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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   33011 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023

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Finland has a new right-wing government. It's been called the most right-wing one in Finland's postwar history, since it is headed by centre-right National Coalition, contains the right-wing populist/nationalist Finns Party and doesn't contain the Centre Party, which has been previously been in government with these two but is, as the name says, more centrist.

Essentially, the new government is combining an anti-union, austerity-oriented economic agenda of the center-right with a list of anti-immigration measures favored by the nationalists. However, while the foreign papers have mostly been concerned with the claims that the most important thing about this govt is far-right inclusion, the economic agenda comes first; the anti-immigration measures, while they probably will lead to immigration cuts, are still not as hard as , for instance, what a roughly similar coalition in Sweden has set last year.

Among other changes, a work-based residence permit would expire if an individual fails to find a new job after more than three months of unemployment. Those with a student-based residence permits would not be allowed to rely on Finnish income support, while the tuition fees of Finnish educational institutions are to be reviewed.

The annual refugee quota is to be cut by more than half to 500 people, down from the present 1,050. Asylum would be granted for a maximum of three years , after which the need for international protection should be reassessed.

In future, obtaining a permanent residence permit will require six years of residence, a language proficiency test, a two-year work history without long-term unemployment or income support, and a requirement of an impeccable record.

Citizenship rules are also to be tightened, with the minimum residence requirement extended to eight years, along with an income requirement and mandatory civics and language tests.

Insofar as economic measures go,

The four parties have agreed on many other changes to the labour market, according to STT. It says that in the future an employee's first sick day would be unpaid, unless otherwise stipulated in their collective agreement.

Iltalehti reported that – assuming the government's plans are approved by Parliament – in future it will be possible to dismiss an employee more easily, simply citing any "reasonable cause". It will also make it easier for employers to offer one-year fixed-term employment contracts without having to cite any special reason for them.

The future government also wants to expand local bargaining – as opposed to centralised national collective agreements – to cover all companies. It will also seek to curtail the right to launch sympathy strikes and politically based labour actions.

There's also two minor parties, the Christian Democrats who basically set no demands for participation and are just happy to be a part of this government and Swedish People's Party, a liberal party that watches over the interests of the Swedish-speaking minority and had considerable troubles fitting in with the Finns Party's nationalism and probably managed to prevent some of their more hardline immigration proposals from taking force.

The merging of right-wing populism with capitalism has usually not ended well in the West. It's instead in places like Denmark where the social democrats have embraced immigration restrictionism that such change has been lasting.

Sooner rather than later the white working class understands they're getting the short end of the stick economically and such a realisation will often make these marriages of convenience between mainstream right-wing parties and the populists shaky at best (Wilders' dalliance with Rutte in the Netherlands is a textbook example but there are many others).

Finland has the fortune that its left-wing parties have been less crazy than those in Sweden, so there may be a zeitgeist change even among them in due time.

I'd just add that I find it somewhat interesting that the Nordics, long a place considered hyperprogressive, is now one of the most restrictionist areas of Europe. Sweden was the final piece and Finland is the hammer to the nail. Of course, the Nordics are still very liberal on things like gender and LGBT. A very curious and non-intuitive mix is emerging.

Sweden takes roughly 100 k migrants per year. That is the equivalent of the US taking 3.4 million. We are taking fewer refugees but are being flooded in nearly every other quota. Combine that with almost no migrants getting deported.

The "right wing" economics in Sweden isn't even really right wing, it is kleptocratic. Sweden has extreme taxes on income yet zero inheritance tax, low corporate tax rates and low capital gains tax. We tax productivity to death while rewarding a rentier class. The right wing policy isn't lowering taxes and market solutions. It is to have high taxes on labour so that the government can buy services from companies. So Svensson pays taxes and companies run schools and hospitals, getting paid for each student or treatment. The companies lay off staff, bring in cheap romanian nurses and slash costs. The government bureaucracy is still in control, as it is the government buying the service with a multi-thousand page contract. The public sector is increasingly being managed by venture capital firms that barely pay taxes. Svensson still pays 50+% in taxes. It combines the worst of both systems.

low corporate tax rates and low capital gains tax

Low corporate tax and low capital gains taxes are good, they're encourage people to invest in capital. Having more factories, office buildings, etc. is good. Inheritance tax is tricky imo because on one hand taxing large fortunes going to people who did nothing to earn them directly is good, but on the other hand you're double taxing it- all that wealth was already originally taxed when the person originally earned it.

Probably the best way to target the wealthy is luxury items tax, like charging them big when they actually frivously spend that wealth on stuff like yachts or $10k bottles of wine or anything else that is very expensive but adds little value to wider society. But figuring out what items are a reasonable purchase for a middle class person or a capital investment for a business vs a luxury purchase for an elite is very tricky in practice I think and every prone for loop holes

taxing large fortunes going to people who did nothing to earn them directly is good

I strongly disagree with this. It is no business of the state to decide how anyone spends their money after death. What is the meaningful difference between giving your children $10M when you die versus giving that to a local animal shelter? The animal shelter didn't do anything to "earn" that money either. It's the decedent's money and the only reason the state can take any of it is because the owner isn't around to protest anymore. If you can't do it to people when they're alive and able to complain about it, you shouldn't be able to do it to them when they're dead and can't fight back.

It's good in the sense that any tax can be good. The state taking someone's money while they're alive to fund public necessary projects and services is good in a consequentialist sense. It's theft, but taxing someone's income so the government is able to pay a public school teacher their salary instead of that person buying a new car is good. And I think taxing large fortunes that are going to people who didn't earn them is even better than taxing income. Except for how it'd be double taxed, which does feel unfair.

I don't think there are any easy solutions to optimal taxation.

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