Standards and Values - Part 2
Let’s be Sweden: Seven ways we could be like Scandinavia - A Commentary
This is part two of my two part series on Standards and Values in which I examine two opinion pieces that appeared in the NZ Herald on 22 June 2024.
My comments appear in italics.
Simon Wilson sits on the progressive side of the political spectrum. He normally has a column in the Herald on Tuesdays. This column appeared on Saturday 22 June. Simon often identifies issues by listing them and commenting upon them. In this article he asks whether we can learn anything from the Scandinavian countries and raises seven issues. I will shortly have a look at Mr. Wilson’s article and make my own comments on the issues that he raises, but by way of a general remark it should be observed that the Scandinavian countries to which Mr Wilson refers are largely socialist. The State makes reasonable albeit careful provision for its citizens funded by a higher level of taxation than we are used to in New Zealand. And Mr. Wilson bases his analysis on an “inequality adjusted Human Development index” – whatever that may be – and the World Happiness Index. Is the argument that because Scandinavia does so well in a couple of statistical groups that we should emulate them. Mr. Wilson lays out his various factors. If his case is that we should emulate Scandinavian socialism from the evidence that he has produced in my view he has not made it. What he overlooks is the importance of individual initiative but in New Zealand, where resort to the State is seen as Plan A rather than Plan Z, that seems to be in rather short supply.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland.
Let’s be Sweden: Seven ways we could be like Scandinavia
Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden occupy positions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 on the UN’s inequality-adjusted Human Development Index. New Zealand is a mere 17th. Those same countries also hold five of the top seven places on the World Happiness Index. They’re doing pretty well.
It would be interesting to see the base statistics in these surveys. I must say that I am a bit dubious about the value of a “how you feel” survey which seems to be what the Happiness Index is all about. As Margaret Thatcher was scripted to say in “The Iron Lady” People don’t think any more. They feel. We are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. What we think, we become” a script that was developed from Mrs Thatcher’s comment “Feelings do not interest me, thoughts and ideas are what matter the most. What we think is what we become.” Given that happiness is a feeling and therefore highly subjective, that sort of index carried little weight with me
Are there things we could learn from them? Some suggest that Singapore might offer a better model, but Singapore is not even a welfare state.
Is there something wrong with NOT being a welfare State. It is perhaps the level of authoritarianism that concerns me in Singapore. But on the other hand it is a highly successful country that values education, order and merit. Like New Zealand it has a diversity of cultures. In fact I am surprised that Singapore does not appeal to Mr. Wilson. In the towering apartment blocks, unit occupation is not based on class or profession but rather there is a mingling of occupants, bringing together a variety of occupations, professions and socio-economic groups.
On the other hand some recent comments by the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong criticizing “wokeness” would probably not appeal to Mr Wilson’s sensitive and progressive side. The clip is here. What the Prime Minister said is this:
“In the West they’ve got a movement called Wokeness where you are super sensitive about other peoples issues and you become hypersensitive when other people somehow or other say things or mention things or refer to you without the respect which you or your super subgroup feel you are entitled to. It leads to very extreme attitudes and social norms particularly in some academic institutions, universities – you talk about safe spaces, you talk about appropriate pronouns you talk about how I’m going to say something which may be offensive to you. If you don’t want to hear it, perhaps you would like to leave now and life becomes very burdensome and I don’t think we want to go in that direction. It does not make us a more resilient cohesive society with a strong sense of solidarity. We must be more robust.”
Whereas Scandinavia, more properly called the Nordic countries when all five of them are included, has a lot to offer. Here are seven things we could copy.
So Mr Wilson is suggesting we should copy these factors that he has identified. Do we blindly copy – import the model as it is without adapting it to our needs. Or perhaps rather than copy he is looking below the surface and suggesting that these are things that we could emulate
Good schools: Finland
Finnish students score very highly in PISA and other academic rankings where New Zealand has been falling behind. For several years Finnish schools have rated best at teaching students about misinformation. And the entire education system is widely praised for the way it fosters emotional and social maturity
The World Economic Forum has taken a good look at what makes Finland’s schools so successful. To start with, it found they believe strongly in the basics.
The basics is something that have been missing in action as far as the NZ education system is concerned. One only has to consider the outrage expressed by the NZEI at the recent announcements by the Minister of Education to understand where the wrongheaded ideology that has been driving NZ education downhill for decades is coming from.
