Professor of civil law Urpo Kangas has turned his attention to a discrepancy in Finnish economic practice. Society’s resources are thin on the ground for costs arising from population aging. At the same time, the elderly are accumulating income of their own.
“For some reason the post-war generation behaves especially thriftily,” Kangas says. “They do not use their money to better their own lives.”
Services with savings
Kangas says that people should question the size of the inheritances they want to leave future generations.
“We should develop mechanisms to ensure every generation’s right to spend their money on themselves,” he urges. “It would be wonderful if couples in their twilight years could call up one business or another and say, come clean our windows or cook us a feast, we can pay for it.”
Just some decades ago the children of elderly citizens were required by law to pay for their parents’ upkeep.
“It’s astonishing to realise how quickly Finns have forgotten that we have a duty to other human beings,” Kangas says.