This is a country where there is no minumum wage. Finnish worker earns about the average, a bit lower wages than elsewhere in EU. Practically all the working force is well educated. School system has been praised all over the world. Big international companies, such as Stora Enso, pay no taxes at all, or less than few percent. In 2011 Nokias tax percentage was 0.01%.
So what is wrong? Why Finland is performing economically worse than Greece right now? What has happened?
To put it shortly: euro, EU and criminal politicians.
The cost of EU and euro membership for Finland in the past 20 years has been staggering. One can say, that EU and euro has looted the finnish economy. Calculating the true costs is difficult because the statistics have been cooked purposely but some rough figuire can be counted from here and there.
As for the membership fees, Finland has lost 5.3 billion euros during its membership in EU. That is the net loss in the past two decades in just the membership fees. That is the figure after all the EU money that has been sent back to Finland. And this figure comes from the official EU statistics. So in just the membership fees, we have lost 5 300 000 000 euros.
http://www.eurooppatiedotus.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=97138&contentlan=1#.VrRIE1KmJOY
Euro has been devastating. According to the table published by our own FM in 2012, Finland had poured into euro some 9.3 billion since 2008. This was in 2012. In that same table there is a figure of 11.14 billion which, according to that same table, would be paid "at once when asked". It is more than likely that it was paid up sooner or later. This one revelation means that we have put at least 20.44 billion euros into the euro disaster alone. But those figures do not include 2 billion which was thrown into Cyprus. Nor it is known how much has been poured in trough various other "instruments" etc.
So we have lost at least 20.44 + 5.3 billion on these alone. But the bill is not done yet. According to the EU rules, which have for some reason have been applied to and in Finland to a tee, Finland could not loan any money from its own central bank after the EU membership was confirmed. This meant that all the loans had to be taken from the private sector, that is from the big international banks.
No one knows the real figures, but one attempt was made by an opposition party member right before 2015 parliamentary elections. He calculated that since 1995, Finland had paid some 70 billion on the interests alone. If this figure is anywhere near the truth, the cost of euro and EU to Finland in the past two decades has been staggering 95.74 billion euros. That is 95 740 000 000 euros. All that is nett loss, pure loss. That is what Finland has lost. The cost. The bottom line. Some esitimate the cost of euro and EU to be even higher, over 100 billion, when the loss of the custom fees are included. And yet, there are those who still claim that euro and EU is good for Finland.
Naturally none of this would have happened if the finnish parliament had been ruled by the law. If the finnish parliament had been following the constitution. But it did not.
After highly manipulated popular vote, the finns decided to join in EU in 1995. Majority of the voters voted YES. Fine. But what should have happened after this was that the constitution should have been changed. It was not. The constitution forbade Finland ever joining the EU. Not that it meant nothing to our politicians or their real backers in big business. The constitution was changed in 2011, after 16 years of un-constitutional membership in EU. One short sentence was added in there, which also proves that some politicians had realised that the un-constitutional state of the EU membership was a crime against the constitution. "Finland is a memberstate of European Union" was written in to the constitution only in 2011. 16 years after the EU membership had been done.
But naturally that was not such a big a deal for the finnish politicians. In 2009 a scandal broke out when it was discovered that practically no one in the parliament had ever bothered to explain where their election funds originated from, as was requiered by the law. Not one party, nor members of parliament, save couple die hard communists and such. The reason why they had not done this for decades was that in this Election Fund Law there was no punishment. So politicians had decided to ignore and break the law because they had formulated it so that no one would be punished even if they were caught. Now they were all caught.
http://yle.fi/uutiset/nain_vaalirahakohu_eteni_nama_ihmiset_olivat_mukana/8390793
Did this scandal bother any one? No. It was business as usual.
