The claim of 70 billion metric tons of phosphate was debunked by the company that found the resources. They "only" found 2.1 billion metric tons. The 70 billion claim was referring to several different types of minerals, phosphate being one of them. There are recent Norwegian news articles describing this. Apparently the wide-spread news stem from a reporter misunderstanding a company representative.
As an American with a burning passion for the European project, this is great news. The rare earth market is overwhelmingly dominated by one state. Placing so much of the market in the hands of a single actor is always dangerous. Time for Norway to turn its refining talents to another resource.
Congratulations, I'm Brazilian, and we too have tons of natural resources. Unfortunately, political instability and corruption have deprived our people of benefiting from them. ):
@@davidblair9877 ughhhh 🥲 can't we just leave it in the ground... Norway is such a beautiful country with amazing mountains and incredible unspoiled nature. Do we really need to start stripping down our mountains... I think the mountains are worth more than we can ever get for destroying them.
I'm Norwegian and I'm afraid you got the premise of your story completely wrong here. A journalist from The Economist massively exaggerated the find. It's correct that they found 70 billion tons of phosphate-rich rock (in the west of Norway, not the north) but according to Norway Mining, the company that owns the rights to the find, only around ~2 billion tons will be profitable to mine. There's also no knowing exactly how much pure phosphate will come out of it until they start digging. It's still a huge find, and advances in technology could make it profitable to extract more material in the future, but the numbers being thrown around in international media is way, way off. This is not the new oil.
Even if true, it doesn't really affect the whole video, which focuses more on the overall economy and how they managed their natural resources in the past
The same thing about only a microscopic amount being profitable to extract was said by the Americans when oil was found in the seas outside of Norway. But what you said is interesting if true, so where can I find sources for that? I have had a hard time finding anything similar of your statement from NRK, Aftenposten, E24, NGU, stortingen.no, regjeringen.no, forskning.no and Norge mining. I could have only missed it by a hair, so sorry if it has been said anywhere obvious.
I'm a Norwegian speaker. This is from the article at 16:28 interviewing the company. "En sannhet med kraftige modifikasjoner. Internasjonalt ble funnet omtalt til å være i størrelsesorden 70 milliarder tonn av fosfatstein. Det er en sannhet med kraftige modifikasjoner, ifølge selskapet selv. - Det var en journalist som presenterte funnet som noe mer enn det var, sier Joa i Norge Mining. - Da tok det av. Han presiserer at det til nå er etablert ressursestimater på rundt to milliarder tonn definert som drivverdig i henhold til internasjonale standarder. Litt mindre enn 70 milliarder tonn altså. - Men det er et voldsomt stort tall det og, legger han til. Joa sier at estimatet på 70 milliarder tonn er et anslag geologer har gjort over hvor mye stein som inneholder tre mineralene ilmenitt, magnetitt og apatitt ned til 1500 meter. Disse beskriver bare hvor stor forekomsten er. Det betyr ikke at det er realistisk å hente ut en slik mengde stein." "A truth with powerful modifications. Internationally, the finding was reported to be in the order of 70 billion tonnes of phosphate rock. This is a truth with powerful modifications, according to the company itself. - There was a journalist who presented the finding as something more than it was, says Joa in Norge Mining. - Then it took off. He clarifies that up to now resource estimates of around two billion tonnes have been established, defined as mineable in accordance with international standards. A little less than 70 billion tonnes, that is. - But that too is a huge number, he adds. Joa says that the estimate of 70 billion tonnes is an estimate geologists have made of how much rock contains the three minerals ilmenite, magnetite and apatite down to 1,500 metres. These only describe how large the deposit is. It does not mean that it is realistic to extract such a quantity of rock."
As a Norwegian, i find it weird that i've never heard about the discovery of "Phosphate". Never seen it in our news, online etc. this is the first time ive heard about it... well that's good and maybe bad who knows
It's been in the news but is not as large as this video claims. More like 2B tons, not 70B, that is profitable to mine with todays technology. But improvement of technology can make it more than 2B tons.
As a Norwegian? What is a Norwegian right now? We can't set our own rules, we don't manage our own power supply, we don't run our own financial banking and we have to apply to eu if we want boarder controll. So how is this still Norway?
