A review by rujein
The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen

informative medium-paced

• American policies are skewed to create relationships of dependency between different parties: spouses of a couple, employer-employee
• Women are dependent on men because family policies are weak, women who are taking care of their children must depend on their husbands
• Employees must work excessively because they  depend on their employers for healthcare. Don’t find this convincing: many countries offer public healthcare but employees still work excessively.
• Swedish theory of love: authentic love and friendship are possible only between individuals who are independent and equal. —> Nordic nations make policies towards a single goal: to ensure independence, freedom, and opportunity for every member of society
• Author dismisses the argument that such policies work only in Nordic countries because they are homogenous, arguing that such policies may have emerged in a specific context but can still address challenges of other nations. 
• Good quality of life, worker satisfaction and health, economic dynamism, and political freedom and stability are all interconnected.
• From the perspective of implementing the Nordic theory of love, focusing on the family is a mistake. A family will not function well as a team unless it is first composed of strong, self-sufficient individuals
• American family policies means more “supermoms” with high positions, but overall lower female labour force participation after age 25
• Various studies show that the ideal arrangement for women’s careers seems to be paid parental leaves that are generous but not too generous (less than two years or maybe even less than a year), sharing of parental leave and reductions of working hours with men
• Education can be addressed by a demand approach or a supply approach. Demand approach treats education like any other good, and parents will send their kids to school when the benefits are higher than the cost. The problem with this approach is that the party who reaps the benefit (child) is not the same party who bears the cost and makes the decision (parent), which makes the child dependent upon the parent
• Writer says high level of education for all is good, but Goodman says (in his book head hand heart) that the payoff of tertiary education for individuals is decreasing and it’s also not what society needs.
• Nordic kindergartens do not educate. They are of uniformly high quality, and teachers are highly educated.
• “School readiness” means that the school has to prepare for the students, rather than the other way around. Teacher selection and training are rigorous. Countries that perform best in PISA are those who invest most in their teachers. As a result, schools can be given more autonomy.
• Schools give extra support to students who need it, circumventing the inequality that arises with private tutoring.
• Healthcare insurance system based on employers greatly increases employees’ dependency on employers and cause them to stay with jobs that they don’t like, and causes spouses to be dependent on the working spouse.
• Section on healthcare seems to be criticism of America’s system more than anything and, given that it’s an easy target, not clear how the nordics are outstanding. Things like public healthcare and regulating drug prices are things that most countries already do.
• Social mobility without social investment is not possible.