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Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

lifeinnorway.net

471–480 of 498 posts

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, > Vinmonopolet (English: The Wine Monopoly), symbolized by Ⓥ and colloquially shortened to Polet, is a government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer and the only company allowed to sell beverages containing an alcohol content higher than 4.75% in Norway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinmonopolet

There are still US states where wine can only be sold in state-owned stores.

When I visited Ottawa (in Canada) a couple of years ago you had to go the the special liquor store (LCBO) to get beer!

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#472
post #36
post #9

“Hello #3576. You have reached your 1kg monthly limit of natural meat. Please consult the official list for alternatives.”

> Please consult the official list for alternatives.” More likely a new way to tax stuff that the government does not like. Eating too much red-meat from methane-producing cows? Extra climate change tax for you!

There already is taxes like that, e.g on gasoline. Its very easy, just put a flat tax per liter. Then the more you use the more you pay. No need for extra surveillance, unless you want progressive taxaction of those resources.

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#473
post #14

"SSB claims they want a less time-consuming way of collecting and analysing household consumption statistics in order to inform tax policy, social assistance and child allowance." Aka the more we know about you, the more efficiently we can create policies to control your behavior to our liking.

> Aka the more we know about you, the more efficiently we can create policies to control your behavior to our liking. How about this phrasing instead? _"The more we know about you, the more efficiently we can create policies to control your behavior to *YOUR* liking."_ Not all governments are unfriendly to their people. Or, should I say, not all people imagine their government is evil. I'm looking at you USA.

Examples for such idea are needed.

If it is to get the feedback that government (kybernan) by definition requires, you use aggregates, not nominal data.

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's essential.

Seconded. I'm on an all-meat diet and I turned my health around thanks to it. Most often people who advocate eliminating meat look sickly, because they are.

I never needed to turn around my health as a vegetarian. There's about a 99.999% chance that I'm stronger and faster than you, I wish I could demonstrate. You'd be embarrassed saying what you just said in front of me!

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can’t predict how future humans will use this data, especially considering human’s desire to control the behavior of others.

Agree, for sure, but that's a different claim.

That’s why I keep using the word future :) cheers!

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew a (great) artist who spent almost her whole life in Norway and Sweeden. Shes in her nineties, speaks a half dozen languages, worked for Norwegian public TV. That is to say she's walked in the highest echelons on Nordic society. Talking to her, she'd often bemoan that the prejudice that Nordic societies are very conformist is true. Which is in line with what Ive experienced with Nordics

Having lived in the UK, US, Sweden, and worked extensively in the Netherlands and India, I can comfortably say that conformism exists everywhere. It doesn’t take the same shape everywhere, but it certainly colours the place and the culture. Scandinavia is not a bad place to live by any measure. I can list a host of reasons why either place would be uncomfortable to live in. But one of my key takeaways from my experie…

Of course there is some degree of conformity everywhere, but having lived in many different places myself, there are stark differences.

The woman I mentioned speaks six languages because shes lived in as many countries, including the African and the European Mediterranean coast. Her's was a comparison.

Also, all of the countries you listed are Nordic except for India. India, of course, is an extremely rich country, three times the size of Europe with lots different sub-groups. Who were you with in India? The ruling class Brahmins? The English educated children and grandchildren of the mandarin class? Or amongst the day to day laborer?

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#478
post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew a (great) artist who spent almost her whole life in Norway and Sweeden. Shes in her nineties, speaks a half dozen languages, worked for Norwegian public TV. That is to say she's walked in the highest echelons on Nordic society. Talking to her, she'd often bemoan that the prejudice that Nordic societies are very conformist is true. Which is in line with what Ive experienced with Nordics

If I were to look for it, I don't think there's a single country on Earth where I couldn't find a smorgasbord of social conformism that I strongly dislike. It's a social glue that holds every culture together, and it never has to make much sense.

But there are different amounts and different quality of conformism. The Nordic (as in Germany northward) one is particularly insistent on crushing deviations from the zeitgeist (German word).

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#479
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Unless you input a form of ID (like a telephone number in a loyalty program) I don't see how a cash transaction can be linked to you at all. It's not like your cash purchase of 58.32kr has a match 578.32 kr withdrawal; that cash was taken from an ATM in a large, round-number bundle.

I think they are more likely referring to being able to create a fingerprint of what you purchase. If you purchase via card enough times its not unreasonable that a model could be created to link your cash transactions back to you.

Yes that's exactly what I was referring to. Papers have been written on this subject. When you're buying quite a few items, it's quite hard not to be relatively unique.

Re: Norway to track all supermarket purchases?

#480
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, a democratic government is supposed to be beholden to its people, but the problem you are describing occurs when the government is no longer under the power of the population.

Or if you’re part of a disfavored minority.

This, so much. Slavery and segregation are prime examples of this.
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