Why are you stalling, Finland?
The year 2025 is drawing to a close. Many people, both employees and entrepreneurs, are breathing a sigh of relief and hoping that next year will be better than this one. Whether this will be the case is difficult to say. In light of the figures, the future looks bleak. Between January and November 2025, 3,034 companies were declared bankrupt, which was more than in the whole of the previous year. The economic turmoil in Finland continues to be grim, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
The figures are as gloomy as the November weather in Helsinki. Economists and politicians are lining up to offer their prescriptions for getting Finland back into the black. The budget deficit figures are grim, but there seems to be no consensus on how to steer the ship in the right direction. One side wants to raise taxes even more, while the other says we're already taxed to death and that having some of the highest taxes in the world isn't attractive to businesses or individuals.
Finland is stagnating. Economic growth has come to a complete standstill, or according to the latest forecasts, is even heading into negative territory. How did we end up in this situation? It would be easy to blame the global political situation, but at the same time, our western neighbors, for example, are forging ahead. I may be wrong, of course, but as I understand it, the same situation – whether it be the coronavirus, Russia or Trump – affects the whole of Europe. Clearly, the social resilience of other countries has been better than ours from the outset.
Finland did well financially during the Nokia boom years, when money was pouring in. Nokia was a unicorn, the likes of which Finland has not seen since. Nor, in fact, before that. As a society, we have remained stuck in those prosperous years, still dreaming of a "new Nokia," and by that I mean that we are mentally stuck in those years, unable to move forward. Nokia's downfall as its competitors raced ahead was a heavy blow to our national pride. Especially since the reasons for the collapse can be found in part in the company's management and the decisions it made, which, in hindsight, were due to complacency and misplaced pride.
As stated, Nokia was a unicorn, the kind we still hope to encounter in the future. When will we find one in the platform economy, in icebreaker orders, or in the gaming world? In a fragmented world where there is little longer any unified culture, the emergence of such a unicorn is very, very unlikely. The situation is not helped by the fact that the world's most heavily taxed country is not an attractive option, either for domestic players or foreign investors. The large, more lucrative markets are somewhere else entirely, not in Finland. And the brain drain from Finland to other countries is an indisputable fact.
It is reasonable to ask what has led Finland and us Finns to this situation. Where are the roots? It would be very easy to blame the global situation, inflation, or any other available explanation, but could the reason lie within us and the rigid bureaucratic society we have created, as well as the decision-makers we have elected? Of course, everything is the sum of its parts, but most often the cause can be found in the hand mirror. If we want to develop as a society and move away from the observation class, we must try something radical. Something that Finland has not done before. Because the current line is clearly not working.
“The year 2025 is drawing to a close. Many people, both employees and entrepreneurs, are breathing a sigh of relief and hoping that next year will be better than this one. Whether that will be the case is difficult to say.
Pastor