The Finnish government budget meeting yesterday did neither reveal any larger budget cuts nor tax hikes. So that leaves the question – how will we pay for the current and coming deficits? It is said that the solution lies in creating more jobs, a feat that wasn’t feasible even five years ago during a booming economy. Our public sector has swelled to 55 % of the national workforce and the heavy industry, that we have relied on to support our export driven economy, has taken a dive.
Now I wouldn’t be worried, since it is in times of hardship that creativity flourishes and the tough get going. You only have to look back at the 1940-50′ and 1990′ when the cornerstones of Finland’s current economy were set. But the odds are against us for a different reason now and it comes from within.
During the years 1945-50 an exceptional amount of children were born in Finland as a direct consequence of the unrest the world just had seen. The phenomenon is seen all around the world although it is slightly greater in Finland. Fast forward 60 years and we are now seeing the effects. A large part of the national workforce is retiring, which leads to the inevitable fact that fewer people are left to support the current system but also to save for the future. A number of solutions have been proposed, of which one yet has to see the light of day. Embedded below is a TV documentary we made as students on the existing pensioner system. We researched it for two months and our conclusion was that although precautions were taken, they were not enough to support our system… especially not after a global economic crisis. Watch it and make up your own mind.
The program is in Swedish but I will add English captions as soon as possible.
Forthzine - Jonas Forth 