More reindeer than you can count, but none of them have a red nose...

“When you travel in Scandinavia, bring along a wheelbarrow full of money”. You’ll hear that advice, or words similar, from nearly everyone who has visited this part of the world. Heed it, because it’s true.

A patient of mine who was with the world bank told me, years ago, that the standard for measuring the economic strength and standard of living of all countries is the cost of a Big Mac, large fries and a large Coke. He said the reasoning is that of all things you can think of, there is virtually only one thing you can purchase anywhere in the world that is exactly the same wherever you buy it- the Big Meal at McDonald’s.

When we went to Finland, by his measurement, the price of the Big Meal in Albania was a smidgen over $2.00; the same meal in Stockholm was $14.25. The Big Meal was not as expensive in Helsinki as it was in Stockholm, but then a pizza at one of the world’s largest pizza chains was $3.00 more expensive in Helsinki than Stockholm- around $15.00, I think.

With gasoline selling at more than $3.00/gallon today, $15.00 is not so much money for a plain pizza. But at the time, it was so expensive we had trouble eating it!