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talkpoliticsBeen hearing from some die-hard Mises.org reciters over here and elsewhere quite a recurring adage over the years. You see, we shouldn't be presenting the Scandinavian societies as an example of a good model, because, you know, theirs is a social and economic system that's unsustainable in the long run. Well, maybe less unsustainable than some others, but doomed to failure nevertheless. It may all be looking like birds and flowers right now, but you just wait! That overly generous scheme is doomed to eventually crumble down like the house of cards that it is, and prove Ayn Rand and all those Freedmanites right. Because that's what it's all about: being right, you know! Even when reality tends to repeatedly fail to live up to your expectations, and provide that damned piece of evidence you've been so desperately counting on.
Aaanyway; to cut the long story short, here it is, one example of the unsustainable Scandinavian model that, of course, as we all know, is doomed to fail sometime in the near/medium/distant/whatever future, at some point between tomorrow tea-time and the moment when the rate of expansion of the universe will have accelerated so much that it would render all elementary particles unstable, thus causing the Big Rip. (Which is the point where all our quibbles and shenanigans become ultimately immaterial - both figuratively and quite literally).
All Norwegians become millionaires as oil fund balloons
"Everyone in Norway became a theoretical krone millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices. Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts."
Of course, we shouldn't omit the fact that this is only theoretical. Meaning, the Norwegian people will certainly not be showered with money any time soon (not that they're deprived of a super-high income, anyway). The point here is rather that this is a country which happens to have some valuable resource, and instead of letting various private interests go rampant and appropriate the whole of it, they've opted for a different route. A string of Norwegian governments have been hoarding funds from this resource for years on behalf of their people, with the full knowledge that it's not infinite and is bound to get depleted at some point. But similarly to some of the Gulf monarchies, they haven't let the bulk of that huge income ooze across borders and largely end up in the coffers of foreign "investors" - instead, they've been thinking hard, working cautiously, and investing it in various enterprises with potentially good returns around the world, with the sole purpose of creating a stable basis for boosting their country's overall prosperity. A thing which is designed to later keep bringing revenue for the country, even long after Peak Oil or whatever other economic cataclysm has inevitably happened in the North Sea region.
Indeed, Norway's oil fund has now become the world's biggest, and it has been an example of smart, prudent management for the most part. And yes, one currently promoting sustainable development both at home and overseas. Now that the Norwegians have set their eyes on a new cause, encouraging a more environment-friendly development in whichever sectors, industries and regions the fund deems appropriate (and yes, profitable - contrary to all "socialism" labels) to get involved, there might be yet another example worth emulating that'll go into the ever expanding list of commendable undertakings of the fund.
I know what some'd say now. Norway is a homogeneous society with a tiny population, and is simultaneously blessed with natural riches that few of its counterparts could boast of - so it has got it all too easy (if we ignore the depressing, often suicide-inducing weather for a while). True, that. But that's just one half of the equation. The other half is the human factor: because it actually takes smart, responsible individuals (who, in turn, tend to emerge from a culture and a society that has shaped itself in a way as to foster the environment that could continuously "breed" such leaders), to use those treasures in a way that wouldn't allow them to be squandered through corruption, mismanagement, and opportunistic, greedy, and/or senselessly militaristic (or in other words, stupid) channels.
It's true that a number of super-wealthy investment bankers all over the world are making tons of money off Norway's oil fund. It's also true that financial reform might be needed in the next few years, particularly regarding social benefits and restructuring the economy and infrastructure even of one of the most prosperous and best-managed countries in the world. But let's face it. All Mises-style doomsday prophecies aside, and despite all the ups and downs both at a political, global economic and social/cultural level (I'm looking at you, Breivik), there's actually something we could all learn from our Norwegian neighbors. The thing that matters most of all is that that country has had a long tradition of holding power to account, and making wise use of its resources, both natural and demographic.