Small correction, a lot of the hydroelectric power plants was built before the oil, as this was something that drove the early industrialisation of Norway.
As a norwegian, i cam attest you did good on the pronunciation of Pensjonsfond. Now the Norwegian Hydro eletric was not developed because of the oil industry, it was developed because of the Nitrate industry, as Norway was the leading producer and inventor of Artifical Fertilizer that is now used everywhere in the world in the early 1900's. But in order to produce this, high amount of energy was in demand and Norway being a natural hotspot for ideal Hydroeletric locations started developing this, which in turn help spreading the industry which also included ship building, which was a major industry for Norway back in the pre-oil days, and its legacy still remains today as Norway is one of the biggest shipping nations in the world and even more influential, most of the Global Shipping insurance companies are owned by Norway. Which gives them a massive influence in world shipping. And then oil. And now potentially phosphate in due time. Another interesting thing with the oil-fund is that Norway is currently experiencing record high inflation rates, however as our currency drops in value, our pension fund reaches record high values due to exhangerate but also due to more income from all its exports. So while yes, I am partly suffering from constant interest rate increase, at least I know the country won't turn into a 3rd world country within my lifetime at least.
@@kaplanbahadir2301 Some Norwegians did develop a process for making artificial fertilizer, the Birkeland-Eyde process. This process is very energy inefficient which is why an absurd amount of hydro energy was necessary for it. I was made obsolete by the Haber process (German) as it was far more energy efficient.
Jeg skulle virkelig ønske oss normale folk her faktisk fikk kjenne litt på denne økonomiske revolusjonen, men i det siste har økonomien til Ola Nordmann generelt hatt en ganske annerledes historie rundt seg. Alltids greit å vite at vi aldri vil helt forfalle, men det er også utrolig kjipt å se så store og gunstige pengebeløp bli så dårlig forvaltet innenlands blant befolkningen på et vis som virker som det bare er for å se bra ut på papir for videoer som dette.
a high interest rate environment is also an opportunity, just of a different kind. Back a couple decades ago people were able to live off of their interest rates. Then it was low interest rates so you are supposed to borrow money to buy a home or build a home or borrow to start a business that would give you more returns. I guess it might hampen some productivity as people will borrow less to build something new, and rather try to do smaller, type business, or stick to a large organization instead of starting something new.
I think you already said it, perhaps indirectly: Norwegians can check what eachother’s salary (and tax payments) every year. They log into a website and can literally check any person’s taxable income. In this way, Norwegians have full control over Norways tax income.
Well, yes, you can quite easily check online how much tax someone has paid, but these days that person will be notified that you looked (you have to log in with your national ID number), so it's not like people are spying on their neighbour's salary levels. If you're a celebrity or politician, journalists might take a look, but it's not really newsworthy, so most don't bother.
@@-_James_-importantly, journalists do check the entire population's taxes, resulting in public lists of highest earners per local govt area. in my home area of
You can, but it's not even remotely accurate for people earning serious money, it's just not reliable. Besides, when you request to check someone's salary like that, the person being checked will know exactly who made the request. Rather embarrassing to get caught pocket watching your neighbour lol
Hi. Australian surgeon working in Norway here. Can attest to the dissatisfaction at the relative flat incomes. That in addition to the extreme work hours is causing a huge shortage of medical professionals. There may be no brain drain, but there is an internal brain redistribution to careers with better work/life balance for the same money.
People need to value their health more. Virtually all smart kids do IT for over two decades now. The vast majority of young doctors are second, but more like third rate brains. If you want to beat home office, flexible work hours, you need to pay up.
Was your decision to go to Norway as a surgeon largely economic or social? (ie spouse/family etc)? How would you compare your quality of life as a surgeon in Norway as compared to if you were still in Australia?
@@hjf3022 it’s not easy to do the counter factual. I’m here for social reasons and life is good here because of that. Outside of that, I don’t know that I would have left Australia to come here.
Medical personnal situation is surprisingly mediocre in Norway. I am a french classical musician living in Oslo and my conditions are order of magnitudes better (short hour, great conditions, good pay) than almost anywhere else in the world. The quality of life is sky high, even though I am not rich by any means.
