Yeah i agree this may be the case in most of (western/southern) Europe (including Finland, albeit geographically Finland is not neither in the western nor southern Europe).

Somehow I feel Estonia and maybe Poland nowadays have that positive "yeah let's do it!"-spirit that Finland maybe had momentarily in 1995-2005 or so, ie. people are hungry for success and doing hard work. In Finland (and many other EU countries) it is more of apathy like "Oh how I wish I'd reach my pension already, how many years still?".

Or the recent basic income discussion in Finland (a certain amount of money, e.g. 500-800€/month, would be given to all citizens, on top of which they'd have their other income, from work etc.), quite many have pointed out that you can't live comfortably with that kind of money, and the basic income should rather be something like 1200-1500€/month.

They are completely missing the point. The point of basic income is not to live comfortably without having to work at all. In fact, it should be expected that you have to work at least somewhat on top of that, to make the ends meet. The point of basic income is to make sure that doing work, even low wage job or temporary work, always makes sense and isn't counterproductive to you (as it would cut some benefits you are receiving for your unemployment etc.). It also cuts much of the bureaucracy with the social welfare system etc., saving money that way too.

Definitely agree with that, they are not the same thing. Sweden could benefit from being more nationalistic, I genuinely believe it would reduce unemployment and other social problems.

Yeah, Romania has gotten a real bad reputation thanks to a small minority of people. It feels like certain people in Europe somehow expect Romania to control all of its people, what they do in Europe and where they can go in Europe. When Swedes behave badly abroad nobody expects the Swedish government to start controlling its people more, its bizarre reasoning.

Figures there are two Americans in here fighting with each other. XD

LOL, I guess that counts as a negative trait

I... don't quite agree (and I wouldn't expect Germans feel that way either?).

I don't find Finnish politicians particularly dumb, at least not most of them. And not usually that opportunistic either. Ok there's Paavo Väyrynen who is an opportunistic weasel and a walking joke for many decades already, but I said most of them.

What mostly irritates me about (Finnish) politics is that almost all seem to have some kind of semi-hidden agenda. The party is always for or against something, and they won't sway from it even if it is clearly stupid in some cases.

Like some leftist parties always see employers and people with higher income as some kind of enemies. Or the green party will always push solar or wind energy (in Finland, go figure), and won't even discuss about nuclear energy (in order to lessen e.g. CO2 emissions). Or the Kokoomus (slightly right-wing) party demanded that private hospitals should get part of the public health care system which is funded with taxpayers' money (I guess they wanted to please high-income doctors in the private sector and the owners of those private hospitals). Or the Center party in government says everyone will be targeted for cuts now... except farmers of course (farmers and people in rural areas usually vote for the Center party).

In a way, maybe I'd rather have a "caretaker government" without any politicians, if they could really work without any political agendas and always try to find the best solution, whatever it is. I hate how easy it is to see the true motives behind different parties' demands and decisions.

Same here really.
Most, if not all, politicians in Sweden come from the upper-class.
To my knowledge its pretty much the same in most countries.
People are attracted to the level of confidence and power they exude. They are articulate and wear a nice suit.
Here, politicians exceed at pointing out the obvious while making it seem like an intellectual accomplishment.

it wasn't a general statement about _all_ politicians, but the fact that there are _some_ politicians who talk so incredible stupid nonsense that you wonder how the heck they even got there and why people are even listening.
And imo examples of that curios species pop up everywhere :)

Once borders got open for us to work in other countries, everyone wanted to do that mostly because salaries difference. For the same work, you get payed 10 times more in a bigger country than in Romania. There are many Romanians that work in Spain, Italy, Germany, and they are good working people.
But, many thieves go in those rich countries in order to steal too. And i think it's a cultural thing too. We kinda got used with thieves around here. Whenever i'm in crowded areas i take care of my wallet, ladies keep their purses in front of theirs. Even if i personally never got mugged, i know that there's a possibility, while more civilized countries are not mentally trained for these kind of things, so they might be easier targets.
Gypsies are a problem inside our borders too. Some of them don't really want to be integrated into society. They don't like working, they prefer stealing and getting their social help from Government.

I personally don't find this thing as a trait, as things should evolve. Romania got into European Union rather early, and there's still a big difference regarding living conditions here compared with more civilized countries, but we're getting there.

Well, Germans have a history of being nazi about it. ;)

Anyway, it was a joke, and i'm fully aware those two things aren't the same. But personally I don't see much use in attributing individual traits to a whole group of people and acting like these traits somehow come natural to them by birth or something. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging where you come from, even appreciating it, and respecting history, culture and tradition. But people do tend to become boastful and jingoistic pretty quickly when they set too much store in their nationality. And I have met individuals of my own nationality that were more alien to me than individuals from the other side of the world.

Something I don't like in Germany apart from all the bureaucracy, is that enviousness always seems to be stronger than solidarity, and that people would rather kick down then challenge authority (is that how you say it in English? like that expression "to crawl to the bigwigs and bully the underlings"). People would rather that noone gets anything than having to share what they get. If they see one group fighting for their rights or even succeeding, rather than getting inspired to improve their own situation in the same way, too, they complain that the other group should be just as miserable as they are themselves instead. They are quicker to say "you don't deserve that because I didn't get it that easily either" than to say "I'm glad the situation has improved so that you didn't have to go through the same shit that I had to go through". They don't say "we want the same as this other group", they say "take it away from this other group, because we don't have it either". But then again, I assume that this attitude is common in many parts of the word and rather a bad human trait than to do with nationality.

A real American knows that our greatest flaw is being too free. All the other countries must be soooo~ooo~ooo self-conscious over their lack of freedom compared to ours. They shouldn't feel too bad, though. We are, after all, a country that formed as a bald eagle and Jesus consummated their love on top of a pile of AK-47s and Philly cheesesteaks while Betty Ross watched. Greatness was our destiny, and anyone who says otherwise should be deported back to a third-world country like Europe.

***

(Yes, I know everything that's wrong with that.)

Of course not about ALL politicians. The "stupid ones" are needed as a mere distraction. We have bunch on clowns here in Russia, so the common fold could discuss them and don't think too much about coming economic disaster.

Befriending of and alliances with warmongering criminals (USA, europeans), betrayal of own kind and kin, people two-faces and people two (even three) timing EVERYWHERE. Other than that, foreign "lust" and left wing, cancer-spreading brain tumor. Nothing much, really. Just the stuff that can ruin a country completely and doom it, once and for all, in barely enough quantity to begin the chain reaction; as well as national integrity, safety and prosperity. Prosperity already gone, anyway. Next...!

I agree with all your points, this one in particular. I know that I'm bad at blowing my own trumpet (figuratively) unless I am 100% sure that I know the tune perfectly, and then kick myself for a week if I so much as miss one note.

Another thing I dislike about Finns is that they are a really jealous bunch. The sort of people who don't aspire to success because they are too busy praying for misery to someone that they would like to be. The sort who point at a nice house, saying not "one day I'll live in one of those" but "one day I'll have them out of that". The sort who say that they would welcome migrant workers and then give them a flak for "taking our jobs".

there are 80million Germans. And everybody feels a little different about it ;)