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Comment by vegardx | Hacker News Reader

It fits so well with the Norwegian stereotyping of Danish people, which is likely the reason why so many believe in it. It's also worth noting that Denmark also have quite a large oil industry.

Another myth seems to be that Norway was a very poor nation before the discovery of oil. According to Jan Eivind Myhre[0], professor emeritus in history at the University of Oslo, this isn't true. Norway has been one of the wealthiest countries in Europe for hundreds of years. We had, and to some degree still have, a huge merchant fleet. We've always been big in shipping insurance, probably a by-product of the merchant fleet. The fishing industry has always been a huge part of the economy, same with raw materials.

It's an interesting read, but perhaps a bit more debatable than the myth about a drunk danish minister.

[0] https://www.sciencenorway.no/economy-history/crushing-the-my...

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Fascinating. Maybe a similar mental model applies as in Switzerland. I am a foreigner living in wealthy Switzerland. They also talk about themselves as being very poor a few decades ago. Maybe it is that people really were poor back then, just not as poor as the other europeans, and this for them is hard to imagine.

According to the statistics that I can find, they have been one of the wealthiest european nations for 250 years now, with GDP per capita being 50% higher than the Netherlands consistently for the past 70 years.

>I am a foreigner living in wealthy Switzerland. They also talk about themselves as being very poor a few decades ago.

Well, every millionaire is very poor when compared to Musk, Gates or Bezos.

Switzerland has no real natural resources, no access to the sea for trade routes, it's mostly just mountains. Many many years ago, Swiss people were so dirt poor, that they had to sell their life to the highest bidder. Thus it fielded one of the largest mercenary armies in Europe. Why Switzerland is kinda rich now, is thanks to Napoleon and the congress of Vienna in 1815. There it was decided that Switzerland shall stay neutral forever. Thanks to that it didn't got destroyed in the last two wars like the rest of Europe.

So it is not like that the Swiss were not as poor as the rest of Europe back then, but everyone else got royally screwed in the wars, except the Swiss. In that time they could catch up quite a bit, because after the war, Switzerland still had fully functioning factories and manufacturing.

This also provides some context to the current discussion about 'neutrality' and why many people want to keep it. After all, this policy has proven to be very beneficial for 208 years already.

You appear to be Norwegian.

I have to ask my standard question: have you met Magnus Carlsen??

What's he like when speaking Norwegian? [I.e. is he different than his English-speaking persona?]

Ha! The closest I've been to meeting Magnus Carlsen is that one time we both happened to be standing next to each other at the urinals. He adheres to normal urinal etiquette, if that's anything to go by.

Oh, a second-degree sighting, and in that most manly of places.

You've made my day. :-)

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