I live there and haven’t heard about this until now, but it makes sense given it happened in July, that’s when all of Norway is on vacation and people are more concerned about whether they remembered to take the hiking boots to their cabin.
The people are brainwashed by socialist news propaganda, orchestrated by the same political elite in order to keep the narrative going. In this context, Norway is undoubtedly the most communist country in Western Europe
As a norwegian this is very interesting, more people struggle financially here and the prices are rising alottt so i really hope this will help these people
I don't think it's correct that the Phosphate deposit is readiliy available. From what I remember reading in the local news, it's very deep and the experts being interviewed said it might even be too deep to worry about. Now, I don't know if that's true, and it does give off a vibe of someone being overly sceptical, but at least it shows that nothing is _obvious_ regarding this deposit. BTW, the deposit is in the South, not in the North. I would also like to confront the impression the video left regarding hydropower. Norway predominantly uses hydropower for electricity, not because we wanted to foreswear fossil fuels to make electricty, but because we have very plentiful water running down towards the sea in landscape with many steep slopes. The big build-out of hydro was around a century ago, long before oil and gas were discovered.
The first Economics explained video I've seen was about Norway. Since then, I've been following this channel and felt happy to see another video on Norway. It's gives always some optimistic vibes on humanity.
I didn't drive while there. The traffic laws and roads are very different and they drive fast. But they have great public transportation. It is expensive. I was blessed that I had my trip paid for. That being said there were a lot of tourists doing the hostel thing.@@FrozenDung
@@FrozenDung it doesn't have to be; costs can be somewhat mitigated if you plan sensibly, and get local allies ahead of time. And ironically, planning sensibly might be a good way to get local allies :D
@@RichardsShortHorrorFilms Norwegians drive fast? We have lower speed limits than most countries and are among the safest drivers in the world (one of the reasons being that we don't drive fast)...
@@sveinungchr - exactly. I've just seen it mentioned, and thought it was some company fishing for investor money blowing up some minor find into something big.
Because norwegian media always asks the company in question for a response before pushing a story like that :P As this video explains "nettavisen" did just that, they asked the company is this (what this video is claiming btw) true? The company itself, that found the minerals, said no. So nettavisen decided to "mock" foreign news instead for spreading fake news. Like what else are you supposed to do ? 16:26 They did find something and it should be able to generate some money eventually, but 24 trillion USD is probably a tad optimistic :D
18:05 The Norwegian Industrial Revolution was kickstarted by hydroelectric power in the 1800, because of how cheap the power was. And we used them long before we discovered oil, and we kept the hydro plants because it's cheap and clean.
Not really. There is a such a large global demand for phosphates, Morocco will never struggle to find a buyer for them. Morocco and Norway will basically have a duopoly on the global supply of them so I doubt there will be a big crash in price.
@@FlintIronstag23Morroco has 100% lost the hability to blackmail Europe or USA with phosphate, something they have done in the past. Morroco has lost it's most valuable geopolitical card bv far.
@@PedroPedro-k9p You are assuming Norway will exploit their phosphate deposits in a big way. They could easily just mine them slowly as supplemental income to their oil industry. Like it was mentioned in this video, the rest of the world seems more interested in the discovery of this phosphate deposit than the Norwegians themselves. Morrocco most likely will remain the dominate power in the phosphate market for the perceivable future.
Do Denmark next! The explosive growth of Novo Nordisk is almost like the discovery of phosphates, and it now has a higher market cap than the GDP of Denmark. However Novo also still pays some of the highest corporate taxes in the world, and refuse to use loopholes to pay less, which seems to counter all economic principles. Could be an interesting topic to explore.
i also wonder about greenland. do greenland contribute toward denmark economy since it is semi independence. and is there no natural resource to be mine there?(oil,mineral etc)
I am not so sure about your statement " refuse to use loopholes to pay less," Shell has over the last 30 years considered their DUC investment as top-3 most valuable. Why, I don't know. They have made considerable profit in Norway too, but Norway has never been in their top-3 ( I got this from a former Shell employee)
Living in Norway since 2010, you dont really see any of that money saved up in the national fund. You usually pay more taxes then other countries, yes the system is strong and prosperous, but it costs for private persons, and everything is very expensive. So even if you earn a lot it is hard to amass any real wealth.
