

Why Will Finland Fail? - mmarjala
http://toughloveangel.com/2012/10/19/why-finland-will-fail/

======
_delirium
As far as I can tell, the article basically boils down to these points (while
taking a while to get to them):

1\. The author supports increasing immigration, targeted in a likely-to-be-
entrepreneurial category, especially from Russia and China.

2\. The author opposes the "Nordic model" of a strong social safety net,
considering it wasted money on "people that don't like to work".

~~~
mmarjala
The author supports bringing in especially the brightest minds which are
always a super scarce resource.

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adaml_623
_To summarize the primary ways how value at the national level is created:

1\. You sell your unique resources (e.g. oil, salmon) to other nations.

2\. You steal from other nations or borrow money but never pay back.

3\. You have competitive companies that export products to other nations._

I'm intrigued that #2 makes the list. Almost as though the OP could only think
of 2 ways. He seems to have forgotten the service economy.

~~~
SeppoErviala
>3\. You have competitive companies that export products to other nations.

Author seems to forget that these companies don't need to be of finnish
origin. It's completly ok strategy to just educate lots of engineers and let
IBM or other large company hire them (and pay income taxes to Finland).
Educated workforce does create value even if there isn't silicon valley of
start-ups in Finland.

~~~
mmarjala
The author agrees on this. It, naturally, is much more valuable for a nation
to produce these companies themselves and get sometimes access to multiple
revenue streams, and subsidiaries rarely buy companies and enrich the nearby
ecosystem through that.

------
ern
I may be missing something obvious, but why does OP say China is a
"neigbouring country" to Finland, when it is 3900 miles/6300 km between their
capitals?

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+helsinki+...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+from+helsinki+to+beijing)

------
moms_computer
The author appears to put too much stress on physical proximity to other
entities. Perhaps it's a factor to consider if you are _not_ serving an online
population, but such startups are really few and far between... especially as
far as HN is concerned :)

~~~
mmarjala
Physical proximity is a great advantage to understand the real local problems.
Example: It is very tough for US companies serve Chinese or Russian markets,
as the cultures are so different and local problems quite different to
problems in US - or Finland. It depends on the category and domain ... but
even gaming preferences are quite different in different regions. Very few hit
games that work everywhere - the one area where we Finns really rock the world
(Angry Birds, Clash of Clans etc.)

