If large government subsidies and stock purchases by citizens are what are required to obtain the type of free education that is available in Finland, then their level of education should have been available here in the U.S. years ago. Billions of dollars of subsidies are given to multinational corporations by U.S state and federal governments each year. Just one example:

The Export-Import Bank is subsidizing Boeing aircraft sales to the Chinese military. U.S. funds - Chinese workers. Tail sections for the 737 were made in Wichita until Boeing moved the work to a military factory in Xian, China. Chinese labor making $50 a month under military discipline.

Make no mistake, I have many more friends who work for both Microsoft and Boeing than you do. Guaranteed. And gee, thanks for pointing out the OBVIOUS -- that Boeing has unionized workers. And they are among the most skilled and experienced workers in the world. Apparently, you are ignorant and unaware of the strongarm tactics the company has used against those unions for years. In fact, SPEAA is going through yet another ball-busting negotiation with Boeing right now.

The reason the 787 Dreamliner manufacturing was done elsewhere, and only final assemblies were assigned to Everett, was precisely because of Boeing's direct desire to punish the unions. And even then, some of the assembly was outsourced to other cities and countries. And this was after the company engaged in a ridiculous bidding war on the project after saying "f*ck you" to Seattle -- its home base for nearly a century -- and moving its headquarters to Chicago. In addition to the $3.2 billion tax cut, former governor Gary Locke made a secret back room deal with the company for millions more in gifts, such as special road construction, and outfitting them with their very own lobbyist's office inside the WA Department of Trade, a lobbyist whose sole job description is securing yet more tax breaks for the company. The only reason the secret deal became public was due to the investigative efforts of reporters from the Seattle Times.

And the citizens aren't ever going to know the rest, because part of the secret deal includes allowing the company to redact any financial information it wants from documents provided to the public. Oh, and as a final slap in the face to state representatives and senators, the WA legislature is prohibited from ever rescinding any of the tax breaks, or the gifts Locke gave to the company. EVER.

Both Italy and South Carolina messed up their part of the Dreamliner and the UNION folks in Everett had to redo it all, at greater cost and significant delays, because the workers in Everett are the best. The fiasco proved to everyone that Everett should have been assigned that work in the first place. The Dreamliner roll-out was more than three years late.

One of my closest friends is a Boeing engineer and I know and care very deeply about the cr*p he and his team go through on a regular basis.