Fonecta, which in turn sold the information on to customers via text message. According to Keskisuomalainen, Reijo Aarnio, Finland’s data protection ombudsman, took the issue to court as a breach of journalistic integrity.

The Age of Wonders is here.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get a couple generous raises over the past two years and my girlfriend has graduated from school and is working full time, so our household has seen a healthy increase in income. And as I become wealthier, I find myself moving further and further to the left politically. I’d like to say with age and wisdom comes leftism, or maybe five years in the welfare state has brought me closer to the left – but it’s all about the Benjamin$…

Beginning today, the Finnish state has banned discounts on alcohol, significantly increasing the price of 12-packs of beer. And I love beer! So I should be upset, right? But I’m not. I make a decent salary, I can afford it. Now a few years ago I’d be furious, my love of beer remained the same but I was much poorer, so this leftist move would have hurt me much harder.

During the current U.S. Presidential campaign, socialized healthcare is an important issue to me, I support the left when I say I want every American to have free healthcare – Because I know if I ever return to the states, my employer will fund my private healthcare. Now if I were a poorer man, there’s no way in hell I’d want something as important as my personal health in the hands of some idiot like George W. Bush!

I supported the Nurse’s raise even though taxes will increase even further, cause I got $$. I’m a much bigger environmentalist now that I have more money to afford the higher costs it requires. Go ahead and make the leftist move of raising the prices on such basic necessities as fuel, electricity, bus fare, food, and drink – I live, work, and shop in Espoo, I never have to see the negative effects of poverty in Finland.

You know how much political debate goes on in the lunch rooms and water coolers of my employer? None! We all got $$, these little Mickey Mouse moves by the Finnish politicians hardly affect us. Doubling the price of beer really hurts a poor Finns’ wallet, but does little damage to ours. So why not support the left? It’s much more cool and hip than the right. And that’s what I’m really missing as I get older and wealthier…coolness.

Pictured right, the wise and majestic President of Finland, Ms. Tarja Halonen.

Happy New Year!! And best wishes from Finnish politicians who’ve rang in the New Year with higher taxes and stricter regulations…

- Taxation will pump up the price of gasoline by 5 cents a litre, and diesel by 5 and a half cents. On average, motorists can expect to spend up to 60 euros more on fuel.

- The price of bus tickets is also expected to rise by 5.2 percent, while long-distance train tickets will cost on average 2.9 percent more.

- Sending snail mail will also a bit cost more in the new year. Mailing a package will cost 7 percent more, unless it weighs less than 50 grams

- Prime or base interest rates will rise to 4.75 percent, up from the 4.25 percent level of the last six months.

- Television commercials for alcoholic beverages are now banned from television screens between 7.00 am and 8.00 pm, and are forbidden in cinemas during movies for patrons under the age of 18.

Gee, thanks politicians! And here’s the real kicker, no more discounts on alcohol, a 12-pack will cost the same as if you’re buying 12 individual beers. This means I’ll be buying more imports instead of saving money on shitty Finnish beer…

- Bulk discounts on multiple packs of alcoholic beverages are a thing of the past. The practice of outdoor advertising of other discounted alcoholic drinks such as cheaper drinks offered during a “happy hour” is also against the law.

And what is quite ironic – cold, dreary, suicidal Finland is banning “Happy Hour”. Finnish politicians have taken away a restaurant/pub’s freedom to lower prices of their products in order to compete. We had a couple happy hours per day from 4 to 6, but now it’s unhappiness in Finland 24/7.

Let’s see – the leftist Social Democrats liberalized alcohol under their administration and the right-wing Kokoomus have tightened regulations. I’m definitely a lefty.

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.