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Its actually quite amazing, given those numbers, that things actually work in Norway. From what you're describing, somehow 1/2 of the working age population is

• marvin 6y ago
  Part of the story is that the 3% annual income from the Pension Fund (oil fund) covers approximately 17% of the national budget. These numbers couldn't work otherwise. This is, of course, thanks to the incredible lucky foresight that let us capture most of the profits from the oil industry as a public good. One could of course question the priorities in how this money is spent. I'm of the opinion that our public sector is too big, for instance. I'm fairly sure that a considerable part of it works more as a jobs program than a necessary public utility. Another interpretation would be that we in effect already have a massive basic income program going, a priority with which I'd actually agree. We're just not being honest about it, partly due to still being unable to run it unconditionally. The unspoken and un-debated consensus seems to be that there needs to be a bit of a taboo in utilizing such services, or the system would be overloaded.