Posted on 08/26/2005 12:22:56 PM PDT by Eurotwit
Norway will top a 2005 United Nations ranking as the best country in which to live for the fifth year in a row, the head of the UN Development Program (UNDP) said on Friday.
Rich from North Sea oil and with a generous welfare state, Norway has led the world ranking since it ousted Canada from top spot in 2001. The annual list ranks countries by an index combining wealth, education and life expectancy.
"The (2005) report comes out on September 7 and yes, Norway is ranked as number 1 on the human development index," UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis told a news conference in Oslo of the forthcoming report.
He gave no other details of the ranking. Last year, Norway was followed by Sweden, Australia and Canada at the top, while Sierra Leone was the last of 177 countries listed.
The news is likely to be welcomed by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, whose centre-right government is trailing a "Red-Green" opposition alliance led by the Labor Party ahead of a Sept. 12 election.
But Dervis, on his first foreign trip since taking over as head of the UNDP this month, said the ranking was a reward for years of work by successive governments in Norway, the world's number 3 oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia and Russia.
"This is an achievement of the Norwegian people over a very long time. It cannot be interpreted as belonging to one government," he said.
Still, Bondevik has often grumbled that it is a paradox to be lagging so far in the polls when UNDP surveys have placed Norway top every year since he came to office in 2001.
The economy is set to expand by a stellar 3.75 percent this year, interest rates are at a very low 2.0 percent, annual inflation is almost non-existent at 1.1 percent and unemployment a low 3.7 percent.
I'm betting that if we even made it a tax payer funded, move that if all the libs, starting with the lawyers, moved out of the country we'd make the money back just in reduced crime, lower insurance rates, more productive and innovative industry, better work force and generally less Bullsh#t.
I know -- my dad worked for Westinghouse and did lots of business with the Norwegians on radar systems. I'm not badmouthing them. I do get a bit irked with Europeans in general when they congratulate themselves on all their "wonderful" social welfare w/o also recognizing we're part of the reason they a) can afford to have it, and b) are free to experiment with it in the first place.
Here's a classic example of "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics"
You're comparing a country of less than 5 million to one on 300 million and suggesting the per captia spending means something.
Statistics have their limits...
If I personally were to buy 3 or 4 Purdy shotguns, I could probably make that list in per capita terms.
I agree.
However, I just wanted to counter the idea that Norway spends absolutely nothing on defense.... Fact is though, that no matter how much we spent.. If the red army wanted to roll over us, they would have, by pure numbers alone. That's why secret Norwegian planning involved a guerilla war against the Soviet occupation army.
Other plans however, included using (american) nuclear weapons on the top third of Norway after the Soviets had entered.
You can't expect a nation of 4.5 million to put up an equvalent fighting force to a superpower, so in a way per capita numbers do make some sense. I guess my point is that the notion that Norway has spent nothing on defense and that is the reason for the relative well being of the nation is not correct.
Cheers.
Wasn't it Norway Democratic politicians who played a paintball version of the "Shoot the Muslims?"
I'm afraid it was...
Well you have some points, but you are going way overboard. I have been and gotten surgery right away. There are private hostpitals and clinics too. Taxes are not as high as you said. When I work Summer jobs I earned 11000 dollars in 9 weeks and paid as little as 5,33% in taxes. Before you didnt even pay taxes on your capital gains on stocks and on the money people took out as profits from the firm.
Taxes in New York was acctually as high as in Norway. The prices was almost the same as in Oslo, but just buying power in New York was just 3/4 of that in Oslo.
For more then the hundred time Norway is Not Socialistic. Anybody that even uses Norway as an example of socialism and its wonders are wrong. We have private kindergartens, some private schools, our postal service is ran after the law of market, private clinics, private drug stores, stores in general I can go on..
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