Wednesday, August 25, 2010

We're #11...We're #11...We're #11...Finland's #1...Finland?!?

Raise you hand if your favorite vacation destination is Finland...your favorite cuisine...place you most wished you could live...favorite anything...! How the hell did Newsweek in it's infinite lack of wisdom come up with Finland as the world's...the world's BEST place to live.!?! What were the ground rules...longest winter, best Reindeer on Rye Cheese Steaks, & highest suicide rates?!? I have nothing against Finland, it's people, culture, etc...but for Newsweek to rate it as #1 is INSANE. Why they may have some good things going for them...they have plenty of less then awesome...such as...

  • Some of the longest & coldest. Especially in northern parts of Finland you can find snow on the ground for 90 - 120 days each year
     
  • One of the world's highest divorce rate 51.2 %
     
  • High taxes - median 60%
     
  • High VAT tax of 22% on top of taxes  
     
  • Alcoholism is a major problem & possibly the highest % in the world. So bad that they keep raising taxes on it year after year to curb it...& it has yet to work (you taking notes here Big O? If you want to model us on Europe stop thinking France or Germany...think FINLAND!)
     
  • In 2008, the OECD reported that "the gap between rich and poor has widened more in Finland than in any other wealthy industrialized country over the past decade" and that "Finland is also one of the few countries where inequality of incomes has grown between the rich and the middle-class, and not only between rich and poor."  

Wow sign me up! I'm betting they don't have Barbaric immigration rules like Arizona either! Plus all the best music (name one band) literature (name a book), cuisine (ummm...ummmm) is coming out this Utopian wonderland! Well what are you guys waiting for?!? Finland is the American dream! The only two things Finland is really missing are ( & for all I'm concerned they may have...)

A super awesome well written hip to what's happening weekly magazine with well researched thought proving articles like NEWSWEEK...& a new God to rule over them...I mean how can the world's greatest ruler of ALL time in ALL of history waste his time ruling a second rate bunch of states when he can rule the greatest place to live in the world... the Atlantis of our time...FINLAND!