Norway's wealth fund now worth $319,900 per citizen
sherwood.news
sherwood.news
By your definition, anything made up of anything can’t “care”.
Corporations can care, they usually care a lot about for example profits. Governments can care, the ones you’re accustomed to might care a lot about the image of the country or their own image; some can be interested mostly in the survival and prosperity of the country and its citizens though. Politicians, CEOs, Executives etc; can be self serving.
Similar to our own bodies cells: those can be self-serving too. We call that situation cancer.
It’s incomparable and the parent is definitely right to ponder. Life here is better, even if it has it’s problems.
There is no “working poor” here, serial unemployment is significantly lower. And Sweden is the “worst” nordic country right now for crime and poverty rates. Britain is far-far behind, and getting worse yearly.
Apparently, even the worst parts of Stockholm have crime rates comparable to the best areas of the USA, which surprised me TBH (and I think that's a lot better than the UK).
"Serial unemployment" sounds like a description of going from being unemployed to being unemployed, repeatedly. But that makes no sense. What does it mean?
in britain there is a concept of “the underclass” which are perpetually out of work people.
Or... how stabbing the same corpse several times makes you a "serial killer"?
HN seems to have a lot of people these days who don’t follow the guidelines.
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.[2]
[0]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242537188_Charles_M...
[1]: https://senseofmisplaced.blogspot.com/2011/03/serial-unemplo...
Blair, for all his war crimes, managed the decline fairly well, but it’s been clear to anyone with an outside view that Britain is a mid-power, cosplaying as a world power.
Similar to that geezer who always has the flash car and no money to pay for it, keeping up with joneses and going into perpetual debt for it, until nobody will lend any money any more.
Having lived in Finland and UK, I definitely don't want to live in UK.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-...
If a culture is breeding widespread unhappiness (perhaps in exchange for maximization of economic growth over all) then it's something that should be observed.
"Happiness is measured using six categories including GDP per capita, social support, and healthy life expectancy, among others."
So for instance it turns out the 'happiest' countries in the world also have some of the highest rates of depression in the world.
Now obviously that's not literally impossible but ffs just poll people - it's not hard. Yes it will be extremely subjective, exactly like 'happiness' is!
Happiness vs life satisfaction correlates surprisingly little.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-people-who-say-t...
Norway needed it initially, but thinks to smart conservative finance policies now they don't.
As as lovely counter example, look at all of the UAE's expenditures on attempts at "destination tourism" revenue.
UAE "invested" its money into concrete. Norway invested its money into its people.
One example is their completely failed drug policy, which is aimed at repression instead of care and therapy.
There has been decades of brainwashing from the state(jointly with various Christian organisations) and an incredible amount of disinformation.
I am a Cannabis user and I’ve moved from Stockholm to Zürich because I want to live my life in peace.
Since you have made no point so far, only offering spiteful generalisations and offence, I feel my lived experience is a good a counter point for those who may scroll by and want to see an alternative view.
The report: https://www.fhi.no/contentassets/97c17432815a4b2291e34140748... Results translated with chatgpt:
> In general, the results from the Nordic literature were inconsistent, and several of the studies were of low quality. The majority of studies from the Nordic countries indicated that a free school meal (breakfast or lunch) had a positive effect on some dietary outcomes. Furthermore, the results suggest that a free school meal may help reduce social disparities in diet.
> A total of three Nordic studies examined the relationship between free school meals and weight, with one study showing increased weight, another showing increased waist circumference, and one showing no change as a result of a free school meal. Two Nordic studies investigated the effect of a free school meal on academic performance, but neither found a clear positive effect.
> None of the Nordic studies found a link between free school meals and absenteeism (two studies), well-being (two studies), or the school environment (two studies).
> Regarding sustainability, only one study from Denmark examined the impact on food waste. The results showed that a warm school meal led to more food waste compared to a packed lunch brought from home.
> Two studies examining the long-term effects of free school meals, implemented in the Nordic countries between the 1920s and 1940s, found that the school meal led to longer schooling and increased income.
I also don’t think most people realize how small these countries are. Sweden is as big as Michigan, and Norway is as big as South Carolina.
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland combined have about half the population of California. And California has about 1/10th of the US population.
The good old dog whistle.
It's down to politics. Nordic countries had estate systems (codified social classes) until the late 19th to early 20th century, with high class separation still until the enormous socialist reforms in the mid 20th century.
Finland in particular was a true "shithole country" until after massive reforms (that were partially mandated by the Soviet Union) after WW2. Finland had a massive famine in 1866-1868 where around 10% of the population perished. The government refused to distribute food out of fears it would make the working class lazy, and continued food exports while the people were literally starving. There was a semi-serfdom system until after the 1918 civil war.
> Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland combined have about half the population of California. And California has about 1/10th of the US population.
So they managed it even without the economics of scale.
You're also more likely to see extreme outcomes with small sample sizes. For example, if we were looking at a list of countries ordered by GDP per capital, statistically we should expect to see more smaller countries in the top and bottom of the list. It doesn't necessarily mean it's due to underlying causes like policy.
https://archive.is/20241129112123/https://www.thelocal.no/20...
https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/in...
Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta ...
Does this put Norway at the mercy of the USA?
What if Norway and the USA have an argument and the USA says "You don't want us to freeze your investments in our beautiful tech stocks, do you?".
Didn't they introduce fear and uncertainty in their trade relationships by using tariffs as a negotiation tool?
Do you think their stock market is safe from that behavior?
Moreover, the US dealing with the Norwegians like they did with Russian wealth in America or Europe, would mean the end of western control over international finance. Other countries have already noted how the western countries are withholding Russian funds to try and blackmail them, and are already talking about the need for an alternate international finance system that will not be as vulnerable to western politics.
if Norway suddenly decided to pull
all their investment out of the US
an alternate international finance system
The linked SO question is a bit ridiculous. Since when are India and the US allies? I can't think of anything the two countries have really done jointly. The US has historically supported Pakistan and India has historically had very chummy relations with the USSR/Russia (esp the military industrial side of things). India is not a signatory of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and they don't respect US pharmaceutical IP. They're not outright enemies, but they're def not allies
"In 2016, the United States recognized India as a "major defense partner"...
In June 2019, American lawmakers provided for enhancements to the strategic status of India, though this fell short of designating the country as an MNNA."
You clearly have some kind of bone to pick with how Europe has chosen to handle things here. No, Norway is not "at the mercy" of the USA because it has chosen to voluntarily conduct business with US companies, any more than the USA is "at the mercy" of, say, China. That's a ridiculous way to frame free trade between friendly, or even not-so-friendly, nations.
If - and this is a big if - Norwegian-US relations degraded to the point that asset freezing was on the table, then yes, Norway would likely choose to divest those direct holdings somehow. The most likely way they would try to do this is by looking into some kind of proxy situation whereby a firm in another, friendlier company to the US directly holds the basket, and they hold a big stake in that company. Capitalism is more clever than you are.
"Okay, but what if the US freezes investments in all other countries that trade with Norway in that situation?" That leads to much worse outcomes for everyone involved, the US included. Everyone becomes poorer when they are unable to trade, that's econ 101. How far down this rabbit hole do we have to go? No trading with other countries which trade with other countries which trade with Norway? Come on. Even North Korea trades with other countries. What crimes has Norway committed in the first place to lead to this nightmare, anyway? Eating fish? Preferring iPhones to Androids? Offering a 2 year citizenship track to those rogues, the Finns?
If you want to argue that Europe is doing dumb things with its money, or its investments, sure. By all means. Don't insinuate there is a looming embargo with the US because you're mad that Vanguard is outperforming MSCI, though. Focus on doing the things that make you rich - like thinking clearly, and being friendly to those who want to do business with you. Hey, it's working for Norway.
proxy situation whereby a firm in another,
friendlier company to the US directly holds
the basket
Similar situation with the Dollar. That's why Russia can't just sell their Dollars to other countries.
What crimes has Norway committed
The data about who "owns" shares in US companies is stored digitally in the US.
Similar situation with the Dollar. That's why Russia can't just sell their Dollars to other countries.
I'm nearly positive a buyer exists who would be willing to trade at, say, 1 US dollar per 0.1 Chinese yuan, even if it meant they had to drive a truck into and out of Anatolia to move the physical bills. China and Russia are trade partners, but s/China/India, Kazakhstan, wherever you want - the point remains the same. Indeed, if Russian citizens are not rushing to sell their dollars for whatever they can get them for, it must be because they foresee some future where they might have actual value, which seems at odds with the claim that Russia is permanently and magically banned from ever using their US dollars again.
[T]he US might not want to send stuff to Europe when Europe has nothing to send back.
This seems extremely contrived. First, you're imagining US-Europe trade slows to a trickle. Second, you're imagining that not one single Euro country decides to reverse course on their bad economic choices when it notices this. Third, you're imagining that Norway is still holding onto their enormous US assets in this situation instead of liquidating them as soon as they see people riding the horse and buggy to work again.
The holding company in the other country holds the shares.
And if their shares get frozen, they can't "move" them to the company in the other country. The US just won't update those database entries.
Norway didn't follow the 80s/90s trend of public asset selloff. Turns out there are alternatives after all. It also didn't join the EU, so it has more sovereignty over its economic policy, although EEA does mandate some neoliberal policies (some of which Norway has ignored or fought against).
https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2018/03/14/the-state-ow...