I read an interesting article today about Finland only offering a third ‘booster’ shot to those over 60 or in a risk group:
[https://yle.fi/news/3-12212112](https://yle.fi/news/3-12212112)
This bit stuck out to me:
Currently the third dose, also known as a booster shot, is only recommended for people above the age of 60 and those in medical risk groups, who make up roughly 2.5 million people in Finland.
2.5 million people is pretty close to half of the entire Finnish population. It seems crazy to me that almost half of the country is considered to be in a vulnerable group. Isn’t this a huge burden on the Finnish welfare system?
I know that Finland is facing an aging and shrinking population ([https://yle.fi/news/3-10996754](https://yle.fi/news/3-10996754)), which follows the trend of most developed western nations. So my questions are:
1. How old is the Finnish population? I’ve heard that it’s one of the oldest in Europe.
2. Is the government doing anything to address these issues?
3. Are you worried about the demographics of Finland and the effect it will have on the welfare system?
2 comments
1. Around 43 years on average. See https://www.tilastokeskus.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html for more detailed information.
2. I suppose they are trying to do things like making immigrating for work easier. We havent seen any drastic or very effective measures though. If people dont want to migrate to the cold north or they dont want to make babies there is only so much you can do.
3. Absolutely. We are doomed and often say that the younger generations will not be able to retire, ever. Especially the healthcare system is screwed.
Yes, the population distribution is tilted towards the older side.
Younger people aren’t making enough babies for multitude of reasons, such as:
1. Difficulty finding suitable partners due to fe. unicorn standards, location, not putting in enough effort to find someone etc.
2. Also increasing number of younger people have difficulty finding “permanent” employment with a salary that would allow them to think of something else than the bare essentials, let alone a family, instead of 20 hours a week part time or whatever.
3. On top of that, housing bubble pushing prices for four walls to insane levels compared to what people earn on average.
Our government is sadly more interested in virtue signaling and pleasing the overlords in Brussels (Where the European Union HQ is located) , fussing about corona and taking on debt to send to Southern Europe and to Africa and the ME, rather than trying to fix the problems at home and then seeing how much if at all, can the nation help others.
The pension system is a big ponzi scheme where the younger generations will most likely pay more than they will ever get out, and the choice from the government to pamper certain demographics (such as retirees, which make up a huge voting pool like you brought up) and ideals (such as the “need” for constant low skill immigration to make sure there’s always enough people to work for peanuts, and patriotic people labeled as racists fe.) at the expense of the future generations and the well being of the nation is somewhat concerning.
I wanna clarify that I am not against immigration, or humanitarian aid, but like any nation, we should make sure to deal with our own problems before we take on everyone else’s.
To finish off, with all of its problems Finland is one of the best countries on earth, there is so much good in this country. I just hope people see that before its too late.