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@ Henkipatto
2025-05-17 08:31:43Absurdities from Finland
Hydrogen, Railways, and Datacenters: Just an Armchair Economist Ranting (Expect Zero Value)
"Next year we'll have growth!" they promise. Again. And again. And again.
The "economists" who yell and preach about this are just state puppets. The track record: 17-18 years of zero growth.
Finland, 1980-2025: Real GDP growth stagnant (red) while prices still bite (blue). After 2008 Red line - 17 years of “wait till next year.” — IMF DataMapper, April 2025
Why do the experts always get it wrong? Here in Finland, everybody is blinded by Keynesianism.
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Low interest rates
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High spending
Even those I once thought had "common sense" have become blind. They mistake subsidized sectors for "growth." So in love with the state, they ignore incentives, time preference, and basic economics.
New brave Finland - Hydrogen economy (1)
Launch event: free champagne, no customers. Taxpayers pay.
“Finland’s hydrogen economy is stuttering - there’s still no real market for it, so officials insist it must be manufactured with policy decrees and taxpayer subsidies.”
“Once science has to serve, not truth, but the interests of a state, argument exists only to vindicate the approved belief.” — The Road to Serfdom, ch. 11
Malinvestment Musical. Subsidies shuffle capital from things consumers actually want, such as lower electricity prices. Healthcare that works? I honestly don’t even know; Finnish people have become lazy and idiotic.
The Cantillon effect from this “green stimulus” showers money on consultants and lobbyists first; the average worker gets the hangover in the form of higher power bills and grocery prices.
Only companies living on subsidies call it “the future.”
(Sometimes I wish I was an engineer so I could do shit instead of just whining like a proper economist. At least then I could build something useful instead of just talking shit. Even with my limited knowledge of physics, I understand hydrogen is an inefficient way to store electricity - the laws of thermodynamics don't care about government subsidies.)
Hurray, we love the railways (2)
NATO will bring investments to Finland - Hurray!
We must rip up perfectly good tracks so we can afford to move troops we can no longer afford.
War talk has clouded judgment: when “national security” is the slogan, cost-benefit math is treason. As Hayek warned, the road to serfdom is always paved with strategic necessity.
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What, exactly, is a "sufficient" defense for five million Finns? (Asking this here makes you a Russian Bot, though I don't like Russia or Putin.)
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Who decides when the price tag crosses from prudent to reckless?
If hatred of an external foe sets every budget line, freedom and prosperity shrink to the margins.
In other words, the track to “strategic readiness” can be the same track to serfdom -just painted NATO blue.
When an economy flat-lines for 17 years, nothing says “revival” like swapping 1,435 mm of track for 1,520 mm - and calling it growth.
Finnish economists and "liberalists" are celebrating this? (pics in the end, can't read that X much, it has become so idiotic).
l
The Ministry of Transport has estimated that the cost of conversion work for the railway section between Haparanda and Oulu alone will exceed 1.5 billion euros. The distance is about 150 kilometers. (ESTIMATION…)
New Brave Finland – Datacenter Dissonance (3)
Well, our little minister was not involved so bad, bad, and bad!
Apparently, the box is evil if it says TikTok, but awesome if the logo reads Meta or Google. Hey, all of them are shit, just producing brain rot and stealing our data.
Low temps, reliable grid, sparse population - Finland is a logical server-farm host (shithole). But let's call it what it is: a capital-intensive, low-employment utility business. Selling it as a "high-tech jobs boom" is wishful accounting. The politicians like to yell that these investments are "Billions and Billions," yes, but how much stays in Finland? Some construction jobs and a handful of cleaners? Fucking exquisite.
"Digital Red Menace!" Lohjalainen Harri panics about Chinese bytes corrupting Finnish soil. His brilliant plan? Pray the project fails "Lohjan malliin." Nothing says "economic prosperity" like hoping jobs don't materialize! Peak Finnish paradox: pray for investments and fumble them with bureaucracy or nationalist paranoia.
What cybersecurity threat do these server farms pose to Finland? Absolutely fucking none. The data doesn't care where it sits. TikTok videos don't turn into communist spies when stored in Kouvola/Lohja. Absurd and idiotic.
Yes TikTok is brainrot and stupid shit, you have to be an idiot to install that app on your phone, but it's consumer choice - if you want it then go for it, fucking idiot. Same goes for Facebook, Instagram, all that dopamine garbage.
The Datacenter Paradox: Finland needs investment but fears investors. It celebrates clean industry then hyperventilates about who owns the servers. Classic malinvestment by decree - politicians picking winners.
Datacenters can be fine investments… BUT let's be honest about the tradeoffs. All the value goes abroad. Every megawatt sent to datacenters is not available for households or actual productive industry. Basic economics: when datacenters consume 5-10% of Finland's electricity, prices rise for everyone else. Your heating bill subsidizes Facebook's server cooling. Another brilliant example of the invisible tax of political favoritism.