And you pay for undesirable migrants from other countries who come to Norway to leech off system welfare ( that you pay taxes for) and attaçk ethnic Norwegians
My quick uninformed opinion. Australia mining is : insane owners who would drink coal mixed water for a quick buck and Norway is : socialized profit, large scale benefits.
@@makk1Do you even pay attention to the video? They ARE giving it to the people, just not immediately. Norway is playing the long game. They’re being prudent and know that it’s better to be patient and grow money trees first, before enjoying the fruits of their patience.
@lolithighs There are so many bot comments these days its so hard to know. Its not just he spam or russian bots but just all kinds of comments I can tell by replying and there is no reply back. You get the small red dot by the bell icon so you would think a normal human would respond no?
Very small population=Biggest reason for economic success. Wherever the number of people is low, this also allows more wealth, more job opportunities. It's also a fact that the rich natural resource also helps a lot to improve the economy.
In the other end is Mexico who owns 100% of petroleum in the country, and the petroleum company (PEMEX) is one of the less profitable companies in the world that mostly produces debt. So it can be worse.
That's not even remotely true. The biggest mining companies in Australia are locally headquartered and pay enormous amounts of royalties and taxes to the state and federal governments in this country. To wit, the WA state budget surplus is the size that it is in large part because of the rivers of gold coming from local miners. The mining companies are also the largest payers of company tax (which is a higher rate than Norway, BTW) in the country. Oil and gas is another story and yes, the recent steps by the feds to get a better deal for the country around offshore gas are good ones.
@@PapaphobiaPicturesImagine if we didn't get fooled into rejecting a super profit tax... Because apparently there was somewhere else for BHP and RIO to go and sell ore extracted for $25 a tonne for $150 a tonne I have no problems with resource exploitation to a degree, but let's save a bit for future generations
This is exactly why I think the growth score can be so misleading. Yes obviously, any economy can boost its GDP by taking on massive debts and doing stuff like building huge infrastructure projects, even if those projects are useless. But does that really help their economy in any way? If Norway wanted to, they could use all of the money in their pension fund to get a 300% growth in their economy next year. But that really doesn't mean it's a great idea to do so. Growth for growth's sake is an incredibly shortsighted way to manage your economy. Norway's growth, just like their GDP per capita, is entirely earned unlike most of the economy experiencing growth right now.
It's spending spent on value generating ventures that boost productivity. But I do think that state investment is an important factor in that part as well. There's value generating investments that are hidden if you just play on the safe side of stuff like medicine and already established industry. You won't be able to find the unicorn that tries to invent the next google or facebook or even the user interfaced computer or the user interfaced phone. American unicorns are mostly privately funded with large private venture capital, we have our own share of unicorns but... back to your original point, yeah sometimes growth pursued by borrowing lots of money or printing money and then shoving into useless projects is sort of throwing resources into a black hole. But there is legitimate value generating industries that can use those resources, and in a large enough economy it's "easy" to find. Your most important industries can always use a boost, problem is just that allies will complain that you're distorting the market and it will be a race to the bottom who can subsidize their key industry the most. But it's still real growth up to a certain point.
@@ayoCCi feel like you are missing the biggest issue with subsidizing industry; it leads in theory to less innovation and lower competitiveness long term. If an industry is subsidized then that does distort capital allocation and incentives, and it may be that the industry will never actually be profitable.
@@theWebWizrd The key is to only subsidize it as long as there's still competition in the world. Well and also there's "subsidizing" like giving money to universities to research certain things that your home industry currently is asking for, "optimizing" curriculums, creating more stipends for certain industries, creating certain tariffs for jobs that they have a minimum wage or simply investing by giving money to build a factory with key technology that is a sensitive export. Like building a chip manufacturing plant that will run at a profit longterm. Or a power plant that will pay off in 25 years. It's possible to build a private powerplant, but it's not really going to happen fully.
