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Agreed on the small homogeneous population. Not true on the oil exporting. Just look at the neighboring countries. Without oil, Norway would be like Denmark, o
by sbt 17y ago
Agreed on the small homogeneous population.
Not true on the oil exporting. Just look at the neighboring countries.
Without oil, Norway would be like Denmark, or Sweden.
- marvin 17y agoYeah. And Denmark and Sweden aren't particularly bad places to live. There is broad sentiment in Norway that we would be living in caves if it wasn't for our oil reserves, but this obviously isn't the case. There are downsides to having a very homogeneous culture, of course. If you are different, you will have a hard time finding a broad network of friends. Norwegian culture is pretty tolerant in the most important ways, but a total population of 1/4 that of any major world city is noticeable. In terms of land area, our country is larger than you would think. This isn't just some weird enclave. But it is probably impossible to enforce harmonically coexisting, internally homogeneous cultures. And I'm not even sure that would be something we'd want. My most important personal value is freedom to, within reason, do and say and think whatever I want. Meeting different cultures first-hand is often necessary in order to be able to do this, since there is a broad range of behaviors and mindsets that are excluded within any particular culture. We create our own intellectual walls without even thinking about it.
- laut 17y agoYes, Denmark, Sweden and Norway are similar. Sweden is not a net exporter of oil AFAIK. But oil is the biggest export of Denmark. Norway just has a lot more. Only Russia and Saudi Arabia exports more oil than Norway IIRC.
- jibiki 17y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_exports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_export...