Why It’s Cheaper To Have A Baby In Finland Than The U.S. 

i didn't specify that we paid for that ~ 45 € hospital trip because we needed an ambulance. So we paid only for that ambulance. 🏥 🚑💨 🏡

Impressive! The whole world must learn from the Nordics!

@@desireefantini NOT in trumpland .............

Thanks for sharing this. As a homeless guy in America, I've been given Financial Assistance too. A chance to go back to school. And a shelter. But this was Assistance from a Local City. Not the Federal Government. It really is a big difference, compared to being on my own. And working Minimum Wage. Now, I have a chance to better myself. Without constantly worrying about money.

No siis näin tää menee suomes

I'm totally agree with you Liberal socialism is the best !

Very very true! I have literally heard from a person, who I know well and respect professionally, said why should I pay higher tax to raise other people’s kids.... I was completely floored.... The user paid mentality (selfishness?) is so in grained in part of US that it’s eroding the future of America..... it’s very sad.....

Couldn’t agree more! Ultra-conservatism in the US is simply a toxic, selfish attitude. If they had it their way, we wouldn’t have a society. It would be more of a fend for yourself or die kind of situation. Such primitive thinking.

The reason why in Finland we have the completely free school system from day care up to universities and free health care and the KELA which was mentioned on the video is also supporting almost everybody from unemployed people to students and pensioners is mostly because we pay everything from the taxes. The taxes are pretty low here or at the normal western european level but I think one reason that affects everything of that is there is only a bit over 5.5 million people living in Finland. So we are quite small and happy country, altought everything turns in winter when it's cold and dark :D.

Plus you need fewer homeless shelters, mental health clinics, etc

perhaps they've evolved beyond meaningless titles..

JustNahima. In SE Europe you get 2 years.

It's 10 months about full salary but you can stay home up to 3 years without losing your job. But money you gets lower and lower this time to about 500€ a month min. If you have another child before previous child is 3 years old everything starts from the beginning. So 10 months full salary and so on.

Granted they gave you ninety days but i only get paid for 30 days, i couldn't afford to stay home for the whole three months i went back shortly after sixty days.

Wow in Canada you get at least 1 year paid maternity leave❗️Guess that’s why it was rated as the 4th best country 🇨🇦

Also, U can get off work & 90% paid for the entire pregnancy- when your dr. confirms your pregnancy (in certain parts of Canada 🇨🇦)

I know, right? They fail to realize that Civilization requires Teamwork, Coordination, Bright Ideas, and Respect. Egoism and Back-Stabbing just sets us back to the Dark Ages.

jewmerica

I so would like to list everything but dont know where to start.

I'm crying 😭😭 That's if he would ever have children considering their return on investment is so low.

Ella X he’d have children when investment is at the lowest and make the money back from youtube. And put the children into a Roth IRA.

@@AboveVenus1 and re finance it

How do we show Graham this thread 😂😂😂

I know too bad you weren't born in the Congo..

Every baby has gotten baby box since 1949 here in Finland.

Mine Aver Their school system is great too. Honestly though I’d say Finland is the best country, it is the happiest country too.

@@limeadel303 Yeah, I've seen thing or two in 30 years. Can't complain. 😊

I'm curious, what are the down sides of living in Finland from your experience, if you are willing to share?

@@toonnaobi-okoye2949 no place is paradise. Finland and the Nordics in general may be the best places on earth to live your life when it comes to security, standards of living, health, education, possibilities and freedom etc etc. However there are downsides of course. Weather for example is an issue most of the year. Also, humans tend to find problems whether they are actual critical issues or not. For example, there is no poverty in Finland, but still many think that the system has failed if it doesn't provide you with everything. Everyone has a right to have a home, food, healthcare, education and altogether equal basis of life. It's what you do with that is what matters.

