Friday, March 11, 2011

America and Finland

I love living in Finland. Compared to America it is the tops. I am not saying living in America sucks, but it does when you are poor. Being poor in America is a highly degrading hopeless experience. The possibilities are slim to none to succeed and you are blamed for not working hard and ceasing opportunities that are seen to sprout up like mushrooms after a perpetual rain. Now the environment is a little more understanding because the recession hit everyone. For once it was okay to be poor, people understood. The recession was everywhere and it was now the fault of the recession that you were poor, not the fault of your own laziness. I am here to tell you, these troubles did not come about because of the recession, the recession just brought to light the problems America's poor had been having for about a decade or so. The recession took a long time to reach the middle class the poor were screwed for years.

What of the American dream? Well, it is just a dream and has been less and less to do with reality over the years. We had little to no hope for the American dream. For years we scraped by barely making ends meet, frequently relying on food banks and the kindness of friends. It was humiliating and we were judged. Why weren't we working for a better life? Why weren't we improving our lot through job advancement and education? Why weren't we saving money? We did not have enough money for an education, we were ineligible to student loans, there is no student aid from the government, FYI, just loans, think about it. We could not get better jobs because of lack of degrees and in my case lack of a legal status in America. We were not saving money because there was not enough. We went out to eat maybe once every two months, if that and I am talking about McDonalds, and we never went to the movies or anything. Having a computer with internet access was our only form of entertainment that cost money. It was all we could afford and it was the only way to have a social life having no car. There was simply nothing to cut to have more money with out making our lives absolutely bleak. Our only hope was a sudden stroke of luck of a better job or a promotion for my husband. Those things never seemed to materialize, it was like playing the lottery. We still did not have the decency to be miserable. We were able to find fun and entertainment and love each other despite all this and it made people angry who felt like poor people with no real hope should be unhappy.

Now we are in Finland and we are able to work toward the American dream. I do not care what some people say, Finland is a wonderful place to live. My husband is getting free Finnish education in a great school. He is also finally getting his numerous and potentially life threatening not to mention painful dental problems cared for. That would have been an impossibility in America. My son is getting free dental and health care just for being a child. He will have the opportunity to partake of the best education system in the entire word for absolutely free. I am going to be able to get trained for a job and actually work and earn money. Same goes for my husband but first he has to learn Finnish. We are on basic subsistence aid. When they say basic subsistence they mean subsistence, not barely scraping by and wondering what you are going to eat at the end of the month aid like in America. With it we have enough money to actually budget to get a saving account and put a little bit aside every month for surprise expenses and the like. We are no longer hopeless and scared, now we can eat real food and not have to improvise from food pantry discards. We know that if we work hard and cease opportunities we can move up. The American dream is alive in Finland. My vote counts. I can write to political parties and get prompt, non-form letter responses from people that care enough to respond to my actual inquiry and act as if my vote and opinion counts. This is so different than America. What ever people complain about Finland are spoiled and don't know how well they have it. Sure there are problems which is why I will vote and work to make society more like what I want it to be.

So Americans, it is not too late to move to a better country. Has America left you an empty hopeless shell waving the red white and blue sobbing quietly as you face homelessness, unemployment and the hungry hollow faces of your children? It is not to late too emigrate. Take your cold hungry unemployed butt to the library, find some info on a country you would like to live in more and sell what little you have and get a passport and get on out of there. Your family's future depends on it. On the other hand if you are doing well and you have made a profit from the recession investing wisely and buying a cheap house someone was evicted from, I salute you. Help a poor, unemployed neighbor move out of the country to make a new start somewhere else and stop being a drain on the country’s poor resources. Sure the recession is supposedly over but tell that to the poor, they feel no real difference. Soon it is back to being judged and not having the understanding of those around them blaming it on the depression and not their own laziness.

12 comments:

  1. It is excellent that you are doing better. When did you and your family move (in your case, back) to Finland?

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  2. I wish I was born in a country like Finland ;_; Speaking of which, how tight are their immigration policies? Is Finnish difficult to learn? Could the average American adapt easily?

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  3. The immigration policies are really easy to understand and the bureaucracy is a lot easier to slog through. An America, I think kaiwen you are one, has no problem. My husband is American so I know that you could just travel here, no problem with a passport, no visas ahead of time and get a three month tourist visa. Then we get into the hazy territory because you need some sort of an excurse for asking to stay longer and my husband's was being married to me. I know that getting a a position as a student in an university is a pretty good deal for staying.

    As for the language, it is as hard or difficult as any other. The problem is that it is not related to English in anyway so there is a lot of new stuff to learn. But the good news is that most people here speak atleast some English and many even very good english.

    My husband adapted just fine. The people are a little different, more cautious and stand offish than Americans, that is something to get used to. They are often quite friendly when approached but they rarely aproach. I think that is the hardest part other than the obvious geographic issies of cold dark winters and ridiculously long days in the summer.

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  4. Doesn't Finland practice conscription? Did your husband have to go into the military when he came there?

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  5. Yes we do and no he does not. He is too old and not a citizen.

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  6. Looking back and reading this again, this post is probably some of your best writing. It looks good enough to be an editorial in a newspaper. An American newspaper would eat it up!

    I have a proposition for you. What if I submitted this post to my local paper; Newsday, on your behalf? It's the largest suburban newspaper in the US and they are always looking for opinion columns from readers. I guarantee they would love to see an article written by a foreigner who has lived in America discussing the current state of the American dream.

    Please consider it. I don't want any credit or money, I just thought that this would make a great editorial. My E-mail is in my Blogger profile (click on my name)

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  7. I would not mind you submitting it. The only problem is I would have to edit it slightly. It is in the contents of my blog and if taken out of it I would have to qualify a few things. I will see if I can edit it a bit and send it to you.

    That is a pretty big paper you are talking about. Last paper, and only paper, I was published in was a tiny one for the Finnish immigrant community in Cananda and was free so I am not really holding out hope for getting published but I will take a look at the blog again and send a slightly tweaked version to you and you do what ever.

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  8. Im sorry. No rush but, have you gotten around to editing it yet?

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  9. Yeah, sorry dude, thought about it last week. I was going to tell you I'm not going to get to it. I am happy that you like my writing so much and grateful that you offered and I thought I would do it but changed my mind after procrastinating a long time. I think I prefer the post to stay in it's context right now.

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  10. So your OK with me publishing it unedited? or did you decide you don't want it published?

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  11. Being legal immigrant is extremely hard in the U.S. and being illegal immigrant is extremely easy in the U.S. I've been living in the U.S. for 16 years now legally, but I still can't apply for a greencard.

    At the heart of the problem is really racism in America. It was fine when English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Italians were immigrating, but now that Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, and Indians want to immigrate, they don't like that.

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  12. First, kaiwen, if you really want to, try to get it published, what the heck.

    Taylor, I really agree with you about the racism part. I was never hassled or harassed for being illegal but I am white. I could definately tell the difference between the way I was treated and the way an illegal Mexican was.

    I also agree that in many ways being illegal is easier than being legal, certainly easier than getting legalized. The problems arise when you can't get a real job, go to school, get insurance, be counted on your husband's food stamps or leave the country. You can't report a major crime that may lead to them looking at you more closely, especially in Utah.

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