The Bitcoin Alternative No One Will Discuss: Here's the real irony - datacenters can't be easily switched off during peak demand, creating grid rigidity. Bitcoin mining farms, meanwhile, could be turned on/off based on grid needs, serving as perfect complementary loads for Finland's growing but inconsistent renewable energy (wind/solar). Miners would pay premium rates during excess generation and shut down during shortages - a genuine market solution! But no, can't have sound money solutions in Finland. Better to have Googles servers running 24/7 regardless of grid conditions than allow the evil Bitcoin to improve our renewable energy economics. God forbid we actually use a solution that simultaneously strengthens the grid, supports renewables, AND promotes sound money. That might accidentally lead to common sense, and we can't have that in Finland.
General Observations: The Finnish Decay
Finland is slowly becoming like southern Europe, where nothing gets done on time. We used to laugh at how inefficient and idiotic it is there, but it is now the same here. I got a reply from my Bank after 4-5 months of sending a message. Asking for offers? Wait 3-4 months in some cases (I had this with garbage service). Need a solid service man? Let's see if somebody is free in 2 weeks? Well, I am also becoming like this with my business; nobody even cares.
Rotting services and entertainment
Hard to imagine our restaurant industry was almost on par with Sweden and Denmark just +5 years ago. Today? How many good restaurants have quit? How many Michelin stars have we lost?
Well, how about concerts? Our biggest stadium this summer will host Iron Maiden in June and Robbie Williams in September. WTF? Even the Baltic states can attract bigger names than Finland, this is becoming total shithole in every aspect.
Why?
COVID, collapsing purchasing power, bureaucracy cancer, tax asphyxiation, war hysteria, sheepish compliance, and state dependency.
The entrepreneurial drive that once built world-leading companies has withered. Why innovate when bureaucrats decide winners? Why take risks when failure is punished extremely hard (lifelong debt prison, and shame) and success is taxed away?
The result: economic stagnation rationalized as "social stability" and "equality."
Economic literacy has collapsed. Even the economists here don't grasp the basic concepts, so how on earth could the average citizen? The scariest part is that they don't even care. They've outsourced their economic thinking to the state, the same way they've outsourced their responsibility and risk management. The blind leading the blind, straight to economic mediocrity.
The Finnish Decay: When Will We Say "Enough"?
It would be a good idea to write a book in a similar style to Lawrence Lepard's Big Print: What Happened To America And How Sound Money Will Fix It.
Make readers mad! Advocate for hard money and small government.
Problems? and What's next? Recession 1990s → Nokia Mirage → Euro‑Zone Handcuffs → GFC & The Silent Depression → Everyday Decay → Complete state dependency or get mad?
A glimmer of hope: Despite the lost decades, there's a spark in Finland's youth. They hustle and show more entrepreneurial spirit, saving habits, and investment interest than their parents.
In 1999, we were a top country in education, technology, healthcare, and debt contracted on top of that we were one of the safest places to live, we didn’t lock the bikes and even the doors…
Now look at us?
When will Finns wake up and say enough?
As Hayek warned: "A movement whose main promise is the relief from responsibility cannot but be antimoral in its effect, however lofty the ideals." We've outsourced our moral obligations to an impersonal state, weakening "both the willingness to bear responsibility and the consciousness that it is our own individual duty."
We need a hard money and personal responsibility renaissance.
Coming soon: "How Sound Money and Small Government Can Save Finland From Its Slow-Motion Suicide"
News and sources:
I recently finished reading F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" (1944). The similarities between Hayek's warnings and Finland's current course are striking. Europe and Finland are ramping up defence spending to ridiculous levels, now even talking over 5% GDP levels, which is total insanity. What would be enough for defence? We have little freedoms left here in Finland (and Europe), and in pursuit of “security,” we might lose it all. Central planners who believe they can direct an economy better than market forces are just clowns, from hydrogen to datacenter politics. What market forces have we left in Finland? I can breath freely? Soon that will be taxed too. Next we have CBDC coming up in EU.
I highly recommend reading "The Road to Serfdom." Its analysis of how good intentions lead to economic ruin remains as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1944. I feel like a total idiot for not reading it before.
Read 27 books so far this year, thx for Jack Dorsey “reading challenge” I started this in March, aim was 50 book but now we aim to 100, so fucking good to read books!
New brave Finland - Hydrogen economy (1) ://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000011199663.html
Railways (2): https://yle.fi/a/74-20161549 and https://yle.fi/a/74-20161793
Datacenters (3): https://yle.fi/a/74-20160436
Hope its not russian or Chinese? Harri (4) https://www.hs.fi/suomi/art-2000011229295.html
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