Norway Named Best Nation to Live In (So Says the UN!)

Reuters ^ | Nov. 10 | By Evelyn Leopold

[divine_moment_of_facts]

UNITED NATIONS (Nov. 10) - Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden rank as the best five countries to live in but Africa's quality of life has plummeted because of AIDS, said a U.N. report released on Thursday...

[CBF]

Norway's a great place to live... unless you live here. Taxes are a bitch, and I'm not kidding. 36-45% income tax, 58% minimum tax on capital gains, 25% sales tax, and I COULD go on and on. Yeah, great place to live. Did I mention anti-business, sorry forgot about that one. However, if you're really rich, you can afford to live here and export your earnings to a more favorable climate, then of course I'd agree with the U.N., which probably interviewed people in the later group. Of course the place is frozen 6 months out of the year, so if you like short days, long winters, fridgid temperatures and women, 3 month growing seasons, why yes, by all means... move to Norway.

[PGalt]

fjordman on Norway here...
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/07/norwegian-authorities-still-covering.html

[NotSoFreeStater]

Not much diversity in those countries. I thougth diversity was strength?

[cyclotic]

I have some friends that were just there. They barely ate anything because a hamburger in a restaurant was pushing $20.00. Yup, I wanna live in Norway.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Cold and your choices for dinner are Seafood or Seafood..

I've been to Norway and Iceland.. You couldn't pay me to live there!

The UN should be paying more attention to their corruption rather than taking bias polls.

[yankeedame]

However, if you're really rich, [and] you can afford to live here and export your earnings to a more favorable climate, then of course [Norway's a great place to live]...

LOL! Well, heck, if you're really rich and can afford to export your earnings any place is a great place to live! Sort of like anyone can wear today's fashions... so long as they're slim, young, good looking, and rich.

[at bay]

Anyboday got a link to the straight list?

[I still care]

I sent someone in Norway a $2 VHS video years ago I sold on ebay. He had to wait on line hours to get it, and they had to search it and charged him a $15 fee for unwrapping it.

He told me that's what Norway is like. It doesn't sound like paradise to me.

I pointed him towards FR.

[XavierXray]

Wow, 45% income tax huh?
and 58% on capital gains?

I say it's about time you called your local "skate etat" because those numbers are false.

Anyways;
Free health care.
One year paid maternal leave
Free schools.

OH and if you own a ...lets say publishing company, the 3% tax is going to kill your business of for sure!

your pants are on fire btw or where you talking about wealth taxes above 580.000krs? oh wait thats 0.4%... Yup socialists do kill the economy all right! GNP Per capita..... oh..... damn socialist lies that GNP system!

[WesternCulture]

I seldom do this on FR, in fact I seldom do it at all, BUT:

I have to put my foot down on this.

Norway has a larger Nominal GDP/Capita than the US, which is indeed a very rich country, but enjoy this:

Norway even enjoys a higher GDP/Capita by Purchasing Power Paity than the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Is it all about oil?

No. In that case Libya would've been just as prosperous.

[WesternCulture]

"I sent someone in Norway a $2 VHS video years ago I sold on ebay. He had to wait on line hours to get it, and they had to search it and charged him a $15 fee for unwrapping it.

He told me that's what Norway is like. It doesn't sound like paradise to me.

I pointed him towards FR."


Hi,

The same thing has happened to me 3 times the last 63 weeks.

[XavierXray]

Well it really isn't a very fair way of calculating since Norway has a huge national income (mainly oil of course) and a very small population.

The US is still the largest consumer in the world and is without a doubt the most important factor on the world marketplace.

Your low housing prices these days worry me though, when that credit build up is maxed and the house euphoria ends....ouch!

[RodgerD]

Norway is a very nice country in which to live, but I think the rot is setting in, beginning in Oslo, owing to the Norwegians' inexplicable decision to make Pakistan its sister country.

[XavierXray]

Seeing that I'm from Bergen I don't see the problem...

[tomjohn77]

Well the UN has not interviewed people. Thats not the way they make this ranking.

[tomjohn77]

