TJS Shares Shocking Findings on Welfare States

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Nordic welfare state: Competitive advantage, the myth of abuse
& a boost to higher fertility


May 27th, 2013 | Author: Contributions




The Nordic model of welfare state is much admired around
the world. It has given the people a high quality of life without destroying
their work ethic as they have consistently scored high in the top 10 positions
in global economic competitivess. In fact, a Danish economist has gone as far as
saying the welfare state is their competitive advantage. So proud they are of
their model that they set up the Nordic Centre of Excellence NordWel (The Nordic
Welfare State – Historical Foundations and Future Challenges).

NordWel is a multidisplinary, cross-national research network of eight
partner units in the Nordic universities. I met up with the Director of NordWel
Professor Pauli Kettunen who is also head of the department of political and
economic affairs at the University of Helsinki. The good professor kindly
arranged a roundtable discussion with senior researchers of NordWel so that I
could benefit from a wide range of views and experiences.

Trusting society, Creative industries

Dr Christopher Lloyd, a Visiting Professor from the University of New
England, said the extent of abuse of the welfare state has been exaggerated.
There is no hard evidence to back it up. In fact, the data showed that unclaimed
benefits exceed amount abused.

Percentage of abuse is pretty low in northern Europe as the people are
“culturally not inclined towards abuse”, a point emphasised by the Finnish
researchers who all claimed that “people in Finland have to try very hard to be
lazy”. The Nordic states are small countries that are culturally homogeneous;
they are a cooperative and trusting society and this helps to sustain it.

Instead of being abused, the welfare state releases the productive and
creative capacity of its people by giving them confidence in the future through
the various benefits schemes. A strong creative industry has emerged with world
beaters like Nokia and Angry Games (a video game franchise created by a Finnish
computer game developer).

Welfare boosts fertility

The welfare state has also been a great boost to Finland’s high fertility
rate of around 1.8 which is close to the replacement level of 2.1. The generous
schemes enable women to have babies and return to the workplace. The public
daily care centres play an important role.

There is a law-based right for children below the age of 3 to be taken care
of by the care centres which are heavily subsidised (85%) by the state. Each
centre is run by 3 well qualified staff with one of them having an academic
degree as day care centres are regarded as part of the educational system.
Education is free from pre-school to university level (first degree). It is also
very good, having been “ranked in the OECD PISA studies as the best educational
system many years running” (Alexander Stubb). The status of teachers is very
high even though the salary is not. Class size is small, enabling teachers to
give greater attention to the needs of each individual pupil. There is no need
for parents to spend their hard earned savings on private tuition for their
children as Singapore parents do.

Not surprisingly, Finland is the best place in the world to be a mother,
according to the Save the Children International charity organisation in their
State of the World’s Mothers’ report. Fathers play their part and help with
domestic chores. There is no need for imported foreign domestic helpers.



On Senate Square with Prof Pauli Kettunnen. Behind us is the statue of
Russian Emperor Alexander II. Finland was part of the Russian empire until
granted independence by the Bolsheviks in December 1917, two months after they
took over Moscow.



With senior researchers of NordWel; on my left is Prof Pauli Kettunen and
on my right is Visiting Professor Christopher Lloyd from the University of New
England.

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Tan Jee Say

* Jee Say was a Presidential candidate in the 2011 Presidential Election.
The article first appeared on his facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TanJeeSay.

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