Thanks so much for your opinion!

Thanks so much for your opinion!

Secondly, let’s stop and think about what money really is. People think they work for “their” money and then the government “takes” some of it as taxes. However, if it were not for the government, you would not have the job you have making the money you make, because there would not be a stable civilization on which people could build businesses and careers. This is especially true if you make your living in an intellectual field. Try being a web site developer in a country with an unstable government and see how far you get with it. Imagine being a musician or a software developer or a movie producer in a country that doesn’t have the resources to enforce copyright laws.

Government and industry work together to provide the citizenry with a certain standard of living. How much “money” you end up earning and/or paying in taxes isn’t the point. The point is the benefits you get at the end of the day. If you can go home to a heated house, eat a good meal, and get a doctor to take care of you when you’re ill, you’re better off than most of the world. If you can afford a car and a computer you’re wealthy by global standards. Stop complaining about your $9 pint of beer and start thinking about people who don’t even have clean water to drink.

Secondly, let’s stop and think about what money really is. People think they work for “their” money and then the government “takes” some of it as taxes. However, if it were not for the government, you would not have the job you have making the money you make, because there would not be a stable civilization on which people could build businesses and careers. This is especially true if you make your living in an intellectual field. Try being a web site developer in a country with an unstable government and see how far you get with it. Imagine being a musician or a software developer or a movie producer in a country that doesn’t have the resources to enforce copyright laws.

Government and industry work together to provide the citizenry with a certain standard of living. How much “money” you end up earning and/or paying in taxes isn’t the point. The point is the benefits you get at the end of the day. If you can go home to a heated house, eat a good meal, and get a doctor to take care of you when you’re ill, you’re better off than most of the world. If you can afford a car and a computer you’re wealthy by global standards. Stop complaining about your $9 pint of beer and start thinking about people who don’t even have clean water to drink.

I agree with your post to an extent, but Norway Is not the Utopia you think it is.

Norway’s Health care and social programs are second to none, in my opinion, but at what cost? The staggering amount of money it cost to simply live there is mind boggling. Even though Norwegians earn good salaries, most is eaten in taxes, bureaucracy and and the high cost of living, leaving little and often nothing at the end of the month for most.

To give you an idea, the typical price for a pint beer out in town is about 9.00 USD. The cheapest set of snow tires set me back about 1,000 USD, due to road taxes and sur charges. I Wont talk even about the high cost of essentials such as radiated produce, meats (cheap beef at 20.00 USD a pound) and simple paper products.

Norway is also the drug capital of Europe and boast the ugly fact that one out of every four women are battered. Between Norway and Finland, they have the highest suicide rate in the world.Fail an IQ test and you risk loosing your children. The way the children act in th US and Norway is roughly the same, along with the same consequences if you correct your child in a way deemed inappropriate.

I enjoyed my experience in Norway and met many articulate and well educated people, as most Norwegians are.I understood one thing though, if one wants real financial and personal independence, the Norwegian system is stacked against them.

I believe that the USA still has many great people living there, yet between sheets of CNN, our government’s corruption and continual propaganda againts our personal lives,you would think that we are all American idiots.

Thanks!!

Ron Paul2008

I agree with your post to an extent, but Norway Is not the Utopia you think it is.

Norway’s Health care and social programs are second to none, in my opinion, but at what cost? The staggering amount of money it cost to simply live there is mind boggling. Even though Norwegians earn good salaries, most is eaten in taxes, bureaucracy and and the high cost of living, leaving little and often nothing at the end of the month for most.

To give you an idea, the typical price for a pint beer out in town is about 9.00 USD. The cheapest set of snow tires set me back about 1,000 USD, due to road taxes and sur charges. I Wont talk even about the high cost of essentials such as radiated produce, meats (cheap beef at 20.00 USD a pound) and simple paper products.

Norway is also the drug capital of Europe and boast the ugly fact that one out of every four women are battered. Between Norway and Finland, they have the highest suicide rate in the world.Fail an IQ test and you risk loosing your children. The way the children act in th US and Norway is roughly the same, along with the same consequences if you correct your child in a way deemed inappropriate.

I enjoyed my experience in Norway and met many articulate and well educated people, as most Norwegians are.I understood one thing though, if one wants real financial and personal independence, the Norwegian system is stacked against them.

I believe that the USA still has many great people living there, yet between sheets of CNN, our government’s corruption and continual propaganda againts our personal lives,you would think that we are all American idiots.

Thanks!!

Ron Paul2008

Another important factor is that Norway is very a homogeneous society. They tend to be very white and almost all are non-religious and those that are religious tend to be Lutherans. Everyone feels very much on the same team. Thus there is more incentives to cooperate. It is an unfortunate fact that in non-homogeneous societies, there is less cooperation and more suspicion and less social cohesion, and from an evolutionary genetics point of view this makes sense (you don’t feel kinship bonds with your fellow citizens anymore, rather you feel like you are in competition with “others”.)

Another important factor is that Norway is very a homogeneous society. They tend to be very white and almost all are non-religious and those that are religious tend to be Lutherans. Everyone feels very much on the same team. Thus there is more incentives to cooperate. It is an unfortunate fact that in non-homogeneous societies, there is less cooperation and more suspicion and less social cohesion, and from an evolutionary genetics point of view this makes sense (you don’t feel kinship bonds with your fellow citizens anymore, rather you feel like you are in competition with “others”.)