I lived in Norway for two years. It is a beautiful country and the people are wonderful but the taxes are nuts. The VAT tax causes everything but the basics to be two to three time as high as in the United States. I remember if you drove out of the country you were almost expected to come back with a car trunk full of tax free liqueur. Some people in NATO were paying their monthly rent with their monthly tax free allotment of booze.
What I do not understand is if 3/4 of the people are against the taxes why do they still have them and why do they continually find new things to tax? We are told that Norway is a democracy but I see little evidence of that. In a democracy you get rid of people who pass laws that you do not like. In my experience Norway is a socialist nation run by an elite ruling class. They control the media and all legislation in Norway.
Irritation grows over taxes – Aftenposten.no
Norwegians have long accepted high taxes to finance their social welfare state, but a new survey indicates rising dissatisfaction and, in some cases, outright hatred of some taxes that are viewed as way too high and unfair.
Taxes in Norway are insane and really don’t know how most people are surviving. They have very little income to actually enjoy life, as most is being sent to their goverment. It was ranked as a great place to live, but by who?? The winters (Lack of actual SUNLIGHT) and TAXES makes this nation only friendly to the natives, if that. They don’t have much of an influx of other nations like the other countries in Europe and the USA. It is a hard life not wished on anyone.
I wrote my comment like I was just there. Thinking back it was over 30 years ago when I was living there. Even then a underclass was starting to develop in downtown Oslo. I can only imagine what it is like living there now.
n the 70’s gas was about the same price for a liter as we would pay for a gallon in the US. If that is still true today that would mean that gas is $12 a gallon.
I thought most of the Norwegian people were great but some did get in everyone else’s business. It seemed that there was a class of people that could never be pleased. They could not be happy unless they were making rules for everyone else.
They must have believed that they had civilization down to a science. No more than two parties a year were allowed in my flat. They would phone in your traffic violations and the police would take their word for it and fine you through the mail. All kinds of control freak stuff like that was going on and probably still is.
We have high taxes, but we also make a lot of money.
If you have a typical low salari job like working for McDonalds you make 28 us dollars an hours.
Hence you can afford to pay extra for a few items.
And we have a very good health care system and school system that’s expensive.
We have very little serious crime. Among the lowest in the world.
Take me as an example. I have a wife and 3 children. I make about 70 000 us dollars a year. That is considered to be a fairly low pay. More or less an average to low industrial workers pay.
I don’t need health insurance for my or my kids. They have free school including university level education – and they can choose a university in any country in the world.
They have all free dental care until they are 18 years old – and they pay a reduces amount until they are 25.
My wife gets at least 1 year maternity leave for each kid with full pay.
If we had a child with a handycap – we would get a special car from the state for free, including fuel. We would also get money to redesign our house to be good for wheelchairs and so on.
My sister works at a place for autistic children. There are 3-4 children and over 25 emploeyees working there to make sure they have a nice life. This cost major bucks in a high cost contry. To pay for things like that – we need to get taxes.
I have calculated that I only pay about 260 dollars a month in tax. The rest is stuff I get back from the stat. Either as cash or as services. I have not included free school, healthcare or dental services in this amount. So for me – I manage quite fine.
If you are super rich you have to pay more then what you get back. At least in money. But they get to live in a place with very low crime. The super rich in the us should also pay more tax. You see how your economy are now.. you need taxes or cut spending in order to save the economy.
wether you want a wellfare state with a cradle to the grave system – or a system you have.. now that is another thing. It has positive and negative sides like everything else.
But what I find hilarious is when you have reporters talking to piss poor rednecks that is die hard republicans… and they are SO against a system like we do.. I choose to rate them as not that informed.
If they were rich and had use of a housekeeper and a gardener.. I understand why they love the system. They get cheap labour, that makes their life easy – even though the children to the housekeepers and gardeners get no college education, no dental and no healthcare.. because they can not afford the insurance.
But hey.. that’s just me and my 5 cents.
John
It is possible to have a funded socialist system without going in debt if much of the government income comes from oil exports and natural resources and those revenues are spread around to just a few million people like in Norway. If you took away Norway’s oil you would not have it quite so good over there.
I lived in Norway and I know your high costs for everything and $18 an hour in Norway will buy a living standard compared to $6 an hour here.
You say you make $70,000 a year but what do you actually take home after your taxes are removed, maybe $30,000 and even then you have to pay three time as much for most things?
