Work, home and beauty to all

I was at the Alvar Aalto Museum here in Jyväskylä the other day when these words called to me: "Work, home and beauty to all". These words are the premise of the Scandinavian model of welfare, inspiring the Swedish Folkhemmet (House of the People), and spurring the productivity and success of Nordic industries - particularly the Finnish design industry.

In this phrase 'work' is in first position, meaning that home and beauty comes afterwards. Of course, if we look back to Adorno and Horkheimer (and even Mr Bourdieu) we see that particularly 'beauty' was a way of inspiring 'work' and the workers. In today's stagnant economy 'work' is now beautiful, hopefully providing a home to all.

Something to Mill Over

While I was busy reading articles on the screen today I suddenly remembered the fate of the paper mill workers, particularly is I happened to save too much paper. So I started printing everything out single-side... and now I feel much better.