Partanen moved from Finland to New York, married an American, and found herself suddenly anxious in ways she never had been — about health insurance, about childcare, about student debt, about what happens if a job ends. Her argument is that the Nordic model isn’t about generosity or collectivism at all; it’s about independence. Universal healthcare, childcare, and education mean that no adult is financially dependent on a spouse, a parent, or an employer, which is a more thoroughly individualist arrangement than what Americans have. She’s specific about costs and outcomes and honest about what the Nordics get wrong, but as an America reader, the mirror she holds up to the US is sharp-edged.
The Nordic Theory of Everything