Most of what you've said can be said of Britain almost word for word. I admit to being amazed at how a little more than 5 million people pay for a road network as good as yours. Bearing in mind that roads have to be hewn out of an awful lot of bloody great boulders! Finlands biggest mistake was to huddle round the skirts of the EU. We tried to warn you but.... Anyway, we're going to live in Kerava, we've already got an apartment there and are keeping an eye out for a nice house.

House prices are very high at the moment, some analysist say that in 2 years there will be big drop in house prices, but you never know if those are only words.

Here is pace, clean air and water, but pace at work is not very easy, sure there is still few places where it is, but it has been changed, now it is needed to work so that you are empty in 5 years (in computer business), if you put own company you can work less to get same income currently, that is if you don't get any workers, there is additional costs to paycheck really big problem (social expenses etc, I think that is what they are called), that increases prices and keeps paycheck thin so one earned euro is not so much as in some countries.

But this is good place to visit and retirement, imo.

Oh yes, taxes, usually when you earn around 20000 euros in a year your tax % is around 30, bit under usually depends where you live, if you earn more tax is higher %. Then most stuff you buy has 22% of tax, so some prices might be higher than other coutries, in Germany that is 16% for example, sometimes you pay tax from tax, but I think this is same everywhere.
In future I believe that goverment pension is going to be last resource, if one would like to get some income when retired there have to be some other money source, investments or something.

Quote from Blackout :

I suppose if you are going to retire this is absolutely fantastic place to be, nice and safe. But as I should work before I can retire I'm mostly worried if I will have a job in the next 6-8 years when I have the education to something. There just seems to be too much highly educated people and not enough work to do, which isn't right is it. Talking about sinking ship might be a bit exagerrated, at the moment the Finnish economy is doing better than ever before. Of course the media somehow, maybe accidentally, paints a grim image how workers are getting kicked out and companies sold to foreign investors, and how everything is getting to worst. Another problem I see in the future are the old, because the huge generation(s) born after the wars are now retiring and there isn't enough tax payers to pay their pensions, so it's likely that the taxes which are already very high, will get even higher and the pensions will maybe drop. I don't accuse anyone, it's not their fault the age distribution is like this. No country will ever be perfect, there is always something which someone doesn't feel right and moans about, blaming and badmouthing governments is a tradition everywhere, isn't it? Maybe we should turn Finland to the Florida of Europe...in any case, Welcome Mr&Mrs Doorman!

Oh wow. You know I never really gave much thought that the "baby boomer" generation is actually a world wide phenomenon. And yeah, as they reach retirement age in droves, I can see where that would put a strain on more socially progressive governments.

Oh well, I'm from Generation X. The generation that won't be allowed to retire.

Quote from LFSn00b :

Ok... imo this is good thing!

So you want your government to shut down the websites of newspapers that they do not agree with, shut down blogs and remove websites of other political parties?

If they have this much info about kiddy porn sites, they should raid the places, get the perverts, smash the servers with baseball bats, lock the pervs up and throw away the key.

Quote from LFSn00b :

... umm... -.-


I meant they should shut down porn sites, but that isn't very possible?

That's the scary part, they are not putting it down... They just block the access... The porn sites live on happily, just with some hits less...

Quote :

If they have this much info about kiddy porn sites, they should raid the places, get the perverts, smash the servers with baseball bats, lock the pervs up and throw away the key.

Please Duke, can we smash the pervs with baseball bats, then lock them away, and then periodically f**k them up with said bats at a frequency determined by how much they breathe? (More breathing = more beating)

Quote from GFresh :

Please Duke, can we smash the pervs with baseball bats, then lock them away, and then periodically f**k them up with said bats at a frequency determined by how much they breathe? (More breathing = more beating)

Bleeding heart liberal!

I believe it's an universal phenomenon, that politicians are the ones who should not be politicians. Anyone who wants power to make decisions should not be making them.

