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Comment by TrackerFF | Hacker News Reader

Yes, there are lots of difficulties in the Nordic countries - centralization and unemployment is a plight for lots of rural areas. Some towns are pretty much being propped up by local gov. and state employment, with very little private enterprise going on.

Hell, a lot of would-be entrepreneurs and business owners don't see the benefits / rewards of starting something for themselves, because you put in all those hours, with the possibility to come off worse than if you had just chosen a mediocre state job.

Salaries are quite compressed, which is great for equality - but not so much for motivation, if you're very ambitious.

With that said, we do live comfy lives, compared to most people around the world.

Source: Norwegian

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For reference, in case someone is curious: If you look at the working-age population of Norway, approximately 1/3 are on welfare benefits, 1/3 work in the public sector and 1/3 work in the private sector.

It stands to reason that taxes have to be high.

Its actually quite amazing, given those numbers, that things actually work in Norway. From what you're describing, somehow 1/2 of the working age population is able to support the other half of the working and a sizeable non working population.

Part of the story is that the 3% annual income from the Pension Fund (oil fund) covers approximately 17% of the national budget. These numbers couldn't work otherwise.

This is, of course, thanks to the incredible lucky foresight that let us capture most of the profits from the oil industry as a public good. One could of course question the priorities in how this money is spent.

I'm of the opinion that our public sector is too big, for instance. I'm fairly sure that a considerable part of it works more as a jobs program than a necessary public utility.

Another interpretation would be that we in effect already have a massive basic income program going, a priority with which I'd actually agree. We're just not being honest about it, partly due to still being unable to run it unconditionally. The unspoken and un-debated consensus seems to be that there needs to be a bit of a taboo in utilizing such services, or the system would be overloaded.

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