3 ms·
In these kinds of discussions I like to promote this interesting TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9UmdY0E8hU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9UmdY0E
by willvarfar 9y ago
In these kinds of discussions I like to promote this interesting TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9UmdY0E8hU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9UmdY0E8hU "Where in the world is it easiest to get rich?"
Spoiler: the talk shows that statistically the Nordic countries lead the world in millionaires and billionaires / capita, and in rags-to-riches. The talker offers the opinion that this is because its of the strong social safety net, education and healthcare.
Living in Scandinavia of course I like to hear this ;)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- fastball 9y agoOr maybe it's the very high resource/population ratio? The petroleum sector accounts for 40% of Norway's exports. Fishing is 10% (!) of Norwegian exports. Both of these things have an incredibly high extraction efficiency in the modern era. It would be nice to believe it's the social safety net, but I don't think that hypothesis is backed up with much evidence. The much more obvious reason is staring Scandinavia in the face. I'm intrigued to see how Norway does when the rest of the world stops using petroleum and goes vegan.
- willvarfar 9y agoSweden, without oil and without much fishing, is also doing really well per-capita etc. On the ground, the welfare state approach seems the plausible explanation. And how will Norway do post-oil? Really rather well, it seems, because of its sovereign wealth approach which contrasts strongly with eg the Texas approach.
- kodablah 9y agoI've about given up on per-capita studies whose results rely on cultural differences too (but of course can't account for them). We have to accept places are different in more ways than population size. It's like saying where in the world is it easiest to have blonde hair.