As a norwegian it was incrediably interesting to learn about our economy! In school, we learn the basics: fishing used to be the biggest income, found oil in the 60s, we have a national bank etc. However, this video is filled with details about the story I was absolutely clueless about. Including the recent discovery of phosphate! The dots have started to connect now. This was fun, thank you!😄
I'm Norwegian. The significance of the law of jante is heavily exaggerated in this video. Nobody in Norway thinks that this so called law is a good thing, and it is not something we generally enforce. It is mostly a shorthand for feeling uncomfortable with sticking out. The so called "law of jante" was introduced in a novel by a Danish-Norwegian writer back in the 1950s, and was heavily inspired by his hometown in Denmark in the 1930s. It was meant as criticism of conformity in Scandinavian smalltowns. It is not a law - neither legally nor de facto. Some people from small towns in Norway can tell you about being especially uncomfortable with not conforming, or having high ambitions, but I think you can find this experience anywhere in the world. You can find similar expressions in Australia and Japan, to name a few. Everyone has felt the pressure of conformity in their lives. The difference is that we have a name for it, that we learn in Norwegian literature classes in school. As any other country, we have social media influencers, celebrities that are mostly famous for being famous, our most popular singer is quirky, and our most popular cross country skier of all time acts like he is better than everyone else (if you don't know which one I am referring to, it is both of them). If a Norwegian is mentioned in US news media, it's a national sensation. We love them. We are proud when a fellow Norwegian does well for themselves, but feeling that you don't fit in is always tough.
As a Norwegian, I was surprised to learn about this phosphorus deposit. However, seeing as we've got some other large deposits of rare, vaulueable minerals to which mining has raised great protests, I bet this phosphorus-adventure won't be as big as you're anticipating. Though, recalling from memory, these other deposits are in mountain and at the seabad, resulting in great disturbance to the local environment. We love our undisturbed nature.
That’s impressive though that Norwegians can actually stop such mining from taking place. That looks like a beautiful part of Norway and it would be a shame to destroy it for some electric cars. Look what happened to Nauru. I’m sure the EU doesn’t care though.
@@leondbleondb ah yes the Norwegian oil extracting environmentalists and the Swedish arms exporting pacifists next door. Luckily these days it’s more important to say nice things than take appropriate action. Still, I’d be impressed if the Norwegians managed to stop this destroying the nature in that area 🤞
Norwegian here. The Norwegian economy is not all what it sounds like. Most people are taxed into oblivion and privately talk about how much they absolutely hate it, and a lot are struggling now that inflation has made it hard to put food on the table. Norwegians also have an astronomical amount of debt in the form of mortgages and credit card/spending debt. Rising interest rates is potentially lethal for Norway, because our vages are not keeping up with the cost of living and norwegians are extremely arrogant when it comes to a potential economic crisis because we didnt really feel anything back in 2008. People got drunk on low interests three years ago and the real estate market and car financing market went completely bonkers. Decades of infrastructure neglect and massive cost overruns on almost every government project from hospitals to roads has led to a backlog of maintenance now costing 10X of what it would have cost a decade ago. Norwegian politicians are fanatical about "going green" at any cost, not realizing we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on. Also, when it comes to not needing money or luxuries, this is completely wrong. Most people secretly want money and luxuries, but the socially enforced oppression permeates every nook and cranny of society, so people are deadly afraid of portraying any desire to stand out from the crowd.
Industry: you forgot to mention that Salmon aquaculture was mainly developed in Norway, and that Norway is a world leader here, producing 1.5 million metric tons of salmon a year. In fact, it is probably Norway's second most important industry today, after oil/gas.
Yes main industries are oil, salmon and "kommune". NOK going only down. Net average monthly salary (adjusted for living costs in PPP) in Norway - wiki, are wery mediocre to EU now ...
Norway wasn’t rich before oil but even without oil it most likely would be at Finland’s level today. I am glad people are not peddling the “poor” argument anymore but it also wasn’t really “average”, it would be like Finland, Belgium, Austria today, regular West European countries that are considered rich globally
At least they had the opportunity to learn from the Dutch, about what NOT to do with oil & gas revenues. Us Dutchies were early to the game, happy with the money it brought, and we subsequently pissed all of it away on building an overly expensive welfare system and a massive bureaucracy. They even named this phenomenon after us: the Dutch Disease. Norway instead has put those revenues in a sovereign wealth fund, that is now - literally - paying dividends.
