Norway and Oil

[Hauldren Collider]

Then again, they are a bunch of medieval goons so **** them.

QFT

[DRoseDARs]

It'll be fun to watch them twist in the wind when the oil runs out. Of course, that said, the oil barons of the Middle East will simply take their money and leave and everyone else who remains behind will, in the throes of incomprehensible post-oil poverty, turn to radical Islam.

Maybe not so fun.

[Dinner]

To bad Norway has a sky high tax rate so that the defacto standard of living is much lower then the dollar amount would lead you to believe. Everyone in Norway drives 15 year old cars because they can't afford new ones.

[DRoseDARs]

For those missing the joke, Norway has been consistently at or near the top of the Human Development Index compiled by the UN for most of the past 10 or so years. Norway was #1 for 2009's report based on data from 2007 (each report relies on 2-year-old data). Iceland had it for 2 years this decade (2008 and '07), Canada had most of last decade with Japan taking 3 years. The US ranked 13th in the 2009 report, down from 12th the previous report.

[Wernazuma III]

For those missing the joke, Norway has been consistently at or near the top of the Human Development Index compiled by the UN for most of the past 10 or so years. Norway was #1 for 2009's report based on data from 2007 (each report relies on 2-year-old data). Iceland had it for 2 years this decade (2008 and '07), Canada had most of last decade with Japan taking 3 years. The US ranked 13th in the 2009 report, down from 12th the previous report.

But USians drive big fat new cars, and chase away tax officials with their consitutionally granted rifles, so who cares about anything else?

[Dinner]

Exactly!

[Asher]

For those missing the joke, Norway has been consistently at or near the top of the Human Development Index compiled by the UN for most of the past 10 or so years. Norway was #1 for 2009's report based on data from 2007 (each report relies on 2-year-old data). Iceland had it for 2 years this decade (2008 and '07), Canada had most of last decade with Japan taking 3 years. The US ranked 13th in the 2009 report, down from 12th the previous report.

Canada

[Ben Kenobi]

2) Norway is a homogenous and sensible country

For now, but when this changes?

[Kitschum]

For now, but when this changes?

Then I guess we'll see artificial tropical islands being built in the Oslo fjord.

The biggest threat to the oil fund seems to be the right-wing populists in the Frp. They have grown alarmingly of late, but I bet there are others on Apolyton with a better grounding in Norwegian politics than me so I won't speculate on their chances to screw up the country completely.

[VetLegion]

While I can (kinda-sorta) understand the prudence of not spending all the oil
money, I'm interested in the exact mechanisms of preventing it.

[Cort Haus]

I know a bloke who works in the Norwegian oil industry. I'll try and find out his take on this.

[Cort Haus]

You should develop the humility to understand the idea of supply and demand with respect to labor.

You could do with a drop or two of humility yourself, tbh.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

in the absence of other sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway

* Whether the country should use more of the petroleum revenues for the state budget instead of saving the funds for the future. The main matter of debate is to what degree increased government spending will increase inflation.
* Whether the high level of exposure (around 60% in 2008) to the highly volatile, and therefore risky, stock market is financially safe. Others claim that the high differentiation and extreme long term of the investments will dilute the risk and that the state is losing considerable amounts of money due to the low investment percentage in the stock market.
* Whether the investment policy of the Petroleum Fund is ethical.

almost 1/2 trillion USD in the fund for 4.5 mil people in Norway, 100k per person ... all that in only last 20 years... let's hope they continue to manage it well.

[RGBVideo]

For those missing the joke, Norway has been consistently at or near the top of the Human Development Index

[DRoseDARs]

Finland bumped the United States for 12th place last year.