Vanhanen expects more state guidance of economy in 2019
Prime Minister expects greater contrasts between political parties
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Centre Party chairman and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen expects that ten years from now, all of Europe will have accepted a kind of politics of the third way, in which the state has an important role in helping guide the economy.
“Robotic cowsheds in remote rural areas would not be possible under terms set by the market alone”, he explains.
Vanhanen was the first of the leaders of the three largest political parties to visualise what Finland and Europe would be like in 2019 in a series of interviews in Helsingin Sanomat.
In Vanhanen’s future Finland, new uses will have been found for wood, with state help. Tourism thrives after the construction of state-supported high-quality transport infrastructure, with Finland having established itself as an exporter of learning. In Vanhanen’s vision, everyone enjoys freedom of choice.
Vanhanen himself has taken part in the decision that Finland remains outside NATO, along the lines of a decision that Vanhanen himself was involved in.
The Prime Minister is happy then that “no big mistakes on the national level” were made on the road of neo-liberalism.
Ten years from now the country’s PM can sit in the back seat of an electric car in a country where the level of energy self sufficiency is nearly 50 per cent. About 40 per cent of energy is renewable. “Methods of guidance through taxation have been found for energy.”
“The City of Helsinki is finally producing a fifth of its energy with renewable sources.”
Vanhanen predicts that political divisions will be more starkly ideological than now is the case, with parties showing their true colours rather than trying to please everyone.
Municipal borders, and for that matter, European borders will have less significance than before. Ordinary people can get services wherever they want.
“People in Nurmijärvi can go to anywhere in Finland, or Europe, for hip surgery, in pursuit of better quality.”
“There will be an even proportion of work-based immigrants in the different communities, and their employment level will be the same as that of the native population.”
In 2019 international rules will have been established on the financial market. Globalisation will have a guard-dog, after an Economic Council is set up in the UN alongside the Security Council.
Taxes will have moved toward the taxation of consumption, with a view to favouring labour. Differences between capital gains taxation and the highest margins will have been narrowed, but the overall tax level has grown. Life has been expensive, with people growing older, and with tens of billions having been spent on construction - under state supervision.
The full article outlining Matti Vanhanen’s visions for the future will appear in our weekly section on Tuesday.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 16.2.2009 - TODAY |
 Vanhanen expects more state guidance of economy in 2019 |
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