I don’t talk to my grandmother over the phone all that often, but when I do she always says that she’s worried about me. I’ve been told not to take it personally. Worrying is just something that moms and grandmoms do, especially when the person they’re fretting about is an ocean away.
But still, there’s a part of me that can’t let the comment slide. My grandmother doesn’t need to worry about me. I live in Germany, one of the safest and most progressive countries in the world. Violent crime rates are so low they’re practically nonexistent. I have access to public healthcare and some of the best doctors and hospitals in the world. The air is clean, the water is drinkable and none of the food has been doused in hormones or pesticides. There are designated bike lanes everywhere and I doubt anyone is carrying a concealed handgun in them. My grandmother doesn’t need to worry about me. She should save it for her other grandchildren, the ones who live down the street or, better yet, their children. They’re the ones who maybe need it.
My grandmother is in her mid-90s, so I can forgive her for complaining about why I live “over there.” I imagine that her dismissal of Europe, and her resistance to Germany in particular, has something to do with watching our country go through two world wars. She is an American through and through and like so many of her generation, she would prefer I stay where I belong. It is an insult that I have left after everyone worked so hard to make America what it is.
Before I go any further, I should say that I love being an American just as much as my grandmother. I take it as a point of pride that I am loud and brash and paid tens of thousands of dollars for a mediocre college education. All jokes aside, I like how Americans are entrepreneurial and hard-working and persistent. I would never trade my experience of growing up in the States, where the message was “you can be anything,” regardless of the fact that I started out as a big nobody.
At the same time, I think America could be improved upon. I’ve always suspected as much, but now that I’ve had the chance to live elsewhere, I know it to be true. As I look around at my peers in Germany and Finland – as they tap into their fourth language and start their careers mostly free of debt and fairly unconcerned about the cost of starting a family – I can’t help but feel that our country is past due for a big change. Spend some time talking to 20-somethings from Helsinki or Munich and you’ll see that Americans actually have a lot of catching up to do.
The most baffling thing to me is that the average American – or, perhaps more accurately, an American of average means – resists the idea that our country can do better. Say the phrase “social democracy” and people turn skeptical if not outright scared. Some turn absolutely rabid, screaming about weight loss in Venezuela even though I doubt they could find that country on a map or spot me the decade their government turned socialist.
That’s an important distinction, by the way – the one between democratic socialism and full-blown socialism. They’re not synonymous; you can’t shorten the former as the latter and maintain any sort of intellectual honesty. Regardless, I’ve found that using either term is counter-productive. When we start debating socialistic principals of any kind, and defining what does and doesn’t qualify as social democracy, no one wins.
So I stopped doing that – not having the conversation, mind you, but just using the phrase “social democracy.” Instead I frame my comments as “the Finnish system” or “Scandinavian countries.” For some reason, people find ideas like free healthcare and education for all much less concerning that way. I don’t know why, but it might be because at our core, we all want to live in a healthy, educated society.
But speaking in generalities about Nordic countries only goes so far. Where I really see people come alive is when I start telling them about actual events and benefits that my Finnish friends are offered under their Finnish system.
For example, education. At age 30, Johann enrolled in the University of Helsinki, which is one of the top 100 schools in the world. It took him three tries to be accepted, but he did it and it almost didn’t matter that it took so long because his tuition for a bachelor’s and master’s degree are absolutely free. In addition, he receives “student support,” a monthly stipend from the government to help him pay his rent and other living expenses. He never needs to pay those funds back. For what he can’t cover through the stipend and his part-time job, he takes out a low-interest loan. If he finishes his bachelor’s degree within four years, 40 percent of the balance of that loan is forgiven. Another perk: Johann is entitled to up to two years of “study leave,” gaps where he can take a break from work to focus solely on his studies, take a semester abroad or tend to his family. He does not get paid during those periods, but he is guaranteed a job to return to.
If you like education, wait until you hear about healthcare! Long story short, everyone gets it. The system is funded by taxes, so care is technically not free, but the cost to the average tax payer is much lower than a private system. One study found that in Finland the annual cost-per-patient is around €2,800, while in the United States’ privately-financed health care system that figure is nearly €6,900 per patient. And yes, the quality of care is just as good, if not better. According to the same study, Finland is within the top seven nations in the world in terms of quality and equality of health care services. Anecdotally, I can confirm that to be true through Johann too. When he fell off his bike and broke his jaw, the cost of his care was zero. They gave him an appointment, did the x-rays and wired him shut the same day he walked into the health clinic. All he had to afterwards was focus on getting well.