@@avgplayer Hmm, insightful replies, thank you both. Now, forgive me for this question, is it feasible to live and thrive in Finland speaking only English, or one must learn Finnish and the other local languages?

sipping whisky while enjoying affordable healthcare. *sips*

And I'm waiting more false informations of us Finns and our country. Nice to know, how people know more about Finland, our system, politic, taxes and our life here than Finns :D

20¢ Iced Baby

ice ice baby

yea he's frugal, always trying to cut costs or save money

Graham will just move to Finland!

honeybdream you guys my heart is broken I have to go back to work soon and my baby will be 6 months.

christyllal I’m really sorry that you have to experience that. I wish that things could be different for you❣️I’m sure everything will work out ❤️

Yeah Canada is awesome! Speaking as a norwegian it is very similar. I guess that's why my uncle chose to stay in Canada when he married a canadian :) Also, we both have stupid neighbors hehe :p Sorry, just had to poke the swedes a bit when I could.

Same in Scotland!

Absolutely! I think people forget that the US's health expenditure is so high, specifically because it's a for-profit system.

The taxes will eat you up and you'll be living the lower middle class life in a small apartment and enjoying your 170 buck Baby box. Oh yeah, and spending a ton on heating. Enjoy.

@Aki Parviainen B.S. I lived and worked in Germany for years and the highest tax bracket starts at around 60K and lower income people pay much more than they would in places like Switzerland or the USA. Be serious. And if both the husband and wife earn similar higher incomes, there's no tax advantage. And if you earn a high(er) income, there's also no Advantage to staying at home because the maximum "Elterngeld" is 1.800 Euro. What a joke.

@Aki Parviainen Again, B.S. Taxes are the greatest personal and business expense anywhere. People in the USA and Switzerland have the highest household net worth worldwide.

@Aki Parviainen You must have me mixed up with someone who doesn't know better. People in Nordic countries don't have nearly the net worth nor the income of Americans. They don't get rich easily and the vast majority never get rich.

@Aki Parviainen I'm watching that TED talk right now and it's complete bunk. First he's only considering UHNWIs (Ultra High Net Worth Individuals) and he left out low tax countries such as Switzerland and Hong Kong. The reason why people like myself come to Switzerland or to the USA is because it's easier to make money and keep your money in these countries. But, let me ask you: are you at least modestly rich, I would say with a net worth of at least 1 million dollars? Do you own a home? Do you have passive income sources?

You didn't say what country you are a citizen of.

@@pavelow235 I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the US.

i heard stories of people declaring bankruptcy because of childbirth.

1000IQ move

You have a big brain my guy

well if USA stopped policing the world, the public would be much happier.

Bernie Will raise taxes on millions of unsuspecting Americans and make college a requirement, while doing more useless stuff with out nation's 24 trillion dollar debt

Jackson Haskell Well Trump is not doing anything to mitigate the debt by increasing military spending now is he?

I don not support trump or Bernie- simply advocating for a smaller government

@@jacksonhaskellmaine college can't be a requirement I don't think he has such plans? Traditional jobs should be more inviting in the US. You can't make college free when everyone wants to attend. In Finland colleges/universities are free but only around half of the population still go because you can have a great life being a plumber or even a cleaning lady. As long as Usa has huge wage gaps I don't see any working way to make college free because it will flood the amount of applicants. Also 'free' healthcare is a pipe dream as long as doctors makes $300000 a year lol. Wage gap would have to get sooo much smaller but it's almost impossible because huge companies have a lot of levering power on politics. I'm a plumber in Finland :D actually going to college this year as I'm getting "old" and I want a job that's less physical.

Egoism took over. Our leaders failed to set boundaries. And Abandonment replaced Support and Mentorship. Toxic people are given Free Reign. And the smart people are not even given a chance to develop, and live a normal life. Kind of like comparing Reddit to 4chan. One site is doing better. The other is a complete joke.

Pt100 you are right

USA is company with employees. FIN is a country with citizens. Simple. Pure. Elegant.

Ikr

The Make It crew visited Finland and Denmark and shot loads of interviews and footage. It’d probably be a waste to go all that way and just make one little video.

You known election is coming and american media giants are portraying a socialist counties to be paradise so that people vote for left wing government

@@anjugupta8296. We aren't socialist country. Our country is democratic.

@@MrMickRoo1 I known democratic socialsim

im from Finland and Finland doesnt spend money on military because If youre a male in finland, as soon as you turn 21 u have to take military training so u can protect and defend yourself during the event of an attack or war

and finland is politically passive

@@waleedahmed8010 Execept we are just spending 10 billion on jet fighters. And we are so equal on gender that ONLY men have conscription.

