I’m currently in Norway. And I want to write a few words about social democracy.
Norway is a beautiful country. Landscapes are amazing. People are nice and look very healthy. They drive their cars with a civism you’re not used to in North America. Kids have usually very blonde hair and they’re cute. They look like everybody that never went to Norway think they look like.
Everybody admires Norway and it’s great social system. The education system is one of the best in the world, if not the best.
Even if everything looks incredible, there’s probably some unhappy people in Norway. Otherwise, Edvard Munch would have never painted « The Scream ».
As a canadian, in this trip, I’ve only been bothered by one thing. One small thing: the price of EVERYTHING.
For instance:
A litre of fuel: almost 3$.
Tolls on the road: some days, I paid 75$.
Parkings (where you must pay) everywhere, even in small cities of about 15 000 people.
Candies: twice the price we pay in Canada because there’s a tax on sugar here.
Some may say the government is right to tax everything that’s bad for the planet and for humans. But when you want to buy apples and bananas, you still pay twice the price we pay in Canada.
And still, you see more expensive cars on the road here than in Canada (Tesla, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Mercedes).
I’m not a specialist at all of the tax system in Norway, but depending on what you’re buying, the tax goes from 12% to 25%. And I don’t know what it looks like when it comes to a job’s pay but I’d bet they pay more taxes on the income than us.
That’s what comes with social democracy.
If you do a search for the highest standard of living countries,you will find the Scandinavian Countries [Denmark,Sweden,Norway,Findland] at the top of the list.
RépondreSupprimerThese countries prove that government can use tax money efficiently to provide services for the betterment of the people.This can only be done if the policies are targeted at the people and not the special interests.
It also helps that corporations have a social conscience.They have no choice because the people will not support businesses that do not help society.
We have some of these attributes in Canada [more than the USA] but we could sure learn from Scandinavia.
Enjoy your trip, come home and educate your friends,coworkers and politicians.
Cheers.
Thanks for the post Penetrator. All good information. Would love to know what incomes are like, the deltas between different jobs, and income tax. Sure i could google it. Always interesting to hear your perspective on things.
RépondreSupprimerNorway is a truly unique economic reality. When a small population (about five million people) is soaking in oil and negotiates some extremely lucrative royalty deals with the big oil companies...then you get Norway's Sovereign Wealth fund which is worth around one trillion dollars. That's about $200,000 put away and being invested for every man, woman and child in Norway.
RépondreSupprimerIn more general terms, the social democratic nations of western europe have much higher wages for unskilled labor (a fork lift operator in a warehouse in Germany may earn $25 or $30 per hour). They also have higher prices and higher taxes.
Now go out and find out why little Norway DOMINATES in the Winter Olympics. How did this little nation of 5 million win the most medals at the 2018 winter olympics.