Should we be learning from Finland?

Why Can't We Be Like the Finns?
by Robert G. Kaiser
Published on Monday, August 29, 2005 by the Providence Journal (Rhode Island)

Finland is a leading example of the northern European view that a successful, competitive society should provide basic social services to all its citizens at affordable prices or at no cost. This isn't controversial in Finland; it's taken for granted. For a patriotic American like me, the Finns present a difficult challenge: If we Americans are so rich and so smart, why can't we treat our citizens as well as the Finns do?

...Finland is regularly cited as among the world's best in a variety of indexes and comparisons.

For example:

* The World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, ranks Finland's the most competitive economy in the world.
* Yale and Columbia universities rank nations in a "sustainability index," which measures a country's ability to "protect the natural environment over the next several decades." Finland ranks first.
* Statistics of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that Finland invests more of its gross domestic product in research and development than any other country but Sweden.|
* Finnish 15-year-olds score first in the industrial world on tests of their academic abilities.
* According to a global survey by Transparency International, Finland is perceived as the least corrupt country. (The United States is tied for 17th.)
* Finns read newspapers and take books out of libraries at rates as high as or higher than all other countries.
* Finland trains more musicians, per capita, than any other country.