101–110 of 339 posts
The Norwegian success is the single biggest piece of evidence as to why the Venezuelan catastrophe was largely avoidable, and the fault of irresponsible leadership.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except every other oil dominated country - e.g. Iraq, Libya, half of Africa is more like Venezuela (worse even), than Norway. The oil curse is very real and, for Venezuela, largely unavoidable.
Norway is about 20% of it's GDP from Oil/Gas, Iraq is above 90%. I think that is also an explaination
The Norwegian success is the single biggest piece of evidence as to why the Venezuelan catastrophe was largely avoidable, and the fault of irresponsible leadership.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their income tax is 22% if I'm not mistaken.
Sales tax is 25% (lower on food + public transport). Income tax is close to 50% for most of people (progressive), in addition there is a 14% tax per employee that the companies have to pay. If you take out dividend there is a 25% tax that don't earn you pension.
Wow! These people must be extraordinary to use oil money this way! Not kidding! Never been in Norway, but in countries I have ever been this would be barely possible due to corruption and the needs of the politician’s buddies. Like yachts, private jets, Bentleys and Vertu phones. This $186k/person isn’t far from what average German poses: https://www.bundesbank.de/resource/blob/617492/cd59713c156ad...
Norway was lucky to be a very developed society before oil was discovered. In most countries oil is a curse
Wow! These people must be extraordinary to use oil money this way! Not kidding! Never been in Norway, but in countries I have ever been this would be barely possible due to corruption and the needs of the politician’s buddies. Like yachts, private jets, Bentleys and Vertu phones. This $186k/person isn’t far from what average German poses: https://www.bundesbank.de/resource/blob/617492/cd59713c156ad...
The big difference between the two suggest an unequal distribution of wealth.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except every other oil dominated country - e.g. Iraq, Libya, half of Africa is more like Venezuela (worse even), than Norway. The oil curse is very real and, for Venezuela, largely unavoidable.
Norway is about 20% of it's GDP from Oil/Gas, Iraq is above 90%. I think that is also an explaination
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But what to say about Americans, who squandered natural resources to help the rich, and now the funding to their own social security is en route to insolvency?
It would be easy to make social security solvent far into the future. There's no shortage of resources to do it, just lack of political will. One step would be to move it away from an insurance model and raise the cap on contributions. Another would be to modestly increase the contribution rates.
The Norwegian success is the single biggest piece of evidence as to why the Venezuelan catastrophe was largely avoidable, and the fault of irresponsible leadership.
Is anybody claiming otherwise? It seems pretty obvious that someone there messed up majorly for a long time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fund started with oil money, but now focuses new investments on renewable energy sources: https://www.wsj.com/articles/norways-sovereign-wealth-fund-b...
Yes, but it's based on oil, which is contributing to climate change..and not 100% is not used for renewable energy, so it's a net negative. It's strange to me that people aren't protesting and complaining about this fund, when it's a big issue for future.
This is why I know it has nothing to do with science or actually solving the problem.