We have a good medical system here. Most are on health insurance here and if not, most medical cost are picked up by our government. Our system that is not under insurance is almost already totally socialized under Medicaid, Medicare and the VA system among other programs.
People in Norway also live more healthy lifestyles, I did not see many fat people in Norway. So that is another reason why your medical costs are not our of hand. You should see the fat hanging off the people and the laziness among those collecting government checks to sit and do nothing here. You also do not have our crime problem and the related costs and that is directly related to the cost of multiculturalism. But I think you are starting to get the message about foreigners that want to destroy the way of life in Europe. Ever since the World wars we were paying the cost for much of the world’s national defense from military tyranny. Norway is not. By the way when did you pay the reconstruction of Europe loans back to the United States?
The super rich in the United States do pay more takes. The top one percent in income pay 30 percent of all the taxes and the bottom 50 percent pay no Federal or State income taxes at all. We are already more socialized than your tax system. Could the super rich pay more here? Sure, but then they will just move to countries where they will pay less. Norway has lower business taxes than we do here,.In fact high corporation taxes is a large reason why we have high unemployment rates right now.
The Democrats are just plain liars when they claim they want to raise taxes just on the rich making over $200,000 a year. What they do not tell you is that they also will raise the taxes on Small businesses making that amount. That kills small businesses and jobs For the risks that small businesses owners take each year making $200,000 is a gain one year and a loss the next is not that much. Even under present tax rates 5 out of 6 of the restaurants in the small town near where I live went out business because they cannot make it a go with all the taxes and regulation. So now we have five big empty buildings and no jobs and nobody no longer working is paying taxes.
Our piss poor Rednecks are die hard republicans for several reasons. They still believe in God and the right to have Him mentioned in our land. They also want the right to bear arms to keep tyranny from ever establishing itself here. They also want big government to get out of there lives and quit mirco-managing their lives and telling them what they can do with their land. They are tired of working two to three jobs to try to get ahead only to see it taken in taxes to pay for people in the inner cities and the local deadbeats that will not work for a living.
The bottom line is that you cannot compare the social programs of oil exporting nations with oil importing nations. If it were not for the oil you would be in much the same situation as Greece although I do have to admit that the people of Norway have a different work ethic than the Greeks. They at least expect to work. Take the oil away from Saudi Arabia which has more spreading the wealth around than Norway and what do you have? Dust storms and camel jockeys..
What really irks me is the misinformation you Europeans get about America from your liberal press.
Is there any way Norway and Greece can merge?
Don,
I totally second with you. I am an Indian who studied in USA and worked there for a while and then i wanted to see how it is to live in a country rated ‘best country in the world to live in’.
To be honest, Scandinavian socialism does not impress me and i will tell you why. All people are born different with different potentials and different ways of thinking. In Norway, as my manager told me ‘Everyone is average’. I hate to believe this. I took student loans from India to study in USA keeping my parents house as collateral to be a part of the society which has healthy competetion and where you are encouraged and rewarded for your best performances. I have missed that part totally in Norway. What kind of motivation can you get when you are told by your manager that you are no more than average?
Give me any time in my life a hard work of 10-12 hours a day and living a more colorful lifestyle rather than 7.5 hours a day and living a very linear and dull life.
Regarding taxes, it is ridiculously high. Many people have been complaining about it here but i am really amazed that they have just accepted the game and they dont raise their voice against it. This is pure socialism.
In the end, i am glad that i am moving back to India where even if living standard is low, but the human spirit is still independent!
Tony,
Thanks for your input. You will not make as much in India but I am sure the people in India will appreciate your skills and hard work more.
I lived in Norway over thirty years ago and even then it seemed like everyone just played the game and went with the flow. Nanny government would govern everything. Like even what TV shows would play in Norway. They pretty much only had programs that had a social message or a Norwegian actor.
In Norway everyone is watching everyone else to make sure they follow the rules. I got a traffic ticket once because someone called my license plate into the police, Trying to contest what was reported was about impossible. Even by a phone report from a stranger who called in your license you’re guilty until you can prove you are innocent in Norway.
I also got evicted from an apartment because someone next door said I was making too much noise. In that Apartment complex you were only allowed to have a party twice a year and everyone was counting. I knew that but apparently my Norwegian girl friend was having friends over once in a while when I was at work and this disturbed the late afternoon nap time of the guy next door because he apparently could not keep his ear off the wall.
Norway has great natural resources and very low population and that is the only reason their socialist paradise works economically. Norway is a nice place to visit but I would not want to live there and their type of socialism would not work in places where people actually have to work for a living..