The Invetable Finnish Renaissance
Rambling thoughts on Finland's economic suicide, war-mongering leftists, and the usual Bitcoin hopium.
Finland now has the second-highest unemployment in Europe (1). Record-high bankruptcies, record-high pessimism among consumers, asset prices tanking, especially real estate. What is the government doing? They're having heated cabinet meetings about... recognizing Palestine (2).
While Finnish families lose their homes and businesses collapse, our bright leaders are locked in passionate debates about Middle Eastern borders they'll never control, signing declarations about conflicts they'll never solve. Where were these moral crusaders for the past year while Gaza was being flattened? Suddenly they care about Palestinian children when it's politically convenient for their EU career ambitions.
This is the state in its purest form: obsessed with grandiose moral posturing on the world stage while the country they're supposed to govern crumbles beneath their feet. After all, managing a collapsing Nordic welfare state won't land you that next international bureaucracy job. Of course we want peace - but these same leaders who ignored genocide for months are now discovering principles just in time for their Brussels CV.
It’s over
Aging population, unsustainable welfare commitments, rising debt, and productivity stagnation.
It won't get any better here in Finland; get that in your head: state interventions are creating only more problems than they solve. Even the most "leftist" part of the internet, "reddit Suomi" (3), is wondering why everything is so shit here nowadays.
It's also weird to see how the statist and the leftist embrace the war and ridiculous defence spending. What kind of defence would be enough for Finland? Leftists are cheering for defence contractors and the “right” is printing money for missiles. Questioning this makes you a Putinist. The system has lost all coherence.
I went to the Army in 2005. Twenty years later, I'm still willing to die for Finland - but not for this Finland, not for politicians auctioning off our sovereignty to the highest bidder in Brussels while playing war games with our future.
Their last trick is to limit freedom of speech - making everything KYC on the internet in the name of "protecting the children." Meanwhile, actual children get raped by their imported diversity, but questioning that makes you the real threat. Then roll out CBDC to control every transaction. Total surveillance disguised as safety.
It's over for the EU and Finland.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin doesn't fix everything, but it is the first truly borderless state-resistant freedom tool. Bitcoiners also question everything. Kinda cool to see 18-25-year-olds sharing Hayek and Rothbard quotes, isn't it? Not just the old Mises professors.
We have our first Bitcoin event here in Finland (organized by a young guy—huge balls to do this in Finland). Bitcoin is also an excellent gateway drug to real economics. Finnish schools teach zero economics, and universities only preach Keynesian fairy tales about beneficial inflation and wise central planners (4).
Optimism
Yes, this will take decades. The tools we have today vs Rothbard's 18th-century liberals? Pure wizardry. We still have every tool to make ourselves immune to government idiocy: invest, start a business, save in Bitcoin, and hustle. Yes, it's getting harder with CBDC and tight capital controls coming, but you simply cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. The tools are already out there.
It just shows how out of touch the old guard is. Who the fuck would start to use CBDC Euros? What value does it bring? What problem does it solve? All they can do now is design a digital prison. They are hopeless and out of touch.
Bitcoiners feel alive and hopeful because they backed the right horse while everyone else is still betting on the glue factory.
The secret of life is then that this fine youthful spirit should never be lost. Out of the turbulence of youth should come this fine precipitate—a sane, strong, aggressive spirit of daring and doing. It must be a flexible, growing spirit, with a hospitality to new ideas, and a keen insight into experience. To keep one's reactions warm and true, is to have found the secret of perpetual youth, and perpetual youth is salvation.
The old Finland/Europe is dying. Good. Let's build something better.
Sources:
(1) https://yle.fi/a/74-20175260
(2) https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/eva-suomalaiset-oikeistolaisempia-kuin-koskaan-ennen-mittaushistoriassa/9189176
(3) https://www.reddit.com/r/Suomi/
(4) https://mises.org/ go download all the books! Free! Awesome!
(5) Page 441. Quote republished in "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty," Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought 1, no. 1 (Spring, 1965), p. 22. - "Youth" (1912) - III Download here https://mises.org/library/book/left-right-and-prospects-liberty