Scandinavia

Scandinavia - is it really so good or is this just more Scandi Fiction ?

I believe there is quite a good book out about these countries - heard it serialised last week on Radio 4, its called "The Almost Nearly Perfect People" !

We are told that we should emulate the Scandinavian or Nordic countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and to a lesser extent Iceland). We keep hearing how wonderful they are to live in. They come top of a lot of league tables for happiness, wealth inequality etc.
This would involve higher taxes to pay for all the additional public services such as increased childcare. This is called the Common Weal method I believe ‘
BUT..... all is not quite what it seems !

Firstly they are now finding that there is quite a high incidence of mental illness in their teenagers due to this regime where there is less time with family. Read more here :
http://www.barnensratt.se/index-en.htm
And parents find that due to the high taxes it is now a necessity to have two full time well paid jobs just to be left with one reasonable amount of salary after taxation.  Its not a choice - there is no option - its a necessity = not so good. Would be better to have flexibility to cope with differing family circumstances.
And...I have also heard that to be an entrepreneur and maybe run your own business and make money in Sweden is quite frowned upon. The only people who are "allowed" to make money are either footballers or if you win the lottery then that is OK. Now I don't think that is a good idea. We have become used to the idea of entrepreneurs in this country - its one of the few pluses that resulted from the Thatcher era. So whether its a small one man or one woman business or a business which expands to take on many more people, this is seen as good in this country and I believe we should have a taxation system to support this.

The Scandinavian countries have a tradition as working as a community together and community ownership and co-operatives work well - but would this transfer here ? I have heard it said that we are now too individualistic (as a result of the 80s?) for this to work successfully.

Is there potential to create new alignments or relationships with Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark,, Iceland, Faroes etc. ?

Parts of Scotland such as Shetland Orkney and the North East are already nearer some of these countries geographically and already there are strong links eg between the oil industry in Norway and Aberdeen.

But is there potential for more alliances ? Some in the SNP are hopeful  we could join an alliance with these countries - but do they want us ? Does Scandinavia Want Scotland - Radio 4 Programme