This is particularly visual. Not taking away from Farouk al-Kasims contribution but find Norway to see how unique their particular situation is.
But ignoring that, Norway's chart don't seem that different from Iran, Iraq etc. What did you intend to demonstrate via these charts.
Developed countries are not immune to this. For example, in late 1990s and early 2000 US budget deficits were falling, then budget went into growing surpluses. But those surpluses were quickly spent on tax breaks and war on terror and US went back into large deficits. Politics :(
In a lot of places people will immediately get suspicious if you say you're setting up a government fund to hold everyone's money. For the benefit of society, of course.
Thats a virtuous loop. You institutions work because you trust that strangers trust your institutions.
And well north of the city/further from the sea you can feel proper winter better, sure. Even so close as Lillestrøm it's crisper. But again, nothing unusual by North/central European standards.
Norwegian climate is not so harsh that it makes life an perpetual fight for survival. But it's nasty enough to slap one's lazy nose every once in a while.
Norway has its natural limitations though which made for a tougher life. Like insufficient options for agriculture, one thing that made feudal system here impossible and diets fairly lean.
We look down on many countries, like the US, because they tend to overwork and prioritize work over life.
Our success, like the oil fund and high ratings, has much more to do with a series of smart efforts on building a mutually beneficial society where people trust each other, the media, businesses, the police, the government etc than just hard work. Many people from all around the work hard, but just hard work doesn't lead to good societies. In fact the mantra of "hard work" often leads to the opposite - survival of the fittest to the detriment of others.
(I wouldn't be sure Norway could do this today either).
Being from the Netherlands, which has/had large gas fields, it makes me jealous our government didn’t have a similar foresight.
So that does go with what you said (I don't know their oil history, but I assume they build a society that was culturally western European before they discovered and started extracting oil resources).
Australia is the largest exporter of LNG and gets about 3% of the Royalties that Qatar earns. it is simply incompetence and corruption.
The big difference between the two suggest an unequal distribution of wealth.
There are fewer vested interest with a megaphone that would stand to personally lose or gain massively, so more rational discussions can be had.
The fund grows from oil revenue, but it invests in all sorts of things that are specifically not oil. So there's not much conflict regarding oil divestment.
They won't stop extracting oil until there is no oil left.