Posted on 06/04/2012 7:57:34 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
A majority of Finns want Greece to leave the eurozone, a study conducted by Finnish pollster Think If Laboratories showed on Monday.
A total of 56 percent of the 1,819 people questioned said Greece should leave the euro while 21 percent opposed the idea, and 23 percent of respondents were undecided, according to the survey.
”Finns are clearly dubious about the way the ongoing crisis is being handled. The findings are indicative of a deep distrust in Greece’s ability to manage its economy,” Juhana Aunesluoma, the director of the University of Helsinki’s Network for European Studies, told AFP.
According to Aunesluoma, ”Greece’s membership in the single currency will be costly. Finns understand that Greece’s woes will have an impact on Finnish finances as well. However, Finns seem to like the euro, but take issue with some of its members.” A separate poll last week showed that 58 percent of Finns supported Finland’s membership in the eurozone, 32 percent opposed it and 10 percent were undecided.
Already 10 years ago, many in Finland were highly skeptical of Greece’s membership in the euro and the recent findings confirm that Finnish attitudes toward the southern European state have not changed, Aunesluoma said.
Greece’s financial problems have driven speculation that it may drop the euro and return to the weaker drachma. Leaders and companies are reportedly preparing for the country’s possible eurozone exit.
Finland, one of only a few EU countries to enjoy a triple-A credit rating, was an outspoken critic of the EU’s second rescue package for Greece amid public reluctance to bail out countries largely perceived as having mismanaged public finances.
Helsinki only agreed to take part after striking a collateral deal with Athens in October 2011.
Finland joined the EU in 1995, and has used the single currency since its introduction in the eurozone in 2002.
Monday’s poll was commissioned by Finnish television station MTV3 and conducted May 24-29. The margin of error was three percent. [AFP]
If the Finns had any sense, they’d hook up with the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes and tell the rest of Europe (And Russia) to bugger off.
They could also include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Maybe Germany.
Perhaps Canada should consider expanding its empire beyond Iceland.
Unlike the easy going Greeks, the Finns are tough, resilient people who save money and work hard like the Germans.
You have to work hard if you are a Finn or you freeze to death.
Greece is like your free loading, ‘nerdowell brother always asking for a “loan”.
When I was in Athens in 1998 I noticed that the coffee shops were filled with able bodied men who sat around chatting for hours. No kidding. Guess they didn’t have jobs and didn’t seem to mind.
And Finns are apparently good drivers as explained by James May.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bmqdnx5R1U
If you gave a 10-day job to a group of Greeks, and a group of Finns....the Finns would be done in nine days. The Finns wouldn’t deviate from the plan or take excessive breaks. The Greeks? They would still be at the job site on the 14th work-day. There would be at least two hours of breaks for the Greeks mixed into the work-day. And the Greeks would likely deliver a very deviated result, with the potential for collapse or failure sooner....rather than later.
But while we do give the Finns a lot of credit....a note about them. If you gather three Finns together....they will all point themselves in a direction not facing either of the other two Finns. No eye contact between the three. They may all have known each other for five years....but they will stand a good five feet apart as they discuss things. As soon as work is done in the afternoon...the Finn will consume a fair amount of beer (taxed excessively of course). And if you had to pick the one nationality of people to be with you on a night with a blizzard underway and you might be stuck in the middle of the woods....it’s the Finn who you’d want in your car with you.
Also, Germany would not want to join such heavily socialist states as Sweden and Norway.
Latvia and Lithuania also probably would not join (more likely Lithuania not joining while Latvia would)
“You have to work hard if you are a Finn or you freeze to death.”
I read a similar observation years ago about things as basic as eating; it was a theory that Europeans had come to prominence because they had to struggle more than people from warmer climates (with multiple crops each year). One hole in the theory is that if it was just about food China would have had settlements all over thousands of years ago.
“if it was just about food China would have had settlements all over thousands of years ago.”
Yes, you know climate must have an impact on economic prosperity. Just go to Hawaii. When it is 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity you will not be rushing to the next meeting. (The other Islands similar to Hawaii but not in the US are all impoverished.)
In terms of China, I think I remember that the Chinese have a view that they are the “middle kingdom” or the center of the civilized world. The rest of the world isn’t worthy of Chinese culture, so they don’t go over seas to establish colonies.
I heard a different take on Hawaii; it related to how easy it was to simply knock your food out of a tree with a stick, so there was no need for much improvising. I’ve never been there, so I can’t speak to it myself; I know military people who were glad their children were in separate schools because of a mindset there.
“simply knock your food out of a tree with a stick,”
Yes, I don’t think that people starve in tropical island nations since the fruit and fish are comparatively easy to obtain.
But, if you get away from the tourist places the people live in shacks and have no concept of working hard to amass wealth for their family. The standard of living is really low.
Also, I guess the anti-white racism in Hawaii is really bad for white kids in the public schools. There is tension between the military and the native Hawaiians over race issue apparently.
White people in the mainland US have no idea what racism is like. We are puzzled by complaints of racism since we don’t suffer from it (assuming you are white). But, the white kids are sometimes ostracized at school.
I'm all for restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Lithuanians may be less so, however.
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