Yes go on. I am from Norway and I got out of college 3 years ago. I have a OK wage that is a little bite bellow average in Norway.
My lifestyle beats all my US friends that are from average middle class families. Most of them cannot afford an apartment for themselves. I have bought a pretty nice apartment with new furniture etc, TV, play station, DVD, digital camera and all that stuff. I have also bought a summer house in Brazil. Invested $12000 in stocks and I have a special savings account for youth that I have put in close to the same amount as I have in stocks.
Still I have the money to go out with the guys to the bars and dance clubs once a week. Sometimes we go both Friday and Saturday. Also I have a car that has no debt.
My friends from college in the US cannot afford this lifestyle by far.
My tax rate and most peoples tax rate is below 30%. 28% is the highest per cent before you hit the top bracket. From that 28% you deduct 28% on your interest on loans.
You know what the biggest weakness is about the US and the people that live there. It is that you think you are the best in everything and that makes you ignore things that other countries are better at than you. While other countries that are smaller learn from looking at what their neighbors do right and wrong. You just look inward and that is why your competitive advantages have disappear and your lifestyle is slipping compare to other rich country. Pride can make people blind.
I have a good example from my home town. I went to a great gym with all new equipment in Norway. Everything was brand new and I met this US girl that was from the same place I studied. She was great and nice, but blinded by "we are the best syndrome". She complain that the gym was so bad and that the gym she attended in her home town was much better. She complain that the bikes did not have headphones also, but they had head phones. She just didn't understand the labels. She went to Center court or YMCA. I have been to both and they had old weight lifting equipment. Atleast in this town. Probably better other places, but the point is that pride blinded.
Also she complained about the TV channels. They weren't that good. Well that might have to do with that she doesn't understand Norwegian. I can imagine that the TV channels sucked for her, but its wrong to say TV sucks in Norway.
What I like about watching TV in Norway is that the commercial don't interrupt all the time. When we watched TV in the US people often lost track in movies and got bored.

My stay in the US was educational and good. I met a lot of nice people. Very open and nice people. It is much easier to be invited home to an American family than a Norwegian. Most of the people I met was also very helpful. So I have a lot of good things to say about the average American man and women. My reply is an objective and not flavored by pride. I know my country also has shortfalls, but atleast we try to do something about it.

[CBF]

Hey Tomjohn. I live in Oslo and have done so for the last 13 years. I'm home in America twice per year for a couple of months, but live and work in Norway. I own my own business and make an above average salary. I'm taxed to death. Other Norwegians I know here in Oslo who are in the upper tax brackets also are taxed between 42-46%, many of my employees (and I have 65 of them) are taxed at 36%, so I applaud you for your lower than 30% tax rate, I know that some people are taxed at those rates, but not me.

My business does about 100 mill kr. pr. year, (15 mill) gross, and I'm dealing with the Norwegian tax structure everyday, and it's a BITCH! That's why so many business like me are looking at being owned by an international "partner", taking dividends from the company is hugely expensive. First you are taxed 28% corporate tax and then when you transfer than to yourself as a dividend, you taxed additionally at income tax rates. Yes, you can deduct your interest from Credit Cards, something you can't do in the states, but how does that stack up in the big picture??

You also have neglected to address the 25% sales tax question, or in my case the governments long arm in my wallet called arb.giv.avg. (workers tax) of 14,1% of total gross salary, 10,2 % vacation tax, and now 2% pension tax. That's a whopping 26,5% additional tax I pay on top of payroll, and as you point out, salaries are pretty good in Norway in average.

Norway's great if you're a socialist, but a very frustrating place to live if you're a social conservative like myself. Yes, the health-care system, fall net, sick-leave pay, social nannying is certainly a positive thing for many who live here, far to many by recent figures. Those of us who have to work for a living are carrying far to large a burden of those who don't care if they work or not. I agree this is not you and I applaud you ability to build a good lifestyle for yourself. But while America has it's problems -- so does Norway. And the U.N. is most assuredly giving it's stamp of approval to the Norwegian Utopian socialistic lifestyle, which would surely be bankrupt if it weren't for the oil and overtaxing.

Just my two bits, but to those of you who attacked me on this thread I wanted you to know that I am speaking from personal experience and involvement, and that I have to fight against the grain in Norway daily due to the government mostly and it's anti-business policies, plus the social structuring and "well-do'ers" turns my stomach (not that we don't have too much of that in America already). But then again, that's just me. You Norwegians can have the place I can't wait to get the hell out of here.

[tomjohn77]

Thank you for your informative reply. My dad also is a co owner of a business of your size so I have gotten some info from him too. Its true that taxes are high if you run your own company, but if you have looked at how much the rich people in Norway tax after they deduct, its around 10%. So in many ways the middle class and the upper middle class is carrying the burden of the welfare state.
You are right it should be much easier to run your own business and it should be taxed less.
Also Oslo is a hell hole. I wouldn't live there if I got 10 million kroner. i totally despise the place. Its about as bad as you can get it in Norway. While a wage of 500000kr is really good for people outside Oslo its nothing if you live in Oslo. Also apartment standard in Oslo is shocking for people that live outside the city. Its not just small, its also very poor and too expensive.

BTW I have No credit cards. Credit cards is made for fools that cant manage their economy. Also I have never been on sick leave. Stay out of Credit Cards and Oslo and you will live well as a middle class Norwegian.

I am also against all that sick leave pay. I have no respect for people that stay home when they are not sick.
Lately I have noticed that people are getting fed up with the loafers. You know that we are on the right path when even the socialists are making moves to force people into work.

[tomjohn77]

BTW 65 employees seems a little bite high for a 100 million kr. company. My dads company has almost half the employees and the same turnover.