@@janesully5971 well its not that you must go to military service, and its also optional for women. And those fighter jets are almost a "must have" upgrade

Omg...

Same! $9k but of course that number doesn’t include pre natal care/post natal care. I was also very lucky that my sister is a RN and prepared me for the possibility of Jaundice. Which we ended up being in the hospital 3 days total. So in order to have a baby and no medical debt we put aside $20k. We came under budget at $18k.

@@aideegonzalez5433 did you have insurance?

I did. Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO. I worked at the time for a big global oil company and their insurance plan was one of the main reasons I worked there. I was given 6 weeks of maternity leave and I had 3 weeks of vacation saved up. I consider myself to have been a very privileged new mom. I had maternity leave, $20k saved up just for childbirth and the support of my parents. My husband and I were able to sleep 6-7 hrs, provided with homemade dinners and our errands ran etc. that’s very rarely the case that I hear of from other moms.

@Cheyenne Michelle-Rena

I don't think they recommend the babies sleep in the box *anymore*, I think that was only applicable back when mothers had no sanitary place for their babies to sleep. I'm sure most people in Finland can now afford a crib and the box has just become a staple to put various products in.

Yes our babies can and do sleep in the box. Maybe not all the time, but for example having a nap in the living room. I had a crib, but both my kids slept in their boxes for the first month. It was “cosier”. The box is designed for baby to sleep in. It has a mattress inside it.

All our five children were sleeping in the baby box the first montha. Very useful, Easy to move and making it comfortabel for the Child as the space around it isn't as big as in a bed.

Now that we have the box in Scotland, it's kind of suggested as a "take it or leave it" thing. Perfectly safe, no different to a crib, and actually really lovely because you can keep the box (along with its contents) easily as a keepsake. My work friend had a baby a few months ago, and she slept in the box for at least the first month.

That's so sad

And depressing

it sucks but unless mat leave applies the same to male parent, it shouldn't be so long that you don't feel like working. one of colleague at work just came back from a year of mat leave only to get pregnant again to take another round of mat leave. men at many companies get frowned upon for taking more than a month. females want equality but don't want equality for the benefits they enjoy.

thats amazing! six months and full pay! i got 12 unpaid weeks. I was back to work when my son was 3 months old.

Here on Finland you stay up to 3 years home without losing your job. But at some point during those years you start to get onöy about 500€ a month from goverment. If you another child before previous is 3 years old, everything resets and you get 10 months salary bound benefits again. Example if you have 3 children all with almost 3 year age difference you can stay home 9 years without losing your job. If place you work for is still around :)

well give women higher education and tell them how contraceptives work and problem solved

kids are much better investment than having half million.

Summers are really great with lot of light and not too hot. Example in Helsinki sun rises 3:54 AM and sun goes down at 10:54 PM in the middle of summer and in the north of Finland sun doesn't even go down in middle of summer. But then winters are the opposite so there is lot less light during winter and that is hard for some people. During winter in Helsinki sun rises at 9:25 AM and goes down at 3:14 PM. This winter has been quite bad in Helsinki because there had been almost no snow, usually there is maybe 2-3 months of snow in Helsinki. But all Finnish houses are very well insulated that means it's t-shirt weather inside during winter. Finnish language can be a barrier because it is very different to many other languages because it doesn't have it's root in Latin like many other languages do. Example English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese and Swedish in Latin based languages like most European languages are. Finnish people usually speak English very well at least here in Helsinki. So you can get by just by using English. But some jobs are harder get into if you don't speak Finnish. Example in IT you might be ok with just English. This is what Finnish language sounds like when singing ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1PvBsUWryCY.html and this when spoken little bit slower than normal and clearly ru-vid.com/show-UCPdUhp3L-Rxp_wigblquLtA This site will help you about learning how to move to Finland www.infofinland.fi/en/moving-to-finland this is another site that might be helpful is www.myhelsinki.fi/en both of those web sites are provided by city of Helsinki. RU-vidr called Aleksi Himself ru-vid.com/show-UCuBvl8mzPolBzPU9ju4cXsA has done lot of videos about Finland, maybe you can check those out. This channel ru-vid.com/show-UCZ2t6XXIWVbZC6R9keeiL1Q (They Talk) also has videos where Finnish and Canadian (who moved to Finland) talk about Finland and Finnish culture. They talk about odd things like Finland having most heavy metals bands per capita in the world.