The big problem for a foreigner to understand is the finnish corruption. As I wrote in the biggest news paper of Finland Helsingin Sanomat in 2009, the finnish practises of ruling and law making, the co-operation between finnish politicians and big business, was organized crime according to the EU definitions of OC. In Finland flat out pay offs are rare, but we have what is called Maan Tapa,the common custom of Finland, the Way of the Land, the Custom of the Land, to put it shortly: our own version of cosa nostra.
https://suomi2017.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/hesari-on-line-02112009paakirjoitus_vieraskyna_maan-tapa-tc3a4yttc3a4c3a4-jc3a4rjestc3a4ytyneen-rikollisuuden-tunnusmerkit_vaalirahoitus_puoluetuki_puoluerahoitus_sami-parkkonen.pdf
There has been numerous cases of politicians arranging laws or zoning for companies and as we do not know who has paid the election campains, or the summer house, or the holiday trip or the new car, or the studies of the children abroad, we can only assume that the Custom of the Land has been applied. In few cases there has been traces and in 2009, after the election fund scandal, it became clear that the corruption of finnish political parties and politicians was trough and trough, total.
How all of this was hush hushed in foreign press, I have no idea. I tried to contact several newspapers, sent even some matrial, but no one was interested at that time. Perhaps now they will be as they have begun to ask: What is wrong, Finland?
Just recently Transparency International published its list of the least corrupted countries in the world. Finland was on the top, or second. It usually is on top five. I have no idea how this is possible as most of the finns who follow politics and economy know that finnish political parties are totally corrupted and so are most of finnish politicians. But here is one explanation: the very word corruption in Finland is usually understood as pay offs. So if no one is handing to any one any cash under the table, there is no corruption. No one is mentioning apartments for nominal fees, almost free holidays, credit cards with foreign bank accounts, cushy jobs on private sectors after the political career etc. And yet, that is what the finnish corruption is. It is a system sometimes called as Dear Brother -network. That is the biggest finnish organised crime and the hidden truth about Finland abroad.
Let us take one example. Jyrki Katainen, former primeminister and economy minister whom Financial Times once called the best in Europe. His rise in finnish politics was based on a blantant election fraud. His cohorts rigged the local elections, making him the winner, by creating non existing local chapters, non existing voters etc. They were caught and the police in Kuopio investigated the crime. Except the police made sure that Katainen was never caught, even when he was. Eventually the investigation dragged on long enough for the crime to become expired by the law, too old for any proceedings. By then Financial Times was writing about this bright young finnish politician. Now Katainen, under whose leadership the finnish economy was practically destroyed, is working in EU comission. Watch out for him, for there is a man with no morals at all.
http://jyrkikatainenvalhe.blogspot.fi/
But Katinen was just one of those politicians. In the scandal of 2009 it became obvious that various politcians and minsters had been organising election financing even with white collar criminals. It was revealed that even the prime minister had met these criminals and they had gone trough the candidate lists in order to choose the polticians whom these white collar criminals were supposed to back up. This was done, according to the stories in media, during the working hours of the primeminister in Prime minister's Residence. Another minister organized meetings between politicians and white collar criminals in a military base, I guess to keep it safe. When the scandal broke out all the politicians were saved somehow and some of the white collar criminals were taken to court for a show. One of them commented in public: I will never work with politicians again for they have no morals or any principles. He also commented that why the president is not been investigated as they financed his campaign too. And that makes one wonder, who are the real criminals?
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_vaalirahoituskohu
http://www.hs.fi/kuukausiliite/a1425532472256
All that was and is the Way of the Land, the Custom of the Land, Dear Brother -networking which is fully functioning today. It is our cosa nostra, our thing, the finnish high crime. For a foreigner it is very difficult to understand but most of the finnish economies and politics are done like this. This land is fully corrupted and run by men and women to whom laws mean nothing. But because they are well behaving public figures, a foreigner does not detect nor realise that this well dressed nice finnish politician is in fact a criminal by the finnish laws. Yes, they are seldom if ever investigated or prosecuted, simply because they control the police totally. So they can claim that they are not criminals and there is nothing criminal going on. But there is and it is going on all the time.
One recent and excellent example of this criminality is the MOU agreement with Nato. In 2014 Finland signed a MOU agreement with Nato. Fine, there was the official occation, photos were taken, smiles and handshakes and everything seemed to be in order and well and fine. Except, according to the finnish laws, this was a massive crime done publicly out in the open.
