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the oil curse? come on. natural resources are neither a blessing or curse. norway is a small country with lots of oil and isn't a disaster. i don't know what

by awl130 11y ago

the oil curse? come on. natural resources are neither a blessing or curse. norway is a small country with lots of oil and isn't a disaster. i don't know what the problem is but don't blame it on oil.

guyzero 11y ago
A curse is literally what economists call these situations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
- legulere 11y ago
  Another name would be Dutch disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
MarkPNeyer 11y ago
Imagine having the ability to see and hear the thoughts of everyone around you. You'd either be a superhero, the best politician, running a sane, stable, healthy 'democracy' where people who were upset had things fixed just the right way - or you'd be a crumbled mess, an incoherent madman. There's no middle ground. With a singularly outsized ability like that, you simply could not function in a 'normal life.' Perhaps huge oil revenues are like that - without a stable cultural and political setup to use the resources wisely and for the benefit of the whole community (norway) - perhaps the only other course is a totally connected political mafia that extracts the value of the primary resource for itself and its supporters. A history of colonialism would set the country up for the second track.
HillRat 11y ago
It's a term of art in development economics. Norway is an interesting case because it had a developed economy before petroleum exploitation, but even so a lot of Norwegian policies depend on having a large fiscal buffer based on resource extraction. Developing states without strong social structures generally follow maladaptive development paths when exposed to lots of resource revenues, which is a tragedy in its own right.
afsina 11y ago
Norway has 5 millions of people and crap load of oil money in the piggy bank.

by awl130 11y ago

the oil curse? come on. natural resources are neither a blessing or curse. norway is a small country with lots of oil and isn't a disaster. i don't know what the problem is but don't blame it on oil.

guyzero 11y ago

A curse is literally what economists call these situations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse

legulere 11y ago
Another name would be Dutch disease: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

MarkPNeyer 11y ago

Imagine having the ability to see and hear the thoughts of everyone around you. You'd either be a superhero, the best politician, running a sane, stable, healthy 'democracy' where people who were upset had things fixed just the right way - or you'd be a crumbled mess, an incoherent madman. There's no middle ground. With a singularly outsized ability like that, you simply could not function in a 'normal life.' Perhaps huge oil revenues are like that - without a stable cultural and political setup to use the resources wisely and for the benefit of the whole community (norway) - perhaps the only other course is a totally connected political mafia that extracts the value of the primary resource for itself and its supporters. A history of colonialism would set the country up for the second track.

HillRat 11y ago

It's a term of art in development economics. Norway is an interesting case because it had a developed economy before petroleum exploitation, but even so a lot of Norwegian policies depend on having a large fiscal buffer based on resource extraction. Developing states without strong social structures generally follow maladaptive development paths when exposed to lots of resource revenues, which is a tragedy in its own right.

afsina 11y ago

Norway has 5 millions of people and crap load of oil money in the piggy bank.