In the Nordic countries, citizens know much more clearly what it is they are paying their taxes for. That translates into a clearer notion of why they have a government in the first place, and what the government’s job is. In Finland when I went to the doctor at a public health-care center, I never felt I was receiving a benefit from the government that I hadn’t earned. On the contrary, I had paid for it in the course of filing my taxes, and I also knew that if I became seriously ill, I would have earned the right to be treated by the system at virtually no additional cost to me, because my
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