Did you know Finland is a future-obsessed nation? It was the first country in the world to offer a master's degree in futures studies, has a special parliamentary committee for the future, and its government is required by law to produce an official (p)review of the future every four years.

I think the Nordics feel advanced for a few reasons.

1)Big gvt. Nordic gvts will implement new technologies like heated sidewalks and online databases for healthcare. Americans don't want gvt meddling if it doesn't have to --they'd rather keep the status quo.

2)Smaller population with less variation. The populations for the nordics are like 5-12M a piece. The U.S. is 300M so it's harder to get everyone on board with changes. Plus, Nordics already have a social safety net so there aren't as big gaps in education and income amongst the population. Not true in the U.S. Look at the shitfit they had when the Obamacare website didn't work. It's a damn website, it can be fixed.

3)America spends its money on big-ass things. Americans will spend money on the military, (jets, tankers, drones, etc.) --which don't really interact with civilians if things go right. It also spends money on science --NASA, DARPA (also military). And through the US Universities which spend a lot of money on R&D. Most regular people don't interact with these institutions. The Nordics spend money on things that affect the general population --like heated sidewalks rather than trying to go to Mars.

The Americans are pretty badass when it comes to tech. The world has GPS b/c Clinton signed an Executive Order allowing it to be used by non-US military. They also have huge tech companies like Google and Apple. What America does not care about is making tech accessible for everyone. The nordics are more socialist, so will ensure everyone has internet access at some point, for example. Hence, it feels like the nordics are more adv. but it's in a diff. way.

/r/Futurology Thread Parent Link - demoshelsinki.fi