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• Wikipedia to the rescue (Score:2)

  by offerk (4962)

  While I have no personal knowledge of Finland, here are some fact and figures, courtesy of Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

  1. Finland [wikipedia.org] has a population of only 5mil spread over 338,145 km², making it only the 162nd most densely populated country.
  2. the Finish miliary [wikipedia.org] expenditure for 98/99 was only 2% of the Finish GDP. Compare to the USA's 3.7% for that time frame, a number which has surerly risen since then.
  3. 92% of all Fins are, well, Finish [wikipedia.org] :)
     (My point beeing that demographic homogeneity surely encourages trust and a grea
  • Re:Wikipedia to the rescue (Score:1)

    by Alias (5735)

    Point 3 is a load of crap.
    
    Last time I checked, Australia has the highest rate of migrants of any country in the world, over 25% of the country wasn't born here, and it works just fine thank you.
    
    One thing I will say though, is that we don't have any major minorities (except for the aboriginal situation sort of...). There's no equivalent to the entrenched poor black or latino populations America has to deal with. At least, not amoung the migrants.
    
    But again, if you look at the top cluster of countries, Norway,
    • Re:Wikipedia to the rescue (Score:2)

      by offerk (4962) <reversethis-{li. ... ta} {eyak.reffo}> on 2005.10.27 4:54 (#44189) Journal

      Point 3 is a load of crap. Last time I checked, Australia has the highest rate of migrants of any country in the world, over 25% of the country wasn't born here, and it works just fine thank you.

      I'm sure it does, but you can hardly say "Point 3 is crap" based on that - for one, thing, every point I listed is a contributing factor, changing just one may change the situation a bit, but the other factors will remain (as you yourself pointed out!).
      Furthermore, Australia is very different from both Finland and the USA, a difference that can more then offset the lack of a homogeneous population. I'm talking about the fact that "20.3 million people occupy a continent the size of the contiguous United States" (Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]).
      Furthermore, according to WP Australia has been "privatizing many government-owned services and public utilities" and "has attempted to reduce union power and involvement in the workplace". Deregulation, privatization and decreasing union power are actions more consistent with a capitalistic ideology than a socialistic one. I think this more then offsets the lack of a homogeneous population. To summarize, I don't think point 3 is crap, nor do I think Australia is a good counter example, given the many other differences.

      One thing I will say though, is that we don't have any major minorities (except for the aboriginal situation sort of...). There's no equivalent to the entrenched poor black or latino populations America has to deal with. At least, not amoung the migrants.

      Thank you for shooting yourself in the foot for me :)
      First you claim that point 3 is crap, then you hurriedly counter yourself by admitting that the counter example you gave is not really the same...

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