Finland - where being a skuf became national policy and everyone’s medicated about it.
The Perfect System: Free healthcare, education, zero corruption. They built the social democracy everyone else dreams about. High taxes fund safety nets so thick nobody ever faces real stakes. Can’t fail spectacularly, can’t win spectacularly either. Just exist comfortably in your $400k apartment making $60k, paying 50%, driving the same Volvo as your neighbor.
The Products: Nokia died decades ago. No major companies since. Educated engineers producing… what exactly? Angry Birds? The famous “sisu” - grit forged in hardship - but what happens when there’s no hardship left? A nation too comfortable to notice the emptiness.
The Uncomfortable Truth: Highest antidepressant use in Europe. Sky-high suicide rates. “World’s happiest country” means “best at medicating into contentment.” They solved material problems and discovered something worse - comfortable survival isn’t meaning. Winter darkness doesn’t create emptiness, it just makes you notice it.
The Skuf Trap: System designed to eliminate risk eliminated ambition with it. Why struggle, create, risk - when you can just survive comfortably until you die? Safety over passion. Equality over excellence. Stability over everything that makes life worth living.
You got everything you said you wanted - why does it still feel hollow?