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Not to take anything away from Norway (it is a nice country), but impressions based on a short vacation stay are not really comparable to living there - working

by jazzyk 10y ago

Not to take anything away from Norway (it is a nice country), but impressions based on a short vacation stay are not really comparable to living there - working, renting/buying, social interactions, etc. Also, Norway is one of these lucky countries with a lot of oil and not a lot of people :-)

paulsutter 10y ago
Happiest countries according to UN, top 5: Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland. The US ranks 13. Norway is the only one of these with oil. Check for yourself where the other oil countries show on the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report (Yay Switzerland for giving a little competition to the Nordics)
- jazzyk 10y ago
  1. These are all small, homogenous, quiet countries 2. The UN index is really more of a "quality of life" index, with very strange/subjective criteria. For example, if you sort by the "Freedom to make life choices" column, Uzbekistan comes out on top, with Cambodia in third place. NOt buying it. 3. Another view (from a left-leaning newspaper, typically sympathetic to the Nordics) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-miracle-brutal-truth-denmark-norway-sweden https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-m...
  - dalke 10y ago
    How do you define 'homogenous'? By most definitions I know of, Sweden is not homogenous. For example, over 9% of the residents of the country were not born in a European country. Regarding the piece from The Guardian, consider this quote: "A spokesman for the Sweden Democrats (currently at an all-time high of close to 10% in the polls) insisted to me that immigrants were "more prone to violence"." SD is an anti-immigrant party in Sweden. I find it odd that the speaker chose a source which is most likely to give a negative portrayal of immigrants. But I needn't explore that in any depth as the commenters to that piece have done so for me. FWIW, there was a followup at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-miracle-denmark-finland-iceland-norway-sweden https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-m... . The author writes (about the piece you linked to): > In trying to make myself heard above the clamour of pro-Nordic propaganda in the British (indeed, global) media, and shake a few people out of their decade-long Scandi-trances, I hereby plead guilty to a selective, provocative slant on the region.
digi_owl 10y ago
I would not say oil is makes us "lucky". Most industries not related to oil in some way is basically at a standstill, because oil exports are driving the NOK and thus making our other exports expensive. Also, the oil companies can outbid just about anyone else for employees. The recent oil price drop has been a boon for many companies that was desperate from engineers etc. Now they can take on projects that were on ice because they didn't have the staff and such.

by jazzyk 10y ago

paulsutter 10y ago

Happiest countries according to UN, top 5: Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland. The US ranks 13. Norway is the only one of these with oil. Check for yourself where the other oil countries show on the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report (Yay Switzerland for giving a little competition to the Nordics)

jazzyk 10y ago
1. These are all small, homogenous, quiet countries 2. The UN index is really more of a "quality of life" index, with very strange/subjective criteria. For example, if you sort by the "Freedom to make life choices" column, Uzbekistan comes out on top, with Cambodia in third place. NOt buying it. 3. Another view (from a left-leaning newspaper, typically sympathetic to the Nordics) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-miracle-brutal-truth-denmark-norway-sweden https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/scandinavian-m...
- dalke 10y ago
  How do you define 'homogenous'? By most definitions I know of, Sweden is not homogenous. For example, over 9% of the residents of the country were not born in a European country. Regarding the piece from The Guardian, consider this quote: "A spokesman for the Sweden Democrats (currently at an all-time high of close to 10% in the polls) insisted to me that immigrants were "more prone to violence"." SD is an anti-immigrant party in Sweden. I find it odd that the speaker chose a source which is most likely to give a negative portrayal of immigrants. But I needn't explore that in any depth as the commenters to that piece have done so for me. FWIW, there was a followup at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-miracle-denmark-finland-iceland-norway-sweden https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-m... . The author writes (about the piece you linked to): > In trying to make myself heard above the clamour of pro-Nordic propaganda in the British (indeed, global) media, and shake a few people out of their decade-long Scandi-trances, I hereby plead guilty to a selective, provocative slant on the region.

digi_owl 10y ago

I would not say oil is makes us "lucky". Most industries not related to oil in some way is basically at a standstill, because oil exports are driving the NOK and thus making our other exports expensive. Also, the oil companies can outbid just about anyone else for employees. The recent oil price drop has been a boon for many companies that was desperate from engineers etc. Now they can take on projects that were on ice because they didn't have the staff and such.