The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life

by Anu Partanen

The core idea is that authentic love and friendship are possible only between individuals who are independent and equal.

“the Nordic theory of love.” For the citizens of the Nordic countries, the most important values in life are individual self-sufficiency and independence in relation to other members of the community.

The prevailing expectation is that every person should be able to craft his or her own life, without an excessive financial debt to one’s parents, for example, that might skew one’s decisions. There is a corresponding expectation that no one should be penalized in advance by the unlucky accident of having parents who might, for whatever reason, have less than robust finances.

As children mature toward adulthood, Nordic social policies help them depend less and less on their parents for logistical and financial support. Just a few major examples: Nordic college students are not dependent on their parents for college tuition, as university studies are mostly free of charge, nor must they later try to make their way into the world saddled with huge student loans. College students are also not dependent on their parents for living expenses; instead they receive student stipends until they graduate. Nordic young adults are not forced to move back in with their parents, because they can qualify for decent affordable housing or rent subsidies. If economic times are tough and they have trouble finding a job at first, unemployment benefits are also substantial enough for them to live on.

While Americans tend to see their government and the services it provides as something separate from them, and often opposed to them, Nordic people see the government and its services as their own creation. The well-being state is from each of us, to each of us, for each of us, and by each of us.

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.