Posted on 03/03/2002 8:05:35 PM PST by black_mamba
Hi, just had an argument with a liberal, who claimed that we could do what norway has done, apparently they have a national health care service, a highly graduated income tax, so that there are no people "too rich and too poor" and that their economy is doing just fine (claimed that it was growing faster than the US). I don't know if these are true facts or not, but the discussion was put on hold till I found more info. Does anyone know if these facts are for real, and that their economy is doing fine? also any talking points against his idea would be helpful too. thanks
This is irrelevant. Once the State decides what you can and cannot have, you are subject to the State. Subjects of the State are slaves.
They also have a tendency to shoot themselves in the head out of depression. Not a good thing to follow.
So if you are not born there then you do not get any benifits. You must be a citizen to recieve benefits. If we did that in America the libs would screem.
I dare say that some of those libs that would complane would be from Norwy.
Sept 18, 2001
As Norway's Conservative, Christian Democratic and Liberal parties open talks aimed at forming a new centre-right coalition government, Tony Samstag in Oslo gives a personal view of social problems in one of the world's richest countries.For the better part of three decades, oil-rich Norway has loomed large in the numerous surveys - published by the OECD and similar arbiters of progress - as one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
Norway even enjoys the dubious distinction of the highest rate of broken bones in the world
Norwegian national income, gross domestic product per capita and similar economic indicators are almost always near the top of the international league tables.
The obvious conclusion is that the Norwegians are as happy as they are prosperous.
However, on the rare occasions that the cost of living is taken into account - the high prices, the tax burden, relative purchasing power - the results suggest that the average Norwegian has a lower standard of living than the average Italian or Spaniard, and certainly a lot less fun than either.
Crumbling services
The issue tends to arise whenever the government changes - a frequent occurrence given a proportional representation system straining to accommodate no fewer than eight established political parties, all competing for the votes of a mere 4.5 million citizens.
The election was a setback for Thorbjoern Jagland's Labour Party
In this year's general election, on 10 September, the governing Labour Party suffered one of the worst results in its history. It won barely a quarter of the 165 seats in parliament, despite record levels of apparent affluence.
But reasons for this seeming contradiction are not hard to find.
In recent years, taxes have increased relentlessly. But public services - Norway's version of the famous, and famously expensive, Nordic welfare state - have crumbled.
The lives of most Norwegians are simple to a degree - and by government decree
Hospitals, schools and public transport are increasingly perceived as inadequate, if not downright dangerous.
Norway even enjoys the dubious distinction of the highest rate of broken bones in the world because local authorities cannot find the funding, or the organisation, to cope with icy pavements.
Limited choice
In the meantime, billions of dollars in rising oil revenues have been diverted to an offshore national investment fund to meet unspecified contingencies sometime in the indefinite future.
Norway is also burdened with legacies of religious fundamentalism and agrarianism which have left a substantial minority with an obsessive fear of public disorder and corrupting, "foreign" influences.
The political system even supports the constitutional involvement of the Lutheran Church in affairs of state.
Notoriously restrictive alcohol policies, artificially high food prices and severe limitations on consumer choice are just a few of the more obvious consequences.
Despite their nominal wealth, then, the lives of most Norwegians are simple to a degree - and by government decree.
True, the grinding misery of poverty and unemployment afflicting so many in less favoured countries are largely absent - but so too is any real sense of opportunity.
Life perforce centres about the family, an institution no less shaky here than elsewhere in the developed world, and even those whose families endure, enjoy a lower quality of life than many of their middle-class counterparts among the warmer-blooded tribes of Europe.
The Norwegians themselves have a proverb: "We are always broke but never poor."
Just keep this in mind: Norway is also a very small country, with very high taxes, that has a penchant for "discouraging" folks from third-world countries, people of "color", and basically anyone that is NOT of NORDIC Origin from moving there to begin with. Good place to be if your name is Erik, Olaf, or Thor, though. Oh, and if your primary language is Spanish, you can basically forget it. Not too many Taquarias there.....
I wonder why?
The government does not want people to eat beef so they restrict the supply. A hamburger is about $6 and scrawney. If you want a car the government taxes it so much that only the well off can afford one, even a Volkswagen.
The government controls tv and quite a bit of publishing. Everything it taxed to death. You see little meters on the wheels of commercial vehicles to collect taxes on road miles driven.
It's a socialist country and acts like one. The medical care is free, but far below American standards. Those with money go to Germany or USA for treatment. There is very little freedom there; alcoholism, especially amoung the youth, is rampant.
Norway is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.
well then, I'll never go! I want my fajita's! I want my tamales!
Just as I was saying - slaves to the State.
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