Fist of all, our constitution at that time and perhaps even still, forbids Finland to be in any military alliance or allie with any one. That was absolutely clear. There was no question about it. And yet, the finnish politicians announced that they read the laws differently and there was no objection to this agreement. Which was a lie. But also in finnish criminal code 12/1&10 forbade this kind of agreements and their implemention. Plus finnish neutrality laws forbade this kind of agreements. Plus the general who signed the agreement had no official powers to sign any kind of international deals as the finnish professional soldiers are not supposed to be political in any shape or form. Plus this general was breaking his own officer oath and military oath and the laws which state absolutely that finnish soldiers must protect the constitution and laws without a question.
At present at this event were the finnish minister of defence Carl Haglund and the president of Finland Sauli Niinistö, who is a lawyer by civili profession. He, at least, had to be aware that the signing of this agreement was a crime against the constitution and criminal code. By law they both should have stopped the proceedings but instead they were there to make sure that it was done by a general who broke also the laws of his home country.
Why this Nato MOU deal was done? Because the "conservative" Kokoomus party had promised to the US empbassy that if they win the elections they will bring Finland to Nato. That was what they wanted to do and still trying to do, but stubborn finns do not want to join Nato, even after years and years of propaganda tsunami which is pumping up the non existing threat of Russia day and night 24/7 in all the media.
http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/201102120070939_uu.shtml
From the western point of view, Finland must be brought into the Nato for two reasons: we have one the biggest armies in EU and border with Russia. But more importantly, the biggest litium deposit in the whole western Europe is in Finland and litium is a strategic mineral. It is simple as that and our laws are flushed down the toilet when money speaks.
The president Niinistö and his party Kokoomus is not unique. Our present prime minister has also been avoiding taxes trough different kind of manouvers in his civilian business, thus hiding millions from the state. He was busted recently for his "arraingements" but it does not matter. That is "legal" and The Way of the Land, our thing. This is how things are done in Finland.
http://www.helsinginuutiset.fi/artikkeli/312772-tutkiva-journalisti-paljasti-nain-juha-sipila-piilottelee-miljooniaan
All those things which have been praised abroad, our school system, health care system, social security, everything is being dismanteled by these politicians at the same time as you read these words. They are running down the school system, they have destroyed our social security, they have created tax evasion galore, they are destroying public transportation system, and everything is being sold to tax haven companies and/or foreign companies. Big international mining companies are doing just fine, paying no taxes at all, while polluting nature at will.
Talvivaara, which has been the biggest enviromental disaster in the whole EU for some years by now, is also a mine and a mining company which is interesting. It started when a local state official arrainged the papers and permits in order to get the permit from the ministery which watches over the environmental issues. Somehow, the then environmental minister, who was a memeber of the then ruling party (which is also now the ruling party), gave her approval for everything and the mining company started its work. Environmental issues came obvious at once and pretty soon local lakes and rivers were polluted.
The said minister found herself in a hot spot when it was revealed that her mother, husband and her nine year old daughter had owned the stocks of the said mining company by hundreds of thousands of euros. She simply arrainged a press confrence in which she said that she did not know about those stocks when she made her desicion and that was that. Nothing after that. Because that is the Way of the Land, our thing. And Talvivaara is still the biggest environmental disaster in Europe today, its pollution infecting waters up to hundreds of kilometers from the mining site. And no one cares, not even abroad.
http://www.iltasanomat.fi/kotimaa/art-1288339390547.html
Wind mills, those alternative energy sources, are also ways of making money for the politicians and their buddies. The state is paying a guaranteed sum for each Kwh produced by those wind mills. The trick is this: the government pays more than what one Kwh costs at the markets. So the wind mill company buys its electricity from the markets, not producing it itself, and the government pays twice or thirce that much for that same Kwh for the company. All you need is a wind mill, no matter if its running or not, and you can start to print money. This is done in the name of campaign against the global warming. And who is among the ones reaping the benefits from this? Yes, a son in law of one of the most influental political titans in Finland. But no problem, because this is done openly, like that politician said. Yes, that is what he said.
http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2013032916780974_uu.shtml
So, dear foreign journalists, the next time you ask: "what is wrong Finland? What is happening in Finland?", find out. Check out. Do your research. What you will find from Finland will amaze you, guaranteed. This is not the land you have been imaging at all. This is not the land you've been told it is.
While there are millions of honest very hard working finns who keep this country a float with litterally blood, sweat and tears, along side with them there are hundreds of others who are looting all they can. Chances are, you have already interviewed one of them.
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