Also if you live in Helsinki public transport is so good that you don't need a car. Ranked 2nd best public transport in Europe after Geneva. So that will help you money wise that car is not mandatory.

Oh and studying use to be free for foreign students. But now there is tuition fee of people outside EU. But I think studying using Finnish language is still free for international students. But that might be hardcore :)

@@wanton7306 Sounds like the perfect place to have a garden.

@@teambennett-wells962 there are some nice gardens here :)

I guess it's because Finland was chosen as happies country (where people are most content and has good oppurtunies in life) for two years in the row.

@@wanton7306 nah I think they are just lazy. Explore other countries instead of reusing stuff from millennial money. Go out and survey other places than Finland (no offense to people from Finland)

Probably because they visited finland and shot a bunch of footage there.

Hi, yes, it gets a little bit embarressing all this praising how good we have it here….but it is an expensive couintry to live in and the salaries are not that high. I have lived in many countries, Canada and USA amongst them and if I had to choose the best palce to live, no doubt it would be Canada. The quality of life in there is better trhan in Finland, in my mind. I gave a birth to my daughter in there too and the cost of it was skyrocketing as we were foreign and I had bad complications with the birth, luckily my husband's employer pocketed the bill. That was the only time I wished I was back in Finland, as the care in that hospital was very cold and unfriendly and I was in very vulnerable condition.

Carolina Calpurnia The average cost is around $1,950, with any complications adding minimal costs.

Get yo fax str8

@@kunzeny4138 in Spain??

Carolina Calpurnia yEs In sPaIn DuMmY

how is the quality of life over there? im from US.

@@yoleeisbored im 13 year old boy from finland too. Its really well here.

150 Billion people are dead, figure out how your alive before you make more humans to die

@@MoneyMan28 ?

@@speedrunsandmemes wat

@@MoneyMan28 what is your problem? Are you drowning in debt?

@@speedrunsandmemes 80% or 6 billion people live in poverty, 6 billion people will all die in the next 60 years, no one has ever escaped death, not even Steve Jobs and he had over $20 Billion Dollars at 56

Me :)

Actually, an awful lot of people from the US have emigrated there. I'm Scottish and wouldn't move because of family, but I last visited a few years ago- it's such a beautiful country. If you get the chance to go then take it!

Rohan Phadke although I’d rather not have my child born in India, that place is so sexist and homophobic

I must be that friend because I'm wondering the exact same thing

Yes you can. No matter who you are and what you do, you have similar rights. For sure our system is not ready and perfect, but equality is one of the basic things. No matter if you are a President or common person, everyone are treated the same way. Of course every time there are people involved, there might be conflicts and for sure someone might have bad experiences, but in general this is how it works.

translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=fi&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/201802032200717702&usg=ALkJrhhRWN_zEpEy2Lx-WlsoNOkCCe-dzQ

Here's one black American lady telling about her experiences of having a baby in Finland. www.cbsnews.com/news/why-finland-is-consistently-ranked-one-of-the-best-places-in-the-world-to-be-a-mom/

Me as a Finn, sometimes do wonder why so often people are rising up the question about ths skin colour. In Finland the skin colour do not mean anything do you get some service or not

How else could a video improve something other than showing possible suggestions?

We pay more taxes, that is true. But just think what we get in return. All the things we fund with taxes will not benefit directly your family or mine, but still bring a lot of positives to our lives. The various government social programs try to keep people from from falling into poverty for whatever reason: alcohol, drugs, unemployment, health etc. All that is absolutely necessary if we want to keep citizens a part of our society. Sure, paying dramatically less taxes would enable people to buy better cars or live in a bigger home. But that lesser taxation would certainly produce also more poverty, more income inequality, more homeless people, more crime, more social exclusion and dozens of other anti-social phenomena that luckily most Finns do not want see in our country. I`m happy to pay my taxes for the above-mentioned reasons as I truly appreciate what I get in return. And would never want to see our taxes cut by 10-20% because that would open a social Pandora`s box.