But this is how they define them. Education is viewed as an instrument to balance out social inequality, so it follows that all students receive free school meals, have easy access to healthcare and psychological counselling, and receive individualised guidance throughout their school life.
It is understandable that in a socialist country education as a means to balance out inequality may be a goal. But there is more to it than that. Education levels the playing field. It means that with a proper education one can find employment based on merit rather than other irrelevant and external factors. But the basics of literacy and numeracy come first.
There’s no standardised testing. That eliminates the problems of “teaching to the test” and assessment that measures only how well students have crammed for the test.
It is understandable that no testing would appeal. Testing means that students are ranked. Some do better than others. And in the glorious socialist state that would never do. Everyone must be equal even although they do not merit a placement alongside a person who is measurably better. And that measurement is achieved by testing
Teacher training programmes are “the most rigorous and selective professional schools in the entire country”. Teachers are paid well and aren’t graded. They all have a master’s degree, at least, and it’s the principal’s job to manage them.
No problem with this. The recent revelations about the ability or lack of it on the part of some of the teachers in NZ is concerning. I agree with the educational qualifications. Given one of the few areas of State involvement that I favour is in the field of education, financial assistance should be given to those students who choose teaching as a profession (and it is a profession). There should be assistance with training and University fees. In return let us remember the bond system that used to operate where graduate teachers would be required to teach in the public system for a set number of years.
Schools are small and teachers often stay with a cohort of students for many years. Competition among schools is not encouraged and there are no lists of “best schools”.
Children don’t start school until age 7. The school day starts later, ends earlier, has longer breaks and mini-breaks, and might have only two sessions.
Is that a good thing. Start at a younger age to get those basic skills and disciplines embedded early
There’s not much homework, because the reality of homework is often that it’s made-up work to comfort parents with the idea their kids have to work hard.
That may be Mr. Wilson’s view of homework. I always considered homework as a chance to practice skills learned during the day and embed the factual information necessary to continue on the next day. It wasn’t “make work” but apart from the chance to fix the knowledge acquired in the class room it was good for discipline.
Good prisons: Norway
There are 27 million people in the Nordic countries and 17,000 of them are in prison: that’s an incarceration rate of about 1:1600.
In New Zealand, we have 8600 prisoners and rising. That’s an incarceration rate of 1:580, three times the Nordic model.
In Norway, many prisoners take themselves out to work during the day. Prisons tend to be in the middle of towns and cities, which makes both day-release and prison visits easy. Many receive quite good wages for the work they do, although they also have to pay rent.
Three guiding principles apply. One is normality: prisoners wear their own clothes and have access to the same mental health and other services they would outside.
Another is reintegration: a focus from day one on what will happen when they leave prison. And a third principle is known as “relational security”. This means the corrections officers are trained as guides and educators.
Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, is still in prison and won’t be getting out in the foreseeable. The system isn’t soft on prisoners like him. But for most, the focus is on helping them re-establish their lives.
The result? A recidivism rate of around 20%. In New Zealand, where politicians are often rewarded for being “tough on crime”, it’s 57%.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a “good prison.” It may be that the rehabilitation element is better, judging by the figures. A recidivism rate of 20% is very good. I wonder what it is like in Sweden, Finland or Denmark.
Of course, prison is only part of the issue. Onje has to address a whole lot of factors that lead to recidivism. My sad experience over decades in the law is to see the intergenerational nature of criminal behaviour. Addressing that is going to take a lot more than boot camps and jail time. And the problems of intergenerational crime won’t be solved over a three year electoral cycle. Anyone who has worked in the criminal justice system understands that. But our society seems to favour a “quick fix” and that isn’t possible nor available.
Good roads: Sweden
A 2+1 road is a highway on which two lanes run in one direction, and one the other, alternating every few kilometres and usually separated by a cable barrier. Sweden built the first one in 1990, and they’re now found in Germany, Portugal, Estonia, Finland and other parts of Europe.
They’re a relatively cheap and quick way to allow passing while also making roads safer.
Actually, they’re the only kind of open road that can promise both those things. New Zealand’s own system of passing lanes could easily be upgraded to achieve both goals.
Surprising that Mr. Wilson should talk about roads – see below for the inevitable commentary of cycle lanes
The Nordic model
Throughout the Nordic countries, governments, unions and employers have a relatively common understanding of society’s basic values. As economist Jeffrey Sachs puts it, the Nordic model is “proof that modern capitalism can be combined with decency, fairness, trust, honesty, and environmental sustainability”.
