Posted on 10/12/2011 5:37:17 PM PDT by kathsua
Ever been to Norway? We visited it this summer. Clean cities and towns, lots of hills and fjords, very green foliage, a really pretty place. Summertime temperatures were just perfect (winters hit 35 below).
As "nanny states" go, Norway is just about the top of the heap. Supposedly, Norwegians are some of the happiest people on earth. They seem to just send most if not all their money to the government and they are taken care of pretty much cradle to grave.
We did notice some things about Norway, though, that don't immediately meet the eye; that's because they aren't there. Does Norway have any factories? Make any cars? Washers or dryers? Refrigerators? Airplanes? No, no, no and not so much. There is activity in the mining industry and some ship building, but consumer products are not Norway's strong suit.
The cost of living is very, very high there. Wanna buy a car? Sure. Buy one, pay for two. That's right. The motor vehicle sales tax is 100 percent. Those who can afford it keep a small apartment in Sweden so they can register their car in Sweden and avoid most of that tax. Gasoline is $12 a gallon. Anyone familiar with the commodities market knows that the gas is less than $3 and the other $9 is taxes. Everything is heavily taxed.
Apparently, this nanny state has moved on from just "taxing the rich" to the necessity of having to tax everybody. This should give us pause as we creep down the nanny-state trail.
One more thing, we took a bus tour that happened to go through the Oslo business district, and we passed the U.S. Embassy. The tour guide advised us there was a plan to move the embassy to another part of town, because the "appearance" of the embassy was not to their liking. This didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Even if the U.S. embassy were moved elsewhere, the building would still be there and still look the same. It has finally dawned on me why they wanted to move the U.S. Embassy out of the main business district. The objectionable "appearance" was their fellow Norwegians, day after day, lining up out the door, down the street and around the corner, applying for visas to leave Norway and come to the United States.
I liked Tromso and Bergen back in the early 90s when I got to visit there courtest of Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club.
If they don’t want to see their fellow citizens escaping, they aren’t far from preventing it one way or another.
Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands - all bastions of liberalism. One liberal I debated praised these countries for their liberalism and raved about how happy the people there are. The model in these countries is the lib goal for the U.S. No thanks.
Umm, I think there are lineups for visas at every US embassy and consulate in the world.
And here I thought Norway wash awash in North Sea oil revenue....
Except for Canada and Nappy wants to build a wall to keep the Iceback horde at bay. LOL
Isn’t IKEA Norwegian? I think they own the country.
But you are right, Canadians don't need visas to visit the US and I think immigration to the US is down.
I've read in more than one place that Norwegians have the highest per capita suicide rate in the world. The lack of sun during the long and brutal winters may play a part in that, but if they're "happy" they have an unusual way of showing it.
It is.
Export revenues from oil and gas have risen to 45% of total exports and constitute more than 20% of the GDP. Norway is the fifth largest oil exporter and third largest gas exporter in the world, but it is not a member of OPEC.Source: WikiPedia
Swedish company.
One of my neighbors is a Canadian immigrant.
He tried living in Windsor and working west of Ann Arbor but it was more than an hour drive + crossing the border. Eventually he just moved here and got his citizenship.
M, K, tnx, wasn’t sure.
“I’ve read in more than one place that Norwegians have the highest per capita suicide rate in the world. The lack of sun during the long and brutal winters may play a part in that, but if they’re “happy” they have an unusual way of showing it.”
If you’re happy and you know it slit your wrists
If you’re happy and you know it slit your wrists...
I think the Aquavit helps...
I’m sure your neighbor is a fine fellow.
I’m married to one. Great people.
Yeah, he’s one of us.
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