Taxes taxes taxes. It would be much more feasible to calculate how much you are left with in your hands after all expenses. In average, a lower or mid class home is provided with more than the same in usa

Well I'm in the highest decile and my wife is too. Income tax is about 30%. I have three children and everyone of them has done/is doing their college studies. I propably never pay as much taxes that it includes their education, health care etc.

You have your baby and the ability to take care of it yourself. Shocking concept, I know.

Well, as it has been show, I think a lot of mothers strugle. Besides, it is unimanigable that you should leave your baby at several weeks or months. So what about boundig, breastfeeding and so on. I didnt mentioned post partum recovery. It is so stresfull not to have financial support and think about it all the time.

@@Azia222 Is that what you think or has it "been shown"? Are you a mother? I worked until the day the baby came, I had an uncomplicated easy delivery and went home and started breastfeeding. I took leave for 2.5 months at full pay and went back to work ( was a military doctor, so that was what was expected and I was ready to get back). During work hours, I pumped milk for the baby to have the next day at the daycare. We had lactation rooms at my workplace for new mothers. Bonding works just fine. Even at just a few months old, babies know exactly who mama is. Everything worked out very well. Financial, emotional and other support really should be coming from the baby's father and other family members.

Swiss Lady Driver aw you’re really cute, another sour American trying to defend their failing social systems lol enjoy your baby hunny, because once it gets to school we all know your education system will fail your child as well lol that’s if a maniac with a gun doesn’t come and shoot up the place in the meantime 🤣

Swiss Lady Driver and your whole comment is REACHING. Americans live to work, not work to live. Stop being so jealous of everyone else doing it the right way 🙄

That's actually not true. We have a huge problem with the amount of elderly. For example every month the government takes 7% of my salary just to pay all the current pensions. All together I pay 22% of my monthly salary as taxes, on top of the about 60% of my salary that my employer pays. Every year the amount of elderly increases and the amount of births goes down.

But it isnt socialims.

Its not socialism. Finland is a capitalist country with very high income taxes, like the rest of Europe. Venezuela is a socialist country.

@@AB-tb7bt We don't have very high income taxes =D

k hanna Yes. Comparing what works with what doesn’t work is one way to improve things. It doesn’t always work but it’s better than sitting on your thumbs and expecting things to just get better by themselves.

@@DukeMcDonald of course we all want to improve things. but they could have compared a country with similar population which would have made more sense. finland and other scandinavian countries also have smaller land mass to distribute and run these programs efficiently. they also pay more for everyday living costs and taxes

We could compare individual states to Finland, you know.

Executive Sonda there’s economies of scale too. The US should take better care of its citizens. All the other industrial nations do

@@chelseagirl278 We are a small country, yes. But you also have to remember that the populationdencity is 16 in Finland and 33 i USA. That means USA has twice the possibility to Finland to be efficient. Still 100 years ago Finland was a rather poor country, just starting to recover from a desastrous civil war making big gaps between the socialists/communist and the whites (=let's say capitalists). And how did we manage to overcome that? By giving the possiblities to same education no matter if you are from the working class or a rich family. By building up an equal health care. That united us. And that's the way we want it to continue. That we can stand united together no matter of exonimcal status, skin colour, religion or any other matter. In a country that you feel also supports you there is no problem either to give back to the society.

Trevor Phillips yes, they’re a bit higher, but you get free college, much of healthcare, and the crime rate is much lower etc. But yeah, I don’t know, whatever you prefer...

@@torpmorp1324 More then a bit higher. Not all jobs pay a living wage here. There are 325 million people in the US. And companies don't care about you. They will fire you for no reason at the drop of a hat.

