Scandinavia: A possible utopia?
1:25 PM
After living my whole life in Brazil and in the US for the last 2 years I was able to compare life in these countries. Seeing patterns happening in both countries that seem to be wrong makes me think of the question:
The northern region in Europe composed of countries such as Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland has been getting some attention among Americans lately, especially after last US election, when senator Bernie Sanders referred to the region's perks, such as socialized healthcare and college education. All those perks, of course, come with a cost and the region is known for its high taxes - Denmark for instance, in which people spare 50% of their income for taxes- But they get in exchange an egalitarian society with the lowest rates of poverty in the world. It's hard to not compare the amount of money we spend with healthcare in the US and the price tag students like me owe the government in student loans.
Even when I was living in Brazil, I'd watch documentaries talking about the gender equality in Sweden and the free education system in Finland -considered the best in the world!- and I always dreamed of visiting the northern lands. Critiques of the Scandinavian model - usually just a few journalists- will say Danish people are drowning in debt, the nordic countries are populated by homogeneous people that look the same, dress the same, and even have the same house (a little detour here but below an example of a scandinavian home, I got the pictures from my favorite lifestyle finnish blog).
Needless to say, I strongly disagree with the criticism and strongly believe it occurs because people can't handle others having it better than them. Some people say you have to look within to find the solutions for your problems, I'd say if you live in the US or Brazil, you have to look outside, specifically up north where the lights are green! If you want to educate yourself more on the topic, I have a few books I've read and totally recommend the read!
So, how do you like scandinavia now? I hope you all have a great weekend and see you next post!
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