101–110 of 291 posts
"The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil", the story about the young iraqi oil engineer farouk al-kasim, who helped shape norways oil industry into what it is today.
What has become clear to me reading HN and other US-centric news sources, is that this is in fact a deliberate tradeoff. Certainly it's a multi-dimensional continuum that can be better or worse in certain areas, but it's not just a question of other countries not discovering the path to such a society. It's also a deliberate choice that has consequences many voters in other cultures would not accept.
The flip-side of the equality question is that the ability to excel diminishes. Everyone gets good (although rarely best-in-the-world) free healthcare and a strong social safety net, but taxes are very high. If you have the means, there are many things you might want to do that are not allowed to. E.g. building/expanding your property the way you want, or living off investment income (requires >50% more capital than elsewhere due to taxes, and that's assuming a low middle-class consumption).
Society is not without its issues, and there are certainly some power struggles going on in various areas - e.g. regarding the employment terms for public-sector employees, the ability of large worker groups to get good employment terms etc. There is some degree of hidden institutional corruption, and I suspect that there is a degree of wage collusion that would not be accepted in the US. The tax system strongly favors real-estate investments, which means that property is very expensive and average household-debt-to income ratio is >220%.
The oil, energy and fish industries are certainly strong enablers the social safety net, e.g. with oil companies paying 78% tax on profits, and with similar scheme for the hydropower companies.
I've written about some details of the Norwegian economic system and welfare net on HN before, if you happen to be interested.
Consulting vs. being securely employed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17001133
Summary of taxes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14828357
Begging and homelessness: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15169167
Taxation of real estate vs. company ownership: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14828227
The law of Jante, or the skepticism towards people who try to excel: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13914084
Balancing capital gains tax and taxes on company earnings: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17277429
Free health care and the social safety net, in the context of whether "making the free choice" to "rent out your body" should be legal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17475051
As a Spaniard who has discussed this in lenght with many other Europeans[1], it really seems like the US is the main country with the University debt issue. I also really believe that "score inflation" is a big issue mainly in the US. If everyone can finish University, then having a university title becomes pointless! [2] In Spain, Germany, France, Italy, etc if you get a degree in STEM it means you put a lot of effo…
> If everyone can finish University, then having a university title becomes pointless! Only if the value of a degree is having an edge over others, not if it's value is learning - primary school isn't pointless even though most people master it. This feels like it links back to the same problem as everything else - as time goes on automation removes less skilled jobs, and more and more people will need to do more ski…
You're not too far from Spain's current situation.
We have some lower qualification titles that last two years and are almost free to get that teach a trade, there are courses to become an electrician, mechanic, plumber, hairdresser, cook, etc. There is even one to become a systems administrator and one to become a programmer.
Wait a second Morty > Norway’s youth unemployment rate (among 15- to 29-year-olds) is also relatively low at 9.4% compared to an OECD average of 13.9%. But for the USA > Youth unemployment stood at 8.4 percent in April 2018. Also > People in their early thirties in Norway have an average annual disposable household income of around 460,000 kroner (around $56,200). But remember that Norway is a small petrol country. T…
Comparing a European state to a US state isn’t so far fetched either. Compare Norway to Oregon - not to the US. Population of small European states match many US ones.
"Norway’s huge oil and gas sector is the clear driving factor behind the nation’s economic boom over the last three decades" And there it is - a nation sitting on black gold is wealthy.
> Aarnes’ hourly pay starts at 164 Norwegian kroner (around $20), increasing for weekend and evening shifts. After taxes (which are comparatively high in Scandinavia) he’s left with around 14,000 kroner ($1700) a month, of which he sets aside half for rent, travel and bills and uses the rest for “whatever else” he likes. The likely reason why he can earn this much with a supermarket job is because everyone else has m…
Prices also show this. If you want to go get a couple of beers in Oslo you’ll find $10-15 to be normal in central parts of town ($10 average for the city). Nominal wages don’t say much. Purchase power does.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! Seems like a step between the US system and the Spanish system. What happens if you lose your job for example for a couple of months? Do you have to pay as a normal loan or is it more like taxes where you only pay relative to your earnings?
The payments are based on your earnings, so it is a kind of graduate tax - but only up until around retirement when any remaining amounts are cancelled. In effect, more successful English graduates subsidise everybody else (because it is supposed to be revenue neutral). And specifically English, because only English students pay the full £9,250 per year. (Scottish students pay nothing, Welsh and Northern Irish a redu…
It's more complex than that; Scottish students are liable for the full tuition amount if they study in England, and the repayment terms are different (9% over £18330 currently, but it is changing), but Scottish students studying in Scotland have tuition paid for out of the Scottish government's general funds (and you can argue whether the majority of the government's income through Barnett Formula is fair or not to those elsewhere in the UK), though are still eligible to get bursaries/loans for living expenses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I'm not talking about zero-sum (which should be similar everywhere), I'm talking about Universities becoming easier in USA much faster than in Europe. Example: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/same-p...
How do European professors and universities avoid grade inflation? Are their incentives very different?
There is also heightened student pressure for similar reasons. but it is not just students.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That's close to ½ of the kids in the country. Um, that's a good thing?
My intention was to contrast against "near total lack of societal support", not to state an opinion about Medicaid and CHIP.
Unlike Spain, they have been wise enough to use their money to diversify their economy, aware that this won't last forever.
Sadly there are few lessons we can learn and apply here to other countries, as not everyone has a tiny population and literally sits on mountains of money. Still I'm looking forward to see if their efforts pay off, and we don't find that the next generation of norwegians have a drop of 30% in their disposable income with respect to their parents.