I've made a couple of business trips to Denmark in the last month. Each trip includes 1 1/2 hours of driving in each direction. We're an international group: An American living in Austria, an Englishman, an Italian, a German, and a Russian living in the Netherlands. No, we didn't walk into a bar.

We have a lot of time to chat on the drives, and the subject of exactly this law came up last week. The consensus of our international group is that this law is very sensible and just - as long as it is coming from the state and not from a private person for a social good (e.g. a private doctor saying she wants to set her fee dependent on your income - an experience I actually had and resented the hell out of). Our conclusion was exactly the same as the Finns'. A €200 fine for a billionaire would be like finding a penny on the street for me. Unless the fine "hurts," it is pointless - not unlike the penalties on big pharma and financial firms in the US.

I've worked with and known quite a few Finns, but have never been myself. It is on my wife's and my bucket list to take our Husky to Finland. It sounds wonderful and very similar to Austria. Some things in Finland sound better than Austria, like parking and the Housing First policy (although Austria does not have a big problem with homelessness). Some issues in Finland are better in Austria (housing, produce).

Austria is very social democratic, with Vienna (1/4 of all Austrian residents) having had a socialist mayor since WWII. I think that is the key and relates to your highlighted sentence near the end. "Friends, we need to take care of each other."

Austria was devastated in WWI, and then again in WWII (watch "The Third Man" to see how Vienna looked after WWII). The country was literally divided by occupying armies for 10 years after WWII.

In 1955 when Austria regained autonomy, the constitution was changed to make Austria neutral (that has been getting dangerously watered down in the last years - a subject for another day). Austrians have been very socialist-minded since the 20s, and after WWII they really came together. Like Finland, they understand that the roots of both "socialism" and "society" are the same. The result is the livable, walkable and affordable country.

With that shameless plug for Austria I'll Finnish my comment and let myself out.