Maybe the state would be, but with a poorer state I'm not sure how well off the rest of us would be. The fact is that mostly because of currency failure the inhabitants in Norway actually have lower purchasing power than the ones in Finland and every other Nordic country. The state has become richer than ever, yet we who live here get significantly less for our money than any neighbors except in Russia.
Obligatory: As a Norwegian. It's really weird hearing how much the economy as a whole on a macro scale is considered to be in great shape. While the cost of living crisis ravages most young people I know. Especially if you run into any health issues before you start working properly. The good sides are that you will get healthcare and at least money to survive on. However you will never savings like that.
that is the austerity politics meant to mentally prep the young for killing other ppl...seems to be a very European thing to do, ever since they started challenging russia to a ww3 after russia occupied ukraine...
As norwegian who did leave, it's not that stuff is so great, but everyone believes that it is better. While Norway is great, there are lots of things that are frustrating when I go back. I most likely never return.
@@Balala_ I'm curious as well! I'm Dutch and people like to praise my country as well. But I can come up with many aspects that are really frustrating about it. I like to know different perspectives y'know, instead of just always assuming Norway = perfect. Like many people state.
I did leave too (though was also an immigrant there), but you have to remember that those that do are not representative samples. People who left for reasons like I did (job) are often in the higher brackets of society wherever they land. In contrast, Norway has a higher average and higher baseline. People ask me what I liked about Norway, and I answer "everything worked". That's of course a generalisation, but it's far closer to the truth than anywhere else I've been.
I am always reminded by seeing videos like this one how very lucky I am to have been born in Norway, and it serves as a wonderful reminder to be more appreciative of the life I have been given.
@@nunyabidness3075 pretty sure a lot more countries have these wealths, it’s just that it’s a risky and polluted business that mainly countries like China and Russia go for.
@@beepboopbeepp There are definitely unfounded fossil fuel deposits still out there. The peak oil nutters were just ignorant loudmouths. Letting the communists and dictators do the dirty jobs is not green at all. The record on this is very evident. If you look into the environmental movement you’ll find it’s leadership has almost continuously been Marxists, anti establishment trouble makers, and power grabbers, not conservationists. Actually reducing pollution is not their real agenda, so they are happy to brag about accomplishments which were effectively moving the pollution elsewhere.
Enjoy your content as always 🤩 however, I notice that you and many others on RUclips sharing your thoughts on Norway don't necessarily look at the big picture. Say someone in Norway makes 500K NOK and pay ish 30% tax, you have to take into consideration that includes universal healthcare, around $300 USD/mo daycare for children and $500 USD/year in property tax for an average house. By comparing this to the US for example the cost of Healthcare, daycare and property tax are astronomical and would easily be 10x/price = net tax/cost of living is actually way higher in the US. My impression is that most people simply look at W2 taxation, not the big picture when comparing.