Aaanyway; to cut the long story short, here it is, one example of the unsustainable Scandinavian model that, of course, as we all know, is doomed to fail sometime in the near/medium/distant/whatever future, at some point between tomorrow tea-time and the moment when the rate of expansion of the universe will have accelerated so much that it would render all elementary particles unstable, thus causing the Big Rip. (Which is the point where all our quibbles and shenanigans become ultimately immaterial - both figuratively and quite literally).
All Norwegians become millionaires as oil fund balloons
"Everyone in Norway became a theoretical krone millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices. Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts."
Of course, we shouldn't omit the fact that this is only theoretical. Meaning, the Norwegian people will certainly not be showered with money any time soon (not that they're deprived of a super-high income, anyway). The point here is rather that this is a country which happens to have some valuable resource, and instead of letting various private interests go rampant and appropriate the whole of it, they've opted for a different route. A string of Norwegian governments have been hoarding funds from this resource for years on behalf of their people, with the full knowledge that it's not infinite and is bound to get depleted at some point. But similarly to some of the Gulf monarchies, they haven't let the bulk of that huge income ooze across borders and largely end up in the coffers of foreign "investors" - instead, they've been thinking hard, working cautiously, and investing it in various enterprises with potentially good returns around the world, with the sole purpose of creating a stable basis for boosting their country's overall prosperity. A thing which is designed to later keep bringing revenue for the country, even long after Peak Oil or whatever other economic cataclysm has inevitably happened in the North Sea region.
Indeed, Norway's oil fund has now become the world's biggest, and it has been an example of smart, prudent management for the most part. And yes, one currently promoting sustainable development both at home and overseas. Now that the Norwegians have set their eyes on a new cause, encouraging a more environment-friendly development in whichever sectors, industries and regions the fund deems appropriate (and yes, profitable - contrary to all "socialism" labels) to get involved, there might be yet another example worth emulating that'll go into the ever expanding list of commendable undertakings of the fund.
I know what some'd say now. Norway is a homogeneous society with a tiny population, and is simultaneously blessed with natural riches that few of its counterparts could boast of - so it has got it all too easy (if we ignore the depressing, often suicide-inducing weather for a while). True, that. But that's just one half of the equation. The other half is the human factor: because it actually takes smart, responsible individuals (who, in turn, tend to emerge from a culture and a society that has shaped itself in a way as to foster the environment that could continuously "breed" such leaders), to use those treasures in a way that wouldn't allow them to be squandered through corruption, mismanagement, and opportunistic, greedy, and/or senselessly militaristic (or in other words, stupid) channels.
It's true that a number of super-wealthy investment bankers all over the world are making tons of money off Norway's oil fund. It's also true that financial reform might be needed in the next few years, particularly regarding social benefits and restructuring the economy and infrastructure even of one of the most prosperous and best-managed countries in the world. But let's face it. All Mises-style doomsday prophecies aside, and despite all the ups and downs both at a political, global economic and social/cultural level (I'm looking at you, Breivik), there's actually something we could all learn from our Norwegian neighbors. The thing that matters most of all is that that country has had a long tradition of holding power to account, and making wise use of its resources, both natural and demographic.
(no subject)
Date: 27/4/14 20:23 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 27/4/14 20:25 (UTC)So that says a lot about cultural differences playing a part in prosperity.
(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 02:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 27/4/14 23:07 (UTC)Tax resources, not labour...
(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 00:23 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 07:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 02:26 (UTC)By contrast, that same oil play led to Thatcher's disastrous rise, the privatization of too many until then sacred public trusts in the UK, the rise of the financial class—problems that beset Britons to this day.
(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 05:47 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 28/4/14 05:55 (UTC)Thanks for pointing that out, because I knew the UK had a lot of oil and gas in the North Sea too, and forgotten what the key difference was. Maggie Thatcher.
(no subject)
Date: 29/4/14 18:47 (UTC)I wish we'd been more financially prudent along with more honourable than we were. Kudos to Norway. Nordic cultures 3, Anglo-Saxon cultures nil. But at least it isn't dark for four months of the year.
(no subject)
Date: 29/4/14 20:13 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 29/4/14 21:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 29/4/14 22:21 (UTC)