7 ms·

In which society is it easiest to get rich? Contrary to common belief, it is not countries like the US or the UK that create the highest number of rich people p

In which society is it easiest to get rich? Contrary to common belief, it is not countries like the US or the UK that create the highest number of rich people per capita, but Nordic social democracies like Norway and Sweden. Counter intuitive as it may sound, high taxes, generous welfare states and strong unions makes a better environment for the people who wants to earn huge amounts of money, than free markets, low taxes, and minimal government intervention.

mamon 9y ago
First, define "huge amount of money" because obviously Nordic countries have some alternative definition of it :) How many self made billionaires are in Sweden? Second, the way of becoming rich country haven't changed for the last few millenniums: you have to exploit cheap labor from a large number of slaves (sorry, now we call them immigrants) Therefore becoming rich strongly depends on being born in right race and social class. Lastly, it's amusing how so many social issues get blamed on capitalism and free markets when both of those things are pretty much nonexistent in most countries - even US have some heavy regulation in place.
- Alan_Dillman 9y ago
  I was quite surprised that the Nordic countries have more reported billionaires per capital than Canada, despite the Nordic nations being —theoretically— less business friendly. Example: Canada has about 1.08 billionaires per million people, while Sweden has 3.16. Norway, with its oil, performs more poorly, but still better than Canada: 2.69 billionaires per million people. Denmark is only slightly worse than Canada at 1.05. Source of my information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_billionaires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_numbe...
  - pawadu 9y ago
    > less business friendly Just hypothetically, which of these two made up countries do you consider more business friendly: * Country 1 with low taxes and zero labor and environmental laws * Country 2 with a highly educated work force and low crime but high taxes
    - apk-d 9y ago
      Crime isn't really a big factor, I think (maybe excluding weird failed states and countries that are at war) and work force is easy to train if you can afford the initial investment. Low taxes + low bureaucracy go a long way.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - Temasik 9y ago
        No fun being rich in a country where public infrastructure are broken e.g crazy congestion
      - tryitnow 9y ago
        Really? So instead of my business paying a lot in taxes I'll have to pay a lot for education. Doesn't really seem to be much of an advantage.
    - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
      Reminds me of the many discussions about the "business-friendliness" of GPL vs BSD software. Usually the focus is narrowly on the business that wants to take the code and sell it or derivatives as proprietary software, not on the business customers who would be locked into the software as customers and would benefit from GPL protections of software users. But for whatever reason, that framing seems very powerful and hard to dislodge. Probably because there's (at least potential) fat profits available to people who disseminate it. I guess the same is true of the "business friendly" policies of Republicans.
  - mcv 9y ago
    > the Nordic nations being —theoretically— less business friendly. I've seen plenty of reports that listed the Nordic countries as the most business friendly. Taxes are only a tiny part of the equation, and the tax differences are not as big as often believed.
  - namlem 9y ago
    Denmark is consistently ranked either first or second in terms of business friendliness, trading places with New Zealand. The US is third.
- Temasik 9y ago
  Would local market counts? Average 5 million humans in Scandinavian countries vs 300+ in USA and billions in China and India Throw anything in China the market is already there e.g that China uber

mamon 9y ago

First, define "huge amount of money" because obviously Nordic countries have some alternative definition of it :) How many self made billionaires are in Sweden? Second, the way of becoming rich country haven't changed for the last few millenniums: you have to exploit cheap labor from a large number of slaves (sorry, now we call them immigrants) Therefore becoming rich strongly depends on being born in right race and social class. Lastly, it's amusing how so many social issues get blamed on capitalism and free markets when both of those things are pretty much nonexistent in most countries - even US have some heavy regulation in place.

Alan_Dillman 9y ago
I was quite surprised that the Nordic countries have more reported billionaires per capital than Canada, despite the Nordic nations being —theoretically— less business friendly. Example: Canada has about 1.08 billionaires per million people, while Sweden has 3.16. Norway, with its oil, performs more poorly, but still better than Canada: 2.69 billionaires per million people. Denmark is only slightly worse than Canada at 1.05. Source of my information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_billionaires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_numbe...
- pawadu 9y ago
  > less business friendly Just hypothetically, which of these two made up countries do you consider more business friendly: * Country 1 with low taxes and zero labor and environmental laws * Country 2 with a highly educated work force and low crime but high taxes
  - apk-d 9y ago
    Crime isn't really a big factor, I think (maybe excluding weird failed states and countries that are at war) and work force is easy to train if you can afford the initial investment. Low taxes + low bureaucracy go a long way.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - Temasik 9y ago
      No fun being rich in a country where public infrastructure are broken e.g crazy congestion
    - tryitnow 9y ago
      Really? So instead of my business paying a lot in taxes I'll have to pay a lot for education. Doesn't really seem to be much of an advantage.
  - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
    Reminds me of the many discussions about the "business-friendliness" of GPL vs BSD software. Usually the focus is narrowly on the business that wants to take the code and sell it or derivatives as proprietary software, not on the business customers who would be locked into the software as customers and would benefit from GPL protections of software users. But for whatever reason, that framing seems very powerful and hard to dislodge. Probably because there's (at least potential) fat profits available to people who disseminate it. I guess the same is true of the "business friendly" policies of Republicans.
- mcv 9y ago
  > the Nordic nations being —theoretically— less business friendly. I've seen plenty of reports that listed the Nordic countries as the most business friendly. Taxes are only a tiny part of the equation, and the tax differences are not as big as often believed.
- namlem 9y ago
  Denmark is consistently ranked either first or second in terms of business friendliness, trading places with New Zealand. The US is third.
Temasik 9y ago
Would local market counts? Average 5 million humans in Scandinavian countries vs 300+ in USA and billions in China and India Throw anything in China the market is already there e.g that China uber