Well, I think he should. A healthy 25 y.o tech worker in Norway wouldn't have daycare/healthcare costs. He'd be paying 45% tax in Norway, 20-ish in the US depending on the state. They'd be still earning way more net, as most have good insurances as well (that is, even if you fuzzy the healthy part). This is true for many other highlevel professions as well. That's why I think you can't "globally" apply the logic you've brought up. Your logic though holds true for lower level professions, over lifetime earnings. e.g. potentially a waiter's lifetime expenses in the US, would end up looking like "higher overal net taxation due to healthcare/education", but even then, I'd argue the "capitalist" market has been fixing this organically over time through wealth/opportunity generation to push up the working class. (i.e. 30 years ago, this would have been 100% true, but take a look at how consistent gdp per capita growth in the US has been over the last 50 years)
@@RandomRUclipsr234 It's far more than just free education and healthcare because these and other social systems lead to other things. Less crime, less homelessness, less poverty, which become enormous expenses if they're not dealt with. And this means more people grow up in healthy homes, more people get an education, more people contribute to society. Everyone feels safer and more relaxed, and everyone gets more freedom to pursue their goals and dreams as it makes changing career paths or taking a year off or quitting a bad job much safer, which in turn makes people more productive overall. And it also ends badly run businesses quicker as they have very little leverage they can use to incentivize people to keep working there. It's a whole cycle that both saves and makes us money. So while it's true that highly educated people might not have the same opportunities to basically get rich as they do in some other countries like the US, they do see that money in the form of not only social services, but in a sense of safety, freedom, low stress environment, and generally chill people. Something which is very much the opposite of how people live in the US with their looking hole and seven chains on the front door. I lived in the US for six months, and by that time I went from being very anti-guns to thinking I should probably buy one just in case my neighbour was a mass murderer. Not that that's anymore likely in the US, but the whole culture and atmosphere suggests everyone is trying to kill you and take your stuff all the time. Luckily I had the option to jump on a plane back to Norway instead if becoming a paranoid lunatic. That sense of relief being back in a relaxed place is something that no amount of wealth can replace, and it really has to be experienced to be understood. If nothing else, I'm grateful I spent that time in the US just so I can better appreciate what our social systems actually do for us, as I like most others took that stuff for granted until I didn't have it anymore.
@@daniel4647 I fully agree with you. I think though there's a lot of factors playing into e.g. US's situation. Extensive immigration for one, stupid gun laws, and a handful of other things, leads into what you've experienced. I think you can pick the more capitalist approach of the US (i.e. more relaxed taxation), and bundle it with a sensible immigration/gun/education policy, and get the best of both worlds. In other words, I think the more relaxed approach to life here, has led into a less highly skilled labor force, subsequently leading into a less efficient economy and day-to-day life (just compare getting deliveries in Oslo and how many days it takes, vs the "same hour" deliveries in SF etc). Now potentially with the perfectly handled oil wealth, Norway wouldn't ever need to be globally competitive as that requires this sense of chill to be reduced, but I think with the same logic, relying on the wealth, it can provide the path for those who want to try more and achieve more. Basically I think the forceful "equalisation" approach is suboptimal and I think that's what needs to be taken from the US.
Norwegian here. This is why the immigration inflow is so dangerous to the Norwegian economy. With "welfare tourists" who dip into our collective wealth and do not share out mindset of high trust and great feeling of personal shame for misusing collective assets (for example most Norwegians would tend to not utilize welfare even if they're out of a job if they got savings they could use, even if it's their right).
I didnt know about that discovery, but that is awesome. I had often wondered about a solution to the "Moroccan issue". It is good to know an additional source of phosphate has been discovered.
Funny thing is that i had a discussion about how expensive vegetables have become with a cacher at a low cost grocery store about 200m away from the spot in which the footage at 20:25 was filmed. Just around the time this video was uploaded Hello from norway
As a Norwegian: Norway is actually getting worse. More money to the already rich, and less to everyone else. There are people in Norway now that has to stay for hours it food queues, and choose between a warm winter or food.
@@hevnervalstrue. For now that is. Its been said about oil and gas productions before too and they managed to subtract it anyway. The future will tell us!
My bet is that they will succeed🎉, because , unlike any other part of the world, they have managed to isolate the tasks of public enterprises and public services from the realm of conflict based, power seeking politics.
People in Norway do not know this. Actually, there have never been so many people needing food aid and having to get donations to give presents to their children at Christmas (Jool).
I can see why Norway would keep the phosphate discovery on the “DL” - especially to its citizens … they’ll likely slow mine it. Norwegians are a practical and methodical people and also incredibly responsible (in relation to other countries). Speaks to the culture and values you mention (happy you discussed this) - I am 3rd gen Norwegian and now I understand why I’m so minimalist and miserly. 😂
You haven't been in Norway iguess. Now in the east its all about expensive fashion and consumerism. Things changes fast when u get money in your pocket. 😉
Hmmm🤔 As an Australian, we voted against imposing extra taxes on iron ore miners who were selling for $150 tonne at a cost of $25 a tonne. We were afraid that the market would go somewhere that didn't have a metric fuckload of easily exploitable iron ore apparently. Political manipulation is very possible, even in a supposedly educated nation So that's for that Tony Abbott and co And also for the carbon tax revocation Now our current leaders will let the profiteering of major companies continue, regardless of actual costs, because high inflation is a great excuse 😖 Makes me so mad!
