---
title: "Cut taxes on work, curb the waste | Ville Valkonen, Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 172"
titleOriginal: "Työn verot alas Tuhlaus kuriin | Ville Valkonen Heikki Vestman | Neuvottelija 172"
episodeNumber: "172"
guest: "Ville Valkonen, Heikki Vestman"
datePublished: 2023-01-27
duration: "45:44"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["finnish_economy_policy","ownership_capital_tax"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The episode was recorded during the 2023 parliamentary election campaign with both guests standing as candidates, and no opposing voice is present; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states that."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/254-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-ville-valkonen-heikki-vestman"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep172-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-valkonen-vestman/
---
# Cut taxes on work, curb the waste | Ville Valkonen, Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 172

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=0s) Intro
- [00:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=31s) Introducing Ville Valkonen and Heikki Vestman
- [01:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=61s) Where has the government failed
- [04:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=275s) Why income tax specifically should be cut, including in the upper brackets
- [09:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=565s) The value of extra work by people already employed
- [10:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=605s) How the National Coalition would reduce the government's spending
- [13:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=810s) The inevitability of the next government's consolidation task
- [17:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=1030s) The importance of growth
- [17:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=1055s) Regional effects
- [20:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=1240s) Cutting red tape
- [23:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=1417s) How the energy crisis should have been solved in Finland
- [36:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=2200s) Why Marin's bloc-election move was a mistake
- [39:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=2345s) The government's unfocused EU policy
- [44:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=2643s) Valkonen on Varsinais-Suomi themes
- [44:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=2686s) Vestman on Uusimaa themes
- [45:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU&t=2718s) Outro

## Summary

National Coalition MPs Ville Valkonen and Heikki Vestman argue that the term's greatest failure is not only the money handed out but everything left undone. They propose 8 to 10 billion euros of consolidation over two parliamentary terms and a billion in relief on the taxation of work, because marginal rates destroy the incentive to take on extra hours. Vestman sets out the electricity crisis remedies in unusual detail, from a lower technical price cap to demand flexibility. Recorded during the 2023 election campaign, with both guests as candidates.

## The tax argument, stated precisely

Not that average tax is too high but that the marginal rate on extra hours removes the
reason to work them. That is a narrower and more testable claim than the usual one, and
the billion euros of proposed relief is sized against it rather than against the total.

## The energy section

Unusually concrete for a campaign episode: a lower technical price cap and demand
flexibility rather than consumer subsidies. Whether it would have worked is arguable; that
it is a mechanism rather than a slogan is not.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Työn verot alas Tuhlaus kuriin | Ville Valkonen Heikki Vestman | Neuvottelija 172](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt2n7ZjaxU).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/254-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-ville-valkonen-heikki-vestman).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep172-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-valkonen-vestman/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep172-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-valkonen-vestman/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Cut taxes on work, curb the waste | Ville Valkonen, Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 172, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep172-tyon-verot-alas-tuhlaus-kuriin-valkonen-vestman/, 2023-01-27. For quotes include episode 172 and timestamp.