Finland's problem is the social athmosphere. Everything has to be on/off and everything is so damn hypocritical. Almost all laws are gateways to either secure the income of wealthy organisations or to more absurd laws. Every single day when I read "homeland news" from newspapers I get more and more angry. Every day some person blurts out some stupid things about "how things should be for us to be safe". Election year is something I fear. Year before elections is madness, because all the nifty new ideas every wannabe-politician blurts out. Those ideas are either total bs or ... well, total bs. Every law and regulation is just political game.

I propably am going to stay and work in Finland, if I happen to find work. I just don't believe that life could be any better anywhere else. It's sh** everywhere. I hate the drive for maximal gain that is in work and social life these days. I don't want large salary since I don't have huge expenses. I just wanna get by and do some work. Me first and the gimme gimmes.

(Bloody heiml this written-word-thingee is hard. I wish the easiness of spoken word could translate into these posts )

Quote from Julppu :

Finland's problem is the social athmosphere. Everything has to be on/off and everything is so damn hypocritical. Almost all laws are gateways to either secure the income of wealthy organisations or to more absurd laws.

Well said!

Everytime I hear this kinda news, like Lex Karpela, or think about how finnish government and majority of people (the pole walking grannies who know nothing about modern world) want to rule this country, it makes me want to run away. I'm not sure at all if I ever get a chance to even visit another countries (lol) because I'm so lazy and inefficient. Maybe I'll just establish a child porn site and try to make money with it...

It was a bit funny on the last president election when YLE, MTV3 and Nelonen had their "election-machines" set up on internet... I remember one question in particular. "Do you listen music:
a) radio
b) cassettes
c) LP records
d) CDs with a cd-player
For crying out loud, they had put all the options you had on the late 1980s, but no sign of MP3s, computers or portable music players pffft. I guess 90% of our dear parlamentarians think MP3 is some kind of special device that automatically steals music from other people when you turn it on.

There are just strange things in the finnish law. While Finland is a very safe country, there are some special oddities that make you really think wtf is going on. There have been cases in court where you get smaller verdict if you have a job or (in case of rape) the act is a short one. Or you come home from a trip and find some burglars in your house. You go get your shotgun and throw them out (pointing at them with an unloaded shotgun). In the next morning police comes to pick you up for "illegal threat". Or you buy a used car only to find that the ex-pwner has not paid the diesel taxes. The car is put into driving ban until YOU pay the taxes. Just full of oddities.

I still wouldn't move. I kinda like the safe atmosphere. I can pass out from drinking too heavily and wake up next morning in some park with my leather jacket, wallet and beers intact. Don't need to be overly afraid of drug addicts and other geezers. And in case you fail in life, you are still pretty much socially secured so you don't need to live on the streets.

Quote from Hyperactive :

And in case you fail in life, you are still pretty much socially secured so you don't need to live on the streets.

That's just too tempting for most of them..

My income would drop ~10% if I sat these days at home instead of working 8 hours a day as a trainee. Where else does the government feed every lo-life who doesn't even WANT to work? Don't wonder why you are paying high taxes..

Quote from duke_toaster :

.....
If they have this much info about kiddy porn sites, they should raid the places, get the perverts, smash the servers with baseball bats, lock the pervs up and throw away the key.

It ain't that easy from what I understand, most kiddie porn sites are located in other nations. There might not be any sites actually located in Finland. So
they can't just go and do that. And for law enforcement to try and act outside of it's own country and in concert with another country takes alot of burecratic paper work and other assorted nonsense just to be able to make a
case. and in that time the kiddie site's done changed addresses two more times.

But think of this also, If kiddie porn was sooo bad that the government had to do that, then that should mean that about 25% of your population is d/loading kiddie porn for your gov't to justify doing that.
I really don't think y'all have that big of a problem with it.
the more I think aboutm it, it sounds like Old fashioned knee jerk-feel good
legislation that has a big potential for pork barrel politics as well.