Another one: family benefits. First things first, prenatal and postnatal care are completely covered. Maternity leave is for nine months, after which the mother transitions to “parental leave,” which can last up to three years. Leave is paid (it starts at about 75% and is degraded after nine months to encourage the employee to return to work). If the mother gets pregnant again within those three years, then the maternity leave and paternity leave periods start over. (Men are eligible to take the leave instead, though it’s usually women who do so for the sake of breastfeeding.) My friend insisted that I also mention Neuvola, which is the health council that provides a whole range of free services to both children and parents, including psychological counseling, parenting classes and smoking cessation/nutritional/health programs. They also send you something called “the mother’s box,” which is full of much-needed baby supplies, including a crib. When parental leave ends, day care bills are subsidized by the state, which means they cost is just a few hundred Euros per month as opposed to thousands.
To be clear, the Finnish system is not perfect. It is not immune to corruption and special interests are still in play. Their current situation with the unions sounds eerily similar to what happened in Detroit. Even still, I’d take their system over my own any day.
Now is about the time that people point out that “the Finnish system” is very expensive. And they are right. The income tax rate in Finland is relatively high and it is progressive, meaning that it increases right along with a person’s salary. In 2018, the income tax rate was between 6 and 31.25%. In addition, Finnish citizens need to pay a municipal tax between 16.5 and 22.5%. It’s a lot, yes. But keep in mind that most people do not make enough money to have to pay a total tax rate of 54%. Even if they did, consider this: they will not be slammed with thousands of dollars worth of medical bills when they have a child; they do not need to take a six-figure loan to put a child through college; they do not need to fund their own retirement.
As a resident in Germany, I pay a tax rate of about 42 percent, which is more than what I paid in the States. Honestly though, I don’t mind. Even as a person whose formal education is over and who never intends to have children, I prefer it this way. I will happily pay a bit extra to know that if I got sick tomorrow, I would be taken care of. I consider those extra couple hundred dollars each month a small price to pay to live in an educated, progressive society. I would pay even more if it meant that we’d get a handle on the environmental issues that are destroying the entire planet.
Here’s the real kicker: When it comes right down to it, I don’t think that I’m even paying any more in Germany than I did in New York. My costs are just distributed differently. Here, I pay into the systems upfront every month, either in the form of taxes or other contributions. In the States, I took home more money initially, but paid for it just the same in the long run. But the difference of long-term investments and short-term costs is a much more complicated and nuanced message than TAX RATES OF 52%, which is what the capitalist swarm is hoping for when they start screeching about Venezuela. They want you to think that if we get public healthcare in America, we’re all going to be eating rats within the next decade. They want you to think that under a Finnish-like system, half your income will be lost with nothing to show for it. They want you to think that the very idea is impossible, even though there are at least a half dozen countries currently doing it.
The other big problem that people like to point out is that Finland is not United States, in terms of size or population. Building a rail network across our country is not the same as connecting a country the size of California. Nor is it totally reasonable to think that we can scale their education system without a big fiscal headache. I am not an expert in policy or infrastructure or government spending, but I know the basics of budgeting. It’s about prioritizing. We have to decide what it is that we most want to pay for. I know how painfully simple that sounds and I fully intend it to be that way.
Before you challenge my lady brain logic, please let me ask you some questions: Why do we give our government a pass on paying for really important, necessary things like medical care, but expect the individual to “find a way” when they’re desperately sick? Why is it so preposterous to think that our home states should offer free or low-cost higher education, when we find it perfectly reasonable for an 18-year old to take out a five-figure loan to pay for it? How can we say that we just can’t afford to offer maternity leave beyond a few weeks when we have somehow found trillions to pay for a war? Why are we courting the likes of Amazon with tax breaks when we supposedly don’t have any money for elder care programs?
So often, when it comes to paying for childcare and medical bills and college tuition, Americans are told that they just need to “make it work.” We have to pay by cutting corners and going without and writing the whole thing off as an investment in the future. We should expect the same of our government. If we can “find a way,” they can do it too. If the Finns can “make it work,” America can too.
Beautifully said!!! Thank you for succinctly putting into words the concepts I can’t seem to express correctly. You’re the best!
thanks for reading! glad you found it helpful. xx :)
All of these are very good points.
