Live data from Hacker News

How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

bbc.com

81–90 of 146 posts

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#81
It seems to me that the high levels of trust necessary for this to work also imply a high level of social cohesion (possibly homogeneity). In a society with less internal agreement, I don't see how you could get this much alignment over what is the right management strategy, let alone trust that it's being followed.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#82
post #19

Since we're talking about how awesome Norway is, this [0] should be mentioned. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam#Norway

Driving across the US west, you can’t help but notice how every bit of land is cordoned off with barbed wire or fences. Doesn’t matter if it’s in the middle of emply plains or uninhabited mountains. "Private property" and "no trespassing" signs abound.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#84
post #17

i want to go there so bad :(

Well, make it happen. University is one option: http://www.studyinnorway.no/Tuition-Scholarships I say this not to be glib, but as someone who yearned to move abroad and found out that it wasn't as hard as I thought.

This. Brazilian here, lived in Californa for a year, and could have stayed longer with relative ease at the time. There's really NOTHING stopping you from living somewhere else if you really wanted.

Well, apart from paperwork, study of the country/state/city you want to go to. If that's too boring and you want the "no questions asked, come work here" treatment, I guess there is something stopping you after all.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#85

It seems to me that the high levels of trust necessary for this to work also imply a high level of social cohesion (possibly homogeneity). In a society with less internal agreement, I don't see how you could get this much alignment over what is the right management strategy, let alone trust that it's being followed.

Don't forget SIZE. Norway is a tiny country, and so the distance between people and government is small.

Norway's success is a strong case for localism.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#86

It seems to me that the high levels of trust necessary for this to work also imply a high level of social cohesion (possibly homogeneity). In a society with less internal agreement, I don't see how you could get this much alignment over what is the right management strategy, let alone trust that it's being followed.

They say as much in the article. This just plain wouldn't work for a society that cannot describe itself as homogeneous, as Norway can and does.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#87
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an awesome right. As a Finn I always find it really weird when visiting places outside Nordic Countries that for them most of the country is unaccessible.

In Germany we don't got this right, but seldom I have been prohibited from "roaming" the landside. But we aren't allowed to put a tent anywhere and sleep in it, which is rather sad. A friend of mine went on a hiking holiday in Scotland and he told me, he just walked till he was tired, put his tent up on the next green spot and slept there.

we aren't allowed to put a tent anywhere and sleep in it, which is rather sad

Probably connected to the risk that squatter's rights poses to the land owner... not that pitching a tent for a night is a serious risk, but squatter's rights really encourages that kind of culture.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#88
The oil curse is a silly notion. The US and Canada have both avoided any 'curse.' China is the world's 5th largest oil producer, it too is certainly not cursed by oil.

Norway however has a huge problem coming, soon. Their oil production is running out rapidly: http://i.imgur.com/UlR1B0a.jpg

It has fallen about 40% in a decade +/-.

Even with their large sovereign fund, they will exhaust that quickly if the oil production doesn't stop falling soon. At the rate it's falling, in another decade Norway is going to be in the midst of a crisis economically.

I know some people in Norway are paying attention to this and trying to think ahead. Being conservative about the sovereign fund certainly seems like the very wise thing to do.

Re: How Norway has avoided the 'curse of oil'

#89
post #82
post #19

Since we're talking about how awesome Norway is, this [0] should be mentioned. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam#Norway

Driving across the US west, you can’t help but notice how every bit of land is cordoned off with barbed wire or fences. Doesn’t matter if it’s in the middle of emply plains or uninhabited mountains. "Private property" and "no trespassing" signs abound.

You do have to ask permission of the landowner to hike/camp on their property. But with the size of some of the cattle on the land (I'm thinking of Texas Longhorns) and the presence of common predators/pests like feral hogs and coyotes, it's not always safe to just wander around.

There's also the water issue. If you run out of water in the west while on your hike/tramp, you're in life-threatening trouble. And there's often no cellular service.

Post reply on HN