Market economies are underpinned by comprehensive welfare, with a mix of private enterprise and state-run entities.
Denmark has an official 37-hour work week and many employees leave work at 4pm to pick up the kids. Only 2% of employees work very long hours, compared to the OECD average of 11%.
It’s not just that they get a better work-life balance: productivity is high. Danes are the second- most productive workers in Europe (after Ireland) and are more productive than workers in the US, Canada, Japan and Australia.
The Nordic labour market is flexible: it’s not hard for employers to hire and shed workers or introduce labour-saving technology. But workers are protected by generous social welfare, job retraining and relocation services.
The job retraining is a good idea and the social welfare support does not last forever but reduces over time. Intergenerational dependence of welfare is not encouraged in Scandiavia
Two related factors underpin all this. The first is a highly unionised workforce: 91% in Iceland, mostly in the 60s elsewhere.
We can do without the Unions!
The second is a partnership commitment among governments, nations, unions and employer groups. It’s called tripartite wage bargaining and it sets pay and conditions. In Sweden, Finland and Iceland this covers around 90% of the workforce.
This is State interference in the market economy capitalist model.
Good cycleways: Denmark
In Copenhagen, 64% of commuters travel by bicycle. Even though it snows in winter.
It wasn’t always like that. Until the 1970s, Copenhagen was full of cars. But when the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, crisis became opportunity. They introduced car-free Sundays and cycling started to become popular again.
City authorities responded slowly, but 20 years of protest over the safety of cyclists saw more bike lanes and an ever-increasing number of people using them. Copenhagen now aspires to have 90% of people say they feel safe riding in traffic.
Also, totting up all the costs and benefits, they’ve estimated that cycling has a plus value of about 18 cents/km, compared to a loss of about 10 cents/km for car travel.
It was inevitable that Mr Wilson would cite cycleways. He puts forward Denmark as an example but omits a discussion of similar initiatives where the snow falls very hard in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Higher taxes
Finland has very steep progressive income taxes: 0-67%. Norway and Iceland are similar but not as steep, with 0 to 46%.
Sweden and Denmark have flatter income taxes but they’re still high: 32-52% and 40-52% respectively, although the first parts of earners’ income are exempt.
Capital gains taxes are common and range from 22% in Norway and Iceland to 42% in Denmark. Corporate taxes are in the low 20s (ours is 28%), while sales taxes are at 24-25% (compared to our 15% GST).
The upshot: Nordic countries tax wealthier citizens at higher rates than we do and have a higher tax take overall. It’s mainly in the low-to-mid-forties as a percentage of GDP, compared to our 34%, which is also the OECD average.
Also inevitable that Mr Wilson would point to the taxation regime. Of course the tax structure is higher to pay for all the State activities. But in addition these countries have resources – Norway has oil and gas; Sweden mines minerals. These countries are not wholly dependent upon a tax regime to fund their welfarist approaches. I favour the idea that individuals are better placed than the State to determine where their hard earned dollars should go. Capital gains taxes, wealth taxes and inheritance taxes are a bad idea. Just because other countries have them doesn’t mean they should be emulated.
Good times: Finland
Finland has been the happiest country in the world for the last seven years straight, according to the World Happiness Index. New Zealand is 10th.
Finnish mental health experts say their compatriots like getting into nature, they tell each other how they feel (“Fine,” is not the right answer to a routine “How are you?”), trust each other and like to learn new things. There’s the good work-life balance and apparently they’re happy being satisfied, rather than yearning for a deeper happiness.
Its not all good. Finland has the worst record for drug related deaths among young people in Europe.
So given the “feel good” factor why should people turn to drugs.
But, impressively, the country has also halved its suicide rate. From 1512 deaths by suspected suicide in 1990, it’s down to 740 now. A “national suicide prevention project” made a big difference, with better medication, earlier detection of mental health issues and best-practice therapy guidelines.
Still, these things are not unique to Finland. And while the population is about the same as ours, the suicide numbers remain higher (565 here last year). But Finland’s rate of improvement is remarkable and the big reason seems clear enough: they resourced their mental health services to work well.
Funding public services to do their job. Who’d have thought.
And despite what you might think about the influence of long, cold winters, the worst time for suicide in Finland is the same as it is all over the world: spring.
