[adaml_623]

To summarize the primary ways how value at the national level is created:

1. You sell your unique resources (e.g. oil, salmon) to other nations.

2. You steal from other nations or borrow money but never pay back.

3. You have competitive companies that export products to other nations.

I'm intrigued that #2 makes the list. Almost as though the OP could only think of 2 ways. He seems to have forgotten the service economy.

[SeppoErviala]

>3. You have competitive companies that export products to other nations.

Author seems to forget that these companies don't need to be of finnish origin. It's completly ok strategy to just educate lots of engineers and let IBM or other large company hire them (and pay income taxes to Finland). Educated workforce does create value even if there isn't silicon valley of start-ups in Finland.

[mmarjala]

The author agrees on this. It, naturally, is much more valuable for a nation to produce these companies themselves and get sometimes access to multiple revenue streams, and subsidiaries rarely buy companies and enrich the nearby ecosystem through that.

[mmarjala]

I don't think the internal service economy really increases a nation's value relative to other nations. If I buy a t-shirt from my neighbor and he repays by cleaning my house ... not really that scalable I think.

A key requirement IMHO for a functional service economy is high enough differences in salaries (so that there are people who can afford to buy services in scale) and low-cost workers. In Finland, and broader in Nordics, we don't have either.