A Finnish immigrant to the United States, Anu Partanen compares life in the U.S. with life in the Nordic region, focusing on four key relationships—parents and children, men and women, employees and employers, and government and citizens. She debunks criticism that Nordic countries are socialist “nanny states,” revealing instead that it is Americans who are far more enmeshed in unhealthy dependencies than they realize. As Partanen explains step by step, the Nordic approach allows citizens to enjoy more individual freedom and independence than Americans do.

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