
Scandinavia Got Great by Educating the “Whole Person” - jseliger
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/opinion/scandinavia-education.html
======
8bitsrule
A recent 'Pitchfork Economics' podcast explores today's Finnish economy (free
college, 5 week vacations, universal health care, taxes no higher than the US
...) , by speaking to the author of _The Nordic Theory of Everything_. (Link
includes transcript)

[http://pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/re-imagining-
capitalis...](http://pitchforkeconomics.com/episode/re-imagining-capitalism-
with-anu-partanen-and-trevor-corson/)

~~~
lurquer
Taxes no higher than US? Are you kidding? Income tax rates are higher than the
US. On top of that there is a 20%+ VAT on nearly everything you buy. (Not to
mention a 4% to 5% 'transfer' tax on most anything you sell.) Not knocking
Finland, but I'd bet the average income earner is paying nearly 45% in taxes.

It's been a while since I had any first-hand experience though. I doubt,
though, that things have changed that much.

~~~
eesmith
Spot on!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Finland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Finland)
says:

> When including all direct and indirect taxes paid (personal income tax,
> social security payments, VAT, etc.) by an employee with an average income
> of €3,250 per month the total tax was estimated to be 44,5% in 2015

I wasn't able to find similar numbers for the US at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States)
. The US numbers would need to include payroll taxes and sales taxes. These
numbers vary across the country.

