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Christian Science Monitor

What Finland can teach America about true luxury

By Trevor Corson Trevor Corson – Fri May 1, 5:00 am ET

New York – What is true luxury? Just when I thought I'd settled on my answer – a flat-screen TV the size of Kansas and a leather-upholstered car that can travel at triple the speed limit – I made several visits to Finland. Shortly after my return the financial crisis hit. Finland has been on my mind ever since. In these hard times, we could learn a few things about luxury from the Finns.

Strolling the streets of Helsinki, the capital, I noticed a lack of grand architecture and opulent homes, and an abundance of modest cars. Helsinki was a nice enough city, and it had some gems of modern design, but part of me felt that Finland was a bit dull. And, strangely, some of the Finns I met seemed to take pride in this.

Finland seemed even duller on my next visit in July. The weather was glorious, but Helsinki felt like a ghost town. I learned that most Finns take a five-week summer vacation, and that many of them disappear for the entire time to tiny, bare-bones cottages in the woods. Curious, I wrangled an invitation to visit one of these secluded cabins. It was meticulously cared for, but lacked any creature comforts. I quickly realized that there was nothing to do and no one to see.

After a couple of days at the cabin I was a convert. It was marvelously relaxing, and I realized the Finns were on to something – a form of luxury that had little to do with high-end products, the quest to acquire them, or the need to show them off. While some Finns pursue the material trappings of success, most seem to feel that the pleasures of time and solitude are more precious.

During my visits, I met some North American expats, including a Canadian who'd lived in the US for years. "I talk to friends back in North America," he told me, "and they tell me about all the latest toys they've bought. Here I'm just puttering away on my little house like a Finn, and that's about it. The pace of life is slower. I like that."

Americans in Finland shared similar sentiments. But they weren't naive about the place, and there was a reason they weren't buying the latest toys. "I'll never become rich in Finland," one explained, "the taxes are just too high." But for him it was a trade-off worth making. "Great healthcare, basically free. My kids get one of the best educations in the world, free." By the way, that includes college, free. He had no plans to move back to the States.

As I spent more time in Helsinki, my own notion of the luxuries available in Finland expanded to include more than just the quiet pleasures of a cabin getaway. Finnish cities are filled with universally well-maintained and high-quality schools, hospitals, buses, trains, and parks. While most Finns might never be able to own a well-appointed SUV or a big house, they value the less-tangible assets they do have, which add up to quality of life and peace of mind.

Finland doesn't pay lip service to providing a level playing field for all its citizens. It really does give the vast majority of its citizens a fair and equal chance in life, in a way that the US just doesn't, no matter how much Americans like to think it does.

Finland has its downsides, of course. The Finns I met described high rates of depression and alcoholism among their countrymen, and admitted that many Finns seem to suffer from low self-esteem. When I returned to the dynamic bustle of New York, I was happy to be back, even with the financial crisis decimating the economy.

Compared with Finns, Americans have qualities I admire and treasure: optimism, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a willingness to be opinionated, for starters. These qualities will help us fight our way back to economic health.

But let's face it: The single-minded pursuit of outsized material consumption helped get us into this mess. As we struggle to get back on our feet, perhaps we should pause for our own "Finnish moment."

Trevor Corson is the author of "The Secret Life of Lobsters" and "The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090501/cm_csm/ycorson

The story omits some basic facts of life. Finland is almost exclusively a homegenous population -- it has very few refugees, asylum seekers or invaders from other countries sneaking across its borders. It is not a country which people from the Third World or anxious to go to.

Given the homogeniety of its population and the uniformity of its culture it was easy for the Finns to devote their wealth to free health care and education. HOWEVER, remember that the ideas for much of this "socialit paradise" came from the Communisit USSR which had great influence on the society which lived in fear of Soviet conquest.

By overlooking these facts the writer can make such silly claims and imply they will work in the US - the writer simply has no idea of the History of Finland and obviously less of the influence of geography on the society. This is a truly ignorant person whose ideas should be ignored as totally lack in understand of history, geography, anthropology etc. In short the writer is a naive idiot.

Hey stupid, your health care is not free. Your taxes are extremely high. Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!! nothing is free.

The entire country of Fineland is the size of one of our states......of course it will work ok when it's that's small and no one is out there mandating they change and accomodate those from other countries.

Originally Posted by agrneydgrl

Hey stupid, your health care is not free. Your taxes are extremely high. Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!! nothing is free.

Good one, agrneydgrl!

I agree with most of the posters. Having lived in Canada which is a large country which takes in all kinds of immigrants I seen how their system is. The taxes are high so even if you make more an hour than an American doing the same job after taxes the Canadian has alot less money than the American does after paying for a healthcare plan. There system is still as bad if not worse than it was when I left. According to an article in todays Toronto Sun people are laying in stretchers in hallways waiting for a hospital bed. In fact people have died waiting. Due to hospitals frivilous spending they shut down wards back in the early 90's to save money. Hospital funding was based on beds the hospital has and it does not stipulate that all those beds must be used.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2 ... 6-sun.html

Universal Health Care aka Socialized Medicine, like any Socialist/Communist system provides for the Rich with the best of everything, and gives what's left over to everyone else.........even though it's the everyone else that pays for the entire populations health care.

Originally Posted by judyweller

The story omits some basic facts of life.

Finland is almost exclusively a homegenous population -- it has very few refugees, asylum seekers or invaders from other countries sneaking across its borders. It is not a country which people from the Third World or anxious to go to.

Given the homogeniety of its population and the uniformity of its culture it was easy for the Finns to devote their wealth to free health care and education. HOWEVER, remember that the ideas for much of this "socialit paradise" came from the Communisit USSR which had great influence on the society which lived in fear of Soviet conquest.

By overlooking these facts the writer can make such silly claims and imply they will work in the US - the writer simply has no idea of the History of Finland and obviously less of the influence of geography on the society.

This is a truly ignorant person whose ideas should be ignored as totally lack in understand of history, geography, anthropology etc.

In short the writer is a naive idiot.

Well thought out rebuttal..!!

Thanks, now I don’t have to..!!
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BIG PS: STOP the chaos..!! This so-called ‘administration’ IS a farce..!! Bust the fascist-marxist usurper & his mafia gang NOW..!! www.alipac.us/ftopict-137238.html AND www.TheObamaFile.com

Finland population...5.2 Million

Helsinki is a wonderful place, especially in the waterfront market that opened in the harbor in front of the Capitol building every morning. The food is great, and the countryside itself is beautiful.
Finns don't need the mega-screen TVs or super-skyscraper architecture to impress anyone. Finnish modern design has always been minimal and sleek.
The people are not dull, they are introspective, and prefer to examine and think about a newbie. Yes the city gets pretty slow during the summer as so many have lakeside cabins and farms, as do many Europeans. In summer, when I was there one time, Helsinki was not really dead at all and there were plenty of things to do. The only thing that bothered me was the sun set at 2 a.m. and rose at 3 a.m.
But the summer solstice celebration in the parks with lakes are incredible. As it gets dark, women in ethnic costumes row around the lake to light fires and when you see over thirty burning, it is breathtaking and the entire crowd on shore is silent. At the end of the historically-based ceremony, the men will push a Viking boat into the lake and set it on fire, basically to thank the ancestor's gods for a successful growing season.
It is true that a society should not be judged by its cover. And if their form of government works for them, so be it.
I adore Finland but I don't know if I would be able to handle the long, cold winters. And they all speak English.