[HNcantBtrustd]

I can't fathom what life is like in such a small country.

If 1 major company goes out of business, does it cause chaos?

High unemployment and lower tax revenue sounds like any moment the country could find itself in an economic depression.

In my local area this almost happened.

[jks]

Yes, the fall of Nokia (even though it didn't go completely out of business) had a big impact, especially in some regions. Here is a rough timeline: https://www.quora.com/How-has-the-decline-of-Nokia-affected-...

[HNcantBtrustd]

It doesn't explain what life is like due to losing that industry.

We are told of Utopia in Europe, but aren't told these stories.

[ganzuul]

Currently in Salo there is work underway on a battery factory for EVs, IIRC in the old Nokia facilities.

Finland has a closed nickel mine which could become economical to operate once again since it also produces cobalt, which gets used in these types of batteries.

[xornox]

Nordic countries are quite good if you want give away some personal freedoms. A reverse side of security is always loss of liberty in some way. Some people like it and some not. I don’t.

[tekkk]

I bet Americans are feeling pretty free with the on-going mass-shootings and rampant outright bribing of politicians by corporations and lobbyists. I am happy with the security. To me American system feels insane and is characterized by delusional statements like yours. You think you are the absolute free'est country on earth, while it's in practise no different to any other developed country. Yet you preach about it like you invented it. Sure you can shoot big guns and pay your own education, but i bet in some undeveloped countries you could run your own kingdom. There you could do whatever you wanted! Such freedom, a true American dream

[beefield]

I'm quite curious to hear what these personal freedoms are you need to give away in the Nordic countries? Freedom to pay huge student debts maybe?

[ganzuul]

Can you be more specific about what you mean? Here in Finland we have Everyman's Rights, which are quite expansive. We have duties to par though.

[WaylonKenning]

I'm from New Zealand. What's our major companies? None of them employ more than 20,000 employees globally. Sure that's a lot of people to lose a job, but the big companies are building, groceries, airlines, and telecommunications. If the companies go under, the demand for the products doesn't disappear.

As for unemployment rate, 3.9%. Pretty close to the UK, USA, China.

As for tax, on $100K USD, you'd be taxed 28.3% on your income, and 15% on your consumption via GST.

[verttii]

Interesting, since New Zealand is in many ways comparable with Finland.

In Finland the tax rate for $100K USD would be 41.3% on average. The common consumption tax is 24% (VAT). On top of that, certain goods like alcohol, gas, cars, could have additional goods specific tax that could be well over 100%.

Unemployment stands at I think 6.6%.

[mxuribe]

I had heard of numerous great things of New Zealand related to jobs (low unemployment), good salaries/wages, etc...And then i read something the other day about either Auckland or Wellington being the cities with among the highest costs of living, as compared to other global cities (like, really high on the list). I guess it sort of shocked me....Mind you, I'm not an economist, but I naively assumed that healthy economies wouldn't necessarily have such cities/regions with disproportionately high costs of living. But, I guess in the case of (again, sorry for not recalling exactly which city it was) Auckland or Wellington, it sure sounds like it to me. Nevertheless, I look forward to visiting your beautiful country, and contributing my tourist money to your economy! ;-)

[eloisant]

All these countries are well connected to the rest of Europe, so even if one big company goes down there's still business to do with all the neighbors.