@@saulgoodman2018 here in Finland if you have worked for a company for 12 years they have to pay 6 months salary if they fire you and firing might not be that easy. How is thar there? Also I don't think if it was mentioned in that video but mother can stay at home up to 3 years without getting fired after giving birth. If another child is born before previous one 3 years old whole process starts from the beginning. With 3 children you could stay home 9 years without losing your job. After going back to job you don't have do full time for a while, can't remember how long is that but some years. During that time you can just work was it 5 or 6 hours instead of 8 if you want to.

wanton7 like I said, it’s not like that in the US. I just got fired because I showed up late a handful of time because the bus came late. In the US companies don’t care about you. If they can get someone to do your job for less and without complaining, they will.

@@torpmorp1324 The taxes are much higher.

ImForwardlook complete opposite. Almost nobody is in poverty because collectively as a society everyone is taken care of. In the US, that’s not the case. Get your facts straight. The point on taxes you make has been debunked so many times it would be futile for me to even comment on it because at this point you just don’t want to do your own research. And everything else you said was gibberish

"If cheap childbirth means living in poverty your whole life I would much rather go with the US way." What a Moron! 🤪 You really don't know what youre talking about.

@@viadia3186 Thank you, your answer is telling more about you than about me. Having lived in Finland for 46 years I "kinda" know something about it.

@@ImForwardlook You have not lived in Finland even one day if you try to claim that sort of BS =D

MORE FREE THAN americans EVER ! ............

Lmaoooooo

iVince905 Are you that ignorant? Most if not all of the Nordic countries have freedoms just like America. They are probably better.

@@koolk2269 MUCH better !. If you are without money in america. YOU ARE SCREWED, ..........................

​@@koolk2269 LOL its a joke! I'm not even American myself #murrricaaaa

Taxes are not the key here. The main point is to get rid of complex insurance schemes and expensive doctors. Being born is a perfectly normal and necessary part of human life, no matter what BS the medicare industry tries to have you believe.

Cheap births isnt the only thing you get, you also get education and all kinds of social support for, in example studying and unemployement.

Jaakko Jouppila I don’t care what I get it’s not worth a 40-52% income tax

And plus a 24% sales tax on hard goods

how cute americans struggling to defend their failed healthcare.

Almost free means you pay very little out of pocket, in comparison to the U.S. system. It's not a difficult concept to understand. Plus would you rather pay high taxes and know that you can receive medical care whenever you want or pay ridiculous premiums and copays with insurance companies and still not receive premium care?

@@ellax325 Almost free means lower cost in relation to something else. I have lived and worked in low tax and high tax countries and I much prefer to pay lower taxes instead of higher taxes. In both the USA and in Switzerland, I have chosen high-deductible plans, that means in Switzerland I may pay CHF 2,500 (highest deductible) out of pocket before my coverage starts and in the US, I chose a plan with a $10,000 deductible. I actually save money that way because in the USA, one can open a Health Savings Account with a high deductible plan and that money can be invested in various funds and grows tax-free. I've made a significant profit this way. The healthcare in the USA is the best in the world. That's no secret. I know because I'm a medical doctor and have worked in different European countries as well as the USA.

Swiss healthcare system is totally different from Finlands. It`s insurance based as it is in US, so not comparable to Finland.

@@tonioja7635 So why are all these ridiculous comparison videos being made?

@@tonioja7635 It shows that the taxes are high for low income earners.

Joka helvatin asiassa verrataan jenkkilään! Ihmettelen syvästi.

The EU has minimum standards on, for example, paternity leave: "Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that each worker has an individual right to parental leave of four months that is to be taken before the child reaches a specified age, up to the age of eight, to be specified by each Member State or by collective agreement." The EU has a larger population than US. eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019L1158&from=EN

This, people don't understand how the scale most likely would fall apart trying to apply this to such a huge country like the US. Even in Canada the population is considerably lower even though the country is quite big. The culture is totally different, much less diverse a country too, hence why I doubt this system would ever work in USA.

Having children is nearly in every European country cheaper than in the US. so size does not matter.

Excuses excuses excuses is what you Americans always seem to have

It's is probably cheaper to pay higher taxes than the US system.

a) the taxes honestly aren't even that high, b) it's a progressive system (Finland has some of the best social mobility in the world, far outstripping the US), and c) the health expenditure is actually lower in Finland (with better coverage and service) than in the US.