I recently posted this YouTube - Milton Friedman - Greed here And got this response, Your thoughts? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wonder what he'd say about Norway. Quote: Today, Norway ranks as the wealthiest country in the world in monetary value,[9][10] with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation. Norway maintains a Scandinavian welfare model with universal health-care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2007,[15] and then again in 2009.[16] It was also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index.[17] Just because you provide for your populace doesn't mean you can't be successful monetarily...does it? Let's put it this way...they are much more successful than the US in terms of financial status, and they take care of their own.
The Scandinavian-Welfare Myth Revisited, by Markus Bergstrom.
Reason:Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2007,[15] and then again in 2009.[16]
Who cares how some socialist organization ranks Norway or any other country according to some subjective criteria? That's what Milton should have said. Unfortunately, Milton too often played their game.
Reason:Let's put it this way...they are much more successful than the US in terms of financial status, and they take care of their own.
Look, everybody today in the modern industrial world has a government run school system, universal health-care, and a social security ponzi-scheme. Somebody out of these nations is bound to come out the richest once you rank them according to whatever arbitrary standards they come up with. So what? Any conclusions from such rankings regarding less or more government are completely fallacious.
However, if we analyze the situation based on our knowledge of economics, we can draw the conclusion that Norway would have been much more prosperous if it was free.
It's an example of producing 0.5 barrels of oil per day per person. See my posts in the sticky on Scandinavia.
Does anyone know where I can find the average income of Norwegian Americans (or other information of Norwegian Americans)?
"I cannot prove, but am prepared to affirm, that if you take care of clarity in reasoning, most good causes will take care of themselves, while some bad ones are taken care of as a matter of course." -Anthony de Jasay
Norway's public debt increased from 54-56% of her GDP (there are conflicting sources) in 2008 to an estimated 60% in 2009. Switzerland by comparison was able to reduce her public debt from 44% in 2008 to 43,5% in 2009. Switzerland has comparable levels of "public services" to Norway but much lower taxation (and there are talks of reducing it even further to attract back capitals from abroad). That they were able to slightly reduce Federal debt despite a colossal crisis is an indicator of strong fiscal responsibility, something no Scandinavian country (and not even the traditionally responsible Germany) can show for the 2008-2009 period, and I doubt the bureaucrats in Bern ordered hospitals to leave people to die in the cold.
So why nobody ever uses Switzerland as paragon but always the same Scandinavian countries?
Isn't there already a thread on this?
Anyway, a couple things to note (some may apply to Sweden instead of Norway, but w/e)
-The tax rates are a bit different. Quite a few are lower then even the American tax rates, especially corporate taxes
-Norway is completely loaded with oil, and has the infrastructure to take advantage of it (Iran is ruled by an idiotic Theocracy, but it is clearly better off then other nearby nations like, say, Syria thanks to its oil wealth)
-The actual amount of money they can spend (once you subtract taxes and such) is actually a little bit less then the American average (a difference between $17,000 and 20,000$ or so), the "free" healthcare and such just rises it.
-The ratings systems of most of these organizations are a little odd. Someone once mentioned that the HDI has the issue of not having the right ratios (A nation of immortals with unlimited wealth but entirely illiterate would be get a rating of .666, around the ballpark of Tajikstan).
-It isn't exactly a fair contest since everyone is playing by the same or similar rules (Either it has "universal healthcare" and such, or it has one of those even worse "Private-Public Partnerships" that exists to squeeze money out the the populace, having neither the competitive edge of private dealings nor the ability to force temporary success through democratic universal healthcare)