Our Finnish exchange student came to visit us a few years ago and was detained in customs while they quizzed her for hours on why she was coming back to the US. Was she trying to immigrate? Did she have a job waiting for her? Was she planning on staying and soaking up all our social benefits? What on Earth? Ridiculous!
Our son went on exchange to Denmark and is now studying business at a university in Austria. I’m so grateful for the program, which is free, even for foreign students. Why? Because Austria is trying to build a workforce of talented young people. How novel! Yet when we talk about making community college available here, people wag their fingers and say things like “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” True. So now we as parents are paying about 30% what it would otherwise cost (including living expenses and twice yearly round trip airfare) for our American kid to attend a public university in our own state, because we can’t let him think that things like education can be free. Meanwhile, our very county faces a projected 49,000 person-shortfall in the workforce by the time he graduates (oh, and upon graduation, he’ll be granted a work permit and likely a job offer in Austria).
This system makes me crazy!
ha! ah, yes. the Finnish opportunist soaking up all those American benefits… while vying for a minimum wage job. I’d love to meet her.
sounds like an amazing program your son is in. If he does decide to stay in Austria – what a nice bonus for you! sounds like the perfect excuse to get to Europe every so often :)
(and don’t even get me started about the workforce issues in the U.S. the way they push college, college, college while so many high-paying trades have major shortages makes me absolutely batty. I don’t know when we started looking down on learning a trade, but it’s got to go… for everyone’s sake.)
We do plan to visit as frequently as possible. His mission while he’s there is to scope out Sopron, Hungary which is right across the border. I’d like to do a Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia tour next time we go!
We’ve had two Finnish exchange students (out of a total so far of nine) and have visited both a couple of times. One is in Helsinki and one is in Pori. I adore Finland!
I also adore Finland… look me up if you’re ever in Helsinki again… or Munich for that matter :) Best of luck to your son. Sounds like he’s well on the way to living his best life.
Thank you for writing this. It was very informative and enlightening. Particularly the part about how you’re happy to pay more in taxes to feel safe about possibly getting sick and not being slammed with medical bills.
A lot of people seem to forget that part of the argument–“I don’t want to pay higher taxes to fund social health care! …but I’m perfectly content to pay 20% of my monthly income to a private insurance company that will only cover up to $5,000 of my medical expenses, then have to pay the remaining tens of thousands left over myself.”–never realizing that the average person in America would probably be only out the same amount of money (if not save some) by just paying more in taxes and doing away with private health care. Without the added financial burden of paying upwards of 90% of their medical bills after they reach their deductible.
yes, exactly. I don’t get the resistance to the idea because I’ve yet to meet a person who has used the private system and had good things to say. maybe – MAYBE – it is less expensive to pay into a group plan with your employer and then never go to the doctor for a single test or exam. but the second you get sick, break a bone, get pregnant… forget it. there’s no question that the private system is going to run you more… and that’s to say nothing about the cost of prescriptions afterwards. I still don’t think it’s possible to put a price tag on the idea that people who are sick only need to worry about getting better. I have tremendous sympathy for people who are not only unwell, but stressed about exorbitant bills.
Very well done! Having grown up spoon fed the idea in school that we were the good guys of the world and that other countries victimized their citizens with outrageous propaganda, I’m embarrassed how many years it has taken me to become aware of the actual status quo. It’s a rude awakening to see that actually it’s all inside out, upside down, and backwards, courtesy of a government and complicit media duping us.
Like your Grandmother, I had a fierce pride in our country’s roll in The Wars- my Dad was a wounded soldier in WWII. And I was a military wife living in Germany in the long ago who persisted in seeing everything as black and white- with us as the proverbial knights in shining armor. Hopefully you bright younger ones with a quickened learning curve will create the momentum we need to change this ridiculous paradigm.
Enjoy Germany! Can’t wait till some of my grandkids move there.
why thank you! what you say is true: we only know what we know. I feel lucky to have had an opportunity to see how other people live. progress happens when you take the best ideas and improve upon them. It’s foolish to discount an entire system just because “we” did not come up with it.
All that said, your grandmother was not wrong, and neither is mine. Their generation bailed the world out of one huge mess. No disrespect to any of them, but the world has changed since then. And I hope I never get to the point where I’m unwilling to consider what that means.