3 ms·

> as they were not a wealthy country for hundreds of years before striking oil in the 60s. I was surprised by that statement and had to look it up and it was,

> as they were not a wealthy country for hundreds of years before striking oil in the 60s. I was surprised by that statement and had to look it up and it was, of course, false. Norway was a wealthy country back to the 1800s: sources: https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/no-norway-was-not-a-poor-country-before-oil-was-discovered-b58dd365e5 https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/no-norway-was-not-a-poor-count... and https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-norway/ https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-norway/

vidarh 7y ago
The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue. Even in my lifetime - I'm 44 - the growth in wealth in Norway has been astounding. Ironically, for example, whale meat is something I remember from my childhood as a cheap meat substitute (but that is now an expensive "delicacy"; we never saw it as a delicacy then - it is tough and oily) because my parents despite both having good jobs could not often afford beef in the early 80s. Even then we'd usually have it only once a week. When I was a kid, a packed lunch was an economic necessity for many families. This was also in some sense exacerbated by more income equality: eating out is relatively expensive in Norway because serving staff are also paid reasonably well. But I think the main reason the matpakke has survived is basically that this was much closer to the norm a lot of places with low population density (~13 per square kilometer in Norway) berfore urbanization and well into early industrialisation and that Norway also for a long time was very severely lutheran, with a puritan streak. Even if you have money, showing it off is not the done thing.
- graeme 7y ago
  > The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue. Every rich country was once very poor relative to its current status though. This doesn't change the fact that Norway was not poor relative to other European countries at the time.
  - vidarh 7y ago
    Yes, but the change was very rapid and very noticeable. My parents grew up with very noticeable, very visible poverty around them. A lot of the habits the post war generations grew up with, and that still affected society throughout the 70's still permeates the culture.
    - graeme 7y ago
      Every european society had this kind of change though. Norway isn't unique. Here's an Italian movie from the 1970s, showing a family in a large slum around Italy. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/
      - vidarh 7y ago
        While "everyone" has seen growth, Norways GDP per capita went from ~167% of Italy in 1967 around the time of the start of the oil wealth to about 230% that of Italy in 2017 (world bank numbers). The oil contributed substantially to that.
- navlelo 7y ago
  Whale meat is quite inexpensive actually
  - vidarh 7y ago
    It might be again now that the novelty of it being more widely available again has worn off, it's been a while since I looked.
marvin 7y ago
Huge local differences. My grandparents almost starved to death in the 1920s due to failing crops, multiple long winters, collapse of lumber exports and general economic crisis.
ryzvonusef 7y ago
What was the wealth disparity back then?

vidarh 7y ago

The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue. Even in my lifetime - I'm 44 - the growth in wealth in Norway has been astounding. Ironically, for example, whale meat is something I remember from my childhood as a cheap meat substitute (but that is now an expensive "delicacy"; we never saw it as a delicacy then - it is tough and oily) because my parents despite both having good jobs could not often afford beef in the early 80s. Even then we'd usually have it only once a week. When I was a kid, a packed lunch was an economic necessity for many families. This was also in some sense exacerbated by more income equality: eating out is relatively expensive in Norway because serving staff are also paid reasonably well. But I think the main reason the matpakke has survived is basically that this was much closer to the norm a lot of places with low population density (~13 per square kilometer in Norway) berfore urbanization and well into early industrialisation and that Norway also for a long time was very severely lutheran, with a puritan streak. Even if you have money, showing it off is not the done thing.

graeme 7y ago
> The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue. Every rich country was once very poor relative to its current status though. This doesn't change the fact that Norway was not poor relative to other European countries at the time.
- vidarh 7y ago
  Yes, but the change was very rapid and very noticeable. My parents grew up with very noticeable, very visible poverty around them. A lot of the habits the post war generations grew up with, and that still affected society throughout the 70's still permeates the culture.
  - graeme 7y ago
    Every european society had this kind of change though. Norway isn't unique. Here's an Italian movie from the 1970s, showing a family in a large slum around Italy. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/
    - vidarh 7y ago
      While "everyone" has seen growth, Norways GDP per capita went from ~167% of Italy in 1967 around the time of the start of the oil wealth to about 230% that of Italy in 2017 (world bank numbers). The oil contributed substantially to that.
navlelo 7y ago
Whale meat is quite inexpensive actually
- vidarh 7y ago
  It might be again now that the novelty of it being more widely available again has worn off, it's been a while since I looked.

marvin 7y ago

Huge local differences. My grandparents almost starved to death in the 1920s due to failing crops, multiple long winters, collapse of lumber exports and general economic crisis.

ryzvonusef 7y ago

What was the wealth disparity back then?