“In a study Suzanne Mettler asked 1,400 Americans whether they had used a government social program. Fifty-seven percent said they had not. Then she asked if they had used one of twenty-one specific federal policies, including child-care tax credits, the… — Anu Partanen Copy Share
“As I’d worked at my job and traveled and read and lived my life, I’d also decided that a woman is meant to be… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“The law on basic education in Finland specifically states that after school and homework, students should still be allowed time for hobbies and rest.” — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“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… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“In a study Suzanne Mettler asked 1,400 Americans whether they had used a government social program. Fifty-seven percent said they had not. Then she asked if they had used one of twenty-one specific federal policies, including child-care tax credits, the Earned Income Tax Credit, employer-sponsored and thus tax exempted health insurance, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, mortgage-interest deductions, and student… — Anu Partanen Copy Share
“the Scandinavians—that is, the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians—even have a literary phrase to describe this tendency. The phrase is “the Law of Jante,” and it is shorthand for a list of ten commandments created by the Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose in his 1933 novel A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks. Sandemose’s ten commandments referred to the mentality of a fictional town… — Anu Partanen Copy Share
“A family will not function well as a team unless it is first composed of strong, self-sufficient individuals.” — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“And people should be able to make choices related to their employment without worrying whether they will still be able to receive, say, treatment… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“Americans have perfected the questionable art of what Suzann Mettler, a professor at Cornell University calls "the submerged state." -- making government policies invisible… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“For in the United States more than half of fast-food workers rely on some form of public assistance to get by, meaning that American… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“One of the most important policies introduced by Finland’s school reforms was the requirement that all teachers from elementary through high school have a… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“Education became Finland’s best hope for preparing its population for a new economy based not on agriculture or manufacturing, but on knowledge.” — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
“Americans often view maternity leave as a time for a mother to recover from giving birth, and anything longer as an entitlement that unfairly… — Anu Partanen Copy Share Image
