Dica finlandesa para tratar do défice

Choca-me o valor do défice depois de tudo o que se discutiu. Algumas medidas de Sócrates vão no bom sentido, mas faltam medidas estruturais que possam catalizar o aparecimento de um "motor" que nos ajude a sair mais depressa e de uma forma mais consistente desta situação. A dica para esse "motor" vem da Finlândia:

"In the early 1990s, an economic crisis struck Finland. Until then, Finland had traditionally depended on the Soviet Union for up to a third of its exports. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, as much as 25% of Finland’s export trade contracts became irrelevant virtually overnight. What followed was the deepest economic recession experienced by any European market economy since the second World War, as Finland’s unemployment rate rose from around 3-4% to nearly 20% within the space of a few months. At the same time, Finland’s foreign debt was virtually exploding.

The depth of the economic crisis in the early 1990s helped create a general national sense of urgency, which helped further bolster the role of science and technology policy in Finnish economic policy. By the early 1990s, the importance of technological development for societal and economic development had become widely accepted. There was a strong consensus regarding this issue. Thus, in spite of deep cuts being made elsewhere, the funding for science and technology remained the same and even grew. Because of the widespread sense of urgency, there was little resistance to this policy, even though it largely had to be funded by reallocating funds from other purposes and, notably, from privatisation of governmentowned
companies, as the soaring rate of government debt did not permit funding through loans."
"Towards 3%: attainment of the Barcelona target", European Academies, Science Advisory Council.

Os resultados na Finlândia destas políticas são conhecidos. Porque não apostar em algo que poderá dar frutos importantes a longo e a médio prazo? Como na ciência, por exemplo.

Ler sobre o modelo nórdico e ainda ler aqui. (Sob a Estrela do Norte).