As far as fun times are concerned a look at the literature and arts of a country is an interesting guide. I am not talking so much about Ibsen and Sibelius as the genre of crime writing that has developed known as Nordic Noir. The Millenium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and others) by Stieg Larsson provides an example. There are others by writers such as Henning Mankell and Camilla Lacberg
Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or the Nordic countries. Nordic noir often employs plain language, avoiding metaphor, and is typically set in bleak landscapes. This results in a dark and morally complex mood, in which a tension is depicted between the apparently still and bland social surface and the patterns of murder, misogyny, rape, and racism the genre depicts as lying underneath.
The works also owe something to Scandinavia's political system where the apparent equality, social justice, and liberalism of the Nordic model is seen to cover up dark secrets and hidden hatreds. Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, for example, deals with misogyny and rape, while Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers focuses on Sweden's failure to integrate its immigrant population.
It’s not all fun in the sauna
Nordic countries, like us, emit carbon excessively and are living far beyond the sustainable limits of the planet. And Norway is the world’s 13th largest oil producer, with two million barrels a day.
They do have a plan to create a circular economy that will make them “the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030″. But a 2022 report was damning: participating companies had siloed the work from the rest of their operations and did not grasp the core purpose.
Greenwash, in other words. Like us, they have much to do.
And yet there’s much more that’s good. A waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen has a skifield on top. Near Oslo there’s a luxury-apartment tower block made of wood. Scandi noir television.
Persuasive incentives for EVs. Do we need more trolls? Shall we produce produce the next Abba? Or Bjork?
Also, Vikings. Almost as good at navigating as early Polynesians.
Rather an over-statement I would have thought. I remember a book on my father’s shelves by Peter Buck entitled “Vikings of the Sunrise” which was the first Māori Western scholarly account of the discovery and settlement of Polynesia in ancient times by seafarers so expert in navigation that the author coined the title. I would say of the Vikings that they were as good at navigating as the Polynesians.
Before maps were widespread and satellite navigation was a millennium away, the Vikings sailed vast distances between Northern and Southern Europe, throughout the Mediterranean Sea, through the vast and numerous river systems of Eastern Europe and the Russian steppe and across the North Atlantic Ocean.
They did, however, have some rudimentary navigational knowledge. Their knowledge of direction – North, South, East, and West – came from the daily cycle of the sun. Yet the principle underpinning much of their navigational skills was the exact location on the horizon where the sun rose and how high it reached during the day.
Sailors from Viking societies also used other natural landmarks when taking to the high seas. The sun, the moon, and the stars also provided an understanding of the direction to travel. However, the often-inclement weather found in the North Atlantic Ocean hampered this.
Hugging coastal areas and looking for specific landmarks – rocks, bays, or a hilltop – could aid navigation. This sort of coastal hugging and landmark spotting is best described in the discovery of 'Vinland' in Grælendinga saga ( Saga of the Greenlanders). Here, Leif Eriksson followed the past directions of a previous lost voyage to Greenland that ended up in 'Vinland' – what is now believed to be Newfoundland, Canada. Eriksson hugged the shore until he found a bay that was accessible in which the Norse explorers went ashore to explore this strange new world.
And we know this because, unlike the Polynesians, the Vikings had a written language and the sagas, although originating in an oral setting (like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey) were recorded.
To conclude:
Mr. Wilson raises some interesting questions but underneath it all is a fundamental question – is Scandinavian socialism the answer? Any system that is based on a collective and subjugates individualism to some form of State prescribed modus viviendi has no place in a society that values individual freedom.
Thanks for the perceptive commentary. It's amusing to see Simon Wilson implicitly praise lack of "competition among schools" and the fact Finland has no lists of “best schools”. Each year of Simon's five-year tenure as editor of Metro (from 2011 to 2016 roughly) he published a comprehensive list of Auckland's "Best Schools" using an idiosyncratic "value-added" calculation that saw academically poor schools in South Auckland judged to be the city's best — much to the amusement of its pupils (and others).
Also, it seems odd to praise Finns for being open about their feelings. ('They tell each other how they feel ('Fine,” is not the right answer to a routine “How are you?”)'. Finns are notoriously taciturn and reluctant to show their emotions. My experience is that they abhor small talk, so you'll be lucky to get any response at all to a routine “How are you?”
Only one of many comments - but given Copenhagen is 1/7 the size of Auckland it's possible that cycling is more practical there. It's a shame Simon - who has some good ideas - doesn't make any attempt to 'balance' the books...