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Comment by hmottestad | Hacker News Reader

Coming from Norway I highly recommend finding oil and having a socialist government. Great way to make the country rich. Hard for others to reproduce though.

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1. An economy driven by physical commodities like oil are susceptible to corruption and stagnation. 2. Norways dependence on oil has prevented it from doing anything meaningful economically or technologically.

Don’t forget about our pretty large aluminium industry, arms exporter or salmon exporter.

Any economy can be rich if it's floating on an ocean of oil.

And yet the Norwegians, unusually, have managed to do it in a way where ordinary people benefit.

It's still irrelevant to this topic as Norway did not create wealth, it just pumped it out of the ground.

I strongly disagree, as long as you frame the topic more reasonably as 'Want growth (that doesn't only benefit a small group of kleptocrats)?'.

Unless you allege that socialism can create an ocean of oil under the country, I'm not buying that.

This can go both ways. Have you heard of Venezuela?

Too bad it didn't work out for Venezuela.

It didn't work for Angola, either.

A communist government will manage to convert any riches into abject poverty. Every single time.

You might be confusing communism with dictatorship.

I assure you I am not. I lived under communism so I know it’s stench.

It is usually quickly followed by dictatorship though, since force must be used to keep people living under it. Otherwise productive people will naturally pursue prosperity for themselves and their loved ones, which leads straight to capitalism.

Can’t say much for Angola, but Venezuela has been a dictatorship since Chavez took to power. A friend of mine was told to come in to register her passport at the embassy so she could vote in the upcoming elections, her passport was returned a few days after the elections. It’s easy to be elected president when the people who vote against you can’t vote.

There’s China though. Their party is at least called a communist party. I wouldn’t call their politics communism, except for their land ownership laws. Basically a dictatorship, since anyone opposing the government seemingly ends up in prison. Hasn’t seemed to hinder their economic growth.

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