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> “We’ve become spoiled,” one Norwegian told me. “Lazy,” said another. “Petroholics,” diagnosed a third." Does the Norwegian society as a whole feel this way?
by barredo 15y ago
> “We’ve become spoiled,” one Norwegian told me. “Lazy,” said another. “Petroholics,” diagnosed a third."
Does the Norwegian society as a whole feel this way? What about other oil-prosperous small countries such as the Emirates or Kuwait? Are the cases comparables?
What are the Norwegian govt plans for the long-time future when their oil is over? (it's long for that, i know).
- iaskwhy 15y agoTo start, they seem to have invested heavily in renewable energy sources. Citing Wikipedia: "Electricity generation in Norway is almost entirely from hydroelectric power plants." I believe that's more than you can say for any other country and it's one of the best ways to invest oil money I'd say.
- TobbenTM 15y agoThat's mostly because we have the opportunity to run hydroelectric plants very easily, with all our mountains and water.
- iaskwhy 15y agoYou know, you could say the same about lots of other countries and they don't do it, they invest in highways and other kinds of waste. Think of my home country, Portugal: we have mountains and rivers everywhere, we have the ocean, we have Europe's most dry land (Alentejo) and how much of our energy is renewable? 45%. And in 2005 it was around 15%. It could have been like Norway since the nineties...
- lemming 15y agoNew Zealand is similar - the majority of electricity generation is hydro. We're similar in that we have a lot of mountains and a small population.
- wilhelm 15y agoThat predates the discovery of oil. A significant portion of the major hydroelectric power plants were built around 1910. We didn't have much coal, but our country looks like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Odda_frå_fly.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Odda_frå_... The town on the picture (Odda, Hordaland) was a major center of industry, thanks to the cheap power.
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- roschdal 15y agoThat's a good question. I don't think most Norwegians think of themselves as spoiled. A lot of people here wonder what we'll do after all the oil has been extracted. There are some concerns that Norway has "Dutch disease", but the government tries to prevent it. The government has given free education a very high priority, so there is a hope that investing in people's education will be part of the answer. However, everything is very expensive here, and starting tech startups is difficult at the moment.
- borism 15y agoWhat are the Norwegian govt plans for the long-time future when their oil is over? second largest sovereign fund in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund#Largest_sovereign_wealth_funds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund#Largest_s... plus all the investments into its' own people like mentioned in the article. (it's long for that, i know). not at all, Norway's oil is pretty much gone http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-03/norway-drillers-hit-worst-dry-spell-in-decades-as-reserves-wane.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-03/norway-drillers-hit... What about other oil-prosperous small countries such as the Emirates or Kuwait? Are the cases comparables? Totally different. You know, in UAE they build skyscrapers just because they can. In Manhattan they built skyscrapers because there was no more land available to build on... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse Norway is probably only country in the world that was able to dodge Dutch disease.
- henrikgs 15y agoActually Statoil (biggest Norwegian oil company, partly Government own, mentioned in the Bloomberg article above) just found a major oil reserve in the North Sea this autumn. The forecast is 0.9 to 1.5 billion barrels, and is the largest found in the North Sea ever
- MoreMoschops 15y ago"What about other oil-prosperous small countries such as the Emirates or Kuwait?" For a long time, when a country became rich through oil, there were two paths. One was a fascist socialism in which the population was bought off with the proceeds, non-jobs flourished and foreigners did all the actual work (many of who were effectively slave labour). This is most of the oil-rich middle-east. The other model is, horrifyingly, even less admirable. A handful at the top take everything, sell their souls to foreign oil giants, and everyone else is screwed over. This is Nigeria and chums. Norway is the third option. Norway ploughs the money into a sovereign wealth fund, with long term plans. They've become world experts in getting "difficult" oil out of the wells which will see their services increasingly in demand around the world. Norway is a charming country to live in, despite being cursed with oil.
- arethuza 15y agoOne of the leaders of the new Libyan government was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and he was asked what country he would like Libya to be like in the future - his answer was Norway. [Note - both countries have populations of about 5 million]
- gizzlon 15y ago"Norway is the third option. Norway ploughs the money into a sovereign wealth fund" The older I get the more impressed I become with how this was, and is, handled. Especially when you see how it could have tourned out ..
- justincormack 15y agoAnd almost did. Until the late 1980s/early 1990s they just squandered the money like the UK did, running large deficits. But they turned things around then.
- sliverstorm 15y agoCan we hire their government to come over here and steer for a little bit?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]