Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Baby Bust Threatens Finland’s Already Precarious Welfare State
Written by Michael Tennant
Finland, once proclaimed the best country in the world by Newsweek because of its lavish welfare state, is now facing the same crisis besetting all other welfare states: too many tax-eaters and too few taxpayers.
According to Bloomberg, the root of the problem is that Finns aren’t procreating enough. The Finnish birth rate is just 1.57 children per woman, the lowest since the great famine of 1868. It needs to be at least two per woman to keep the welfare state afloat, Aktia Bank chief economist Heidi Schauman told Bloomberg. “We have a large public sector and the system needs taxpayers in the future,” she explained.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/26954-baby-bust-threatens-finlands-already-precarious-welfare-state
