What Norway’s Like

I just had the pleasure to meet a young couple from Norway.  A couple of interesting elements from our discussion:

1) They live on the southern part of the country, and I told them about the fellow I met recently who lives “about 800 miles north of Oslo; 300 miles above the Arctic Circle, who experiences 67 days of darkness every winter.” (Of course, the summer is the precise opposite; there are people mowing their lawns at 2 AM.)

They mentioned that most of the Norwegians who live in the extreme north bear a distinct resentment towards those in the more hospitable climates.  I replied that the same prejudice exists in the United States, where the folks in New England or the Northern Plains think that we Southern Californians are soft, in terms of both physical and moral constitution.

2) Because of a family business interest, they divide their time between Norway and California.  Remarkably, they pay about 28% income tax in Norway, and close to 40% in the United States, because of our combination of federal and state taxes.  Of course, this isn’t exactly “apples-to-apples,” since they get free education and healthcare in Norway, where they have to come out-of-pocket for these items in  the U.S.

They concede, however, that it’s tough to become extremely rich in Norway, because, as a social democracy, they have higher taxes on very large incomes, and, more importantly, a wealth tax.  Thus people who have inherited extreme amounts of money, or have made north of a hundred million dollars normally wind up in places like Switzerland.

I replied that taxing the rich is a “thing” here in the U.S., but it’s doomed to failure, as our rich and powerful essentially own our lawmakers.  Corruption like this exists nowhere in Scandinavia.