As Finland greys, Yle News' All Points North podcast talks to economists with differing ideas on how the country can balance growing pension outlays with other social protections.
Sanna Kurronen, an economist at the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, a right-leaning think-tank, said Finland may "end up with a system that's cutting down on schools and other types of social security networks, except for pensions."
We also hear from Ohto Kanninen, a pension expert at the Labour Institute for Economic Research, which is more left-leaning than Kurronen's think-tank. He was less worried about pensions draining the welfare state, noting that pension tax progressivity can be upped. "We can take from the rich and give to the poor," he said of the state's tools to balance public finances.
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Winds of change
News that Finland lobbied the EU to declare nuclear power sustainable has made waves. We explore new findings that onshore wind farms will blow away other energy production methods in Finland.
"We don't need new nuclear power to solve our demand, so with wind and other solutions, we don't need to add to existing nuclear capacity," Samuli Puroila, a climate specialist at Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, told APN.
Join the conversation!
This week's show was presented by Zena Iovino and Ronan Browne. The producer was Mark B. Odom and the audio engineer was Anttoni Wikström.
If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or at yle.news@yle.fi and allpointsnorth@yle.fi.
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