I'm not sure that they'll necessarily slowly mine it, because of how useful the resource is/could be it might be more helpful to exploit it maximally when considering climate change.
@@sino_diogenes slow is relative here. They'll take time to come up with a non environmentally destructive plan to extract as much as they need to to meet global demand while still keeping prices stable. Compare that to Nauru that just opened the flood gates for foreign companies to destroy their country as quickly as possible to make a quick buck.
Thanks for analysing culture as well, it seems far too many policymakers and economists have a massive blind spot for this, assuming all nations and cultures value and prioritise things in the same way, then being surprised when the outcome isn't what they expected. It's quite interesting really, because a lot of things that make Norway so rich make it quite unattractive for many skilled high earners. From my perspective as a well-paid software engineer in London, the country's very high cost of living and high taxes make it difficult to justify moving there for opportunities as I once calculated I'd be a lot worse off even after accounting for the higher salaries and benefits like free childcare and education. Switzerland in comparison, with its far more individualistic culture is more attractive as the low taxes and very high salaries balance out its equally high cost of living. But for an average person earning an average wage, Norway would handily beat out both the UK and Switzerland. Assuming of course they could move and get a job there.
Yeah I totally agree. We earn alot, but have to spend alot to live here. Funny you should mention Switzerland, because all our rich people move there to avoid high taxes
As already remarked, this phosphate find is _not_ a big story in Norway. Even if the size of it is not exaggerated, it's safe to predict that Norway will not do anything of the kind like jumping on it and flooding the world market with phosphate. In fact, if anything there's a lot of political discussion about further _reducing_ mining activities, what with ongoing protests about how companies are polluting Norwegians' beloved fjords with mining spoils.
Norwegian Biology-student here, I can see the potential benefits of mining, and it makes me thrilled to hear about this find. However, from my personal perspective, i don't think that the culture would allow it to be mined easily, even if the consequences on nature are limited.
@@kasparrnningen1542 Considering INP is massively growing (now bigger than Senterpartiet), that's probably going to change. Of course most people are against reckless mining and destroying our nature over here. But I think people are fed up with the senseless restrictions that are being upheld just to "look good".
There are strict rules about how the state can use the money from the wealth fund. They are only allowed to put a small amount each year into their budget. Their currency has been quite weak in recent years.
Though these rules are simply what would be bi-partisan agreements in the US for example, not something that would be politically stable in other countries.
@@Half_FinisWouldn’t increased demand increase for products increase the currency’s value? Is the government printing money to keep the value relative low despite high demand?
@@Half_Finis I think it's a little bit more complicated. I read a report from Nordea about it. It's just a little bit strange. I'm from Denmark and usually Norwegian, Danish and Swedish kroner has been on a similar level. It's very different now!
@@jacobriis7859its because of a stagnated european/global marked. Also norway isnt in the eu, so cant rely euro. Both swedish and danish kr are worth more because they are in the eu.
What do you mean by we're having the perfect economy? Our "oil fund" is owned by the state, not the people. More and more people are struggling economically in Norway, and our welfare system doesn't cover everything needed to live a decent life. And with the current government, things are getting worse. A huge change is needed, and when that happens, I'll consider moving back to my home country.
Inreresting to hear about the find of natural resources. That said I miss a take on the new tax on capital, and how a large portion of the countrys wealthiest are now moving to Switzerland, and the ripple effect of this.
Interesting that Alaska got a mention, there's also plenty of discussion regarding land value tax (some may even say Georgism) which could be considered highly relevant to that case, and indeed also the case of Norway.
as a Norwegian student. the country might be well off, but the people is not. earlier this year (2023) the prices of everything basically doubled. Yet peoples lowest income, or any income did not increase. so now instead of having enough money for bread, butter, milk, eggs, potatos, ham sandwich, tampons. i eat noodles and buy tampons.
One of the reasons to move to Norway earlier have been to earn money and take it back home. With the development for NOK versus e.g. Euro, it is not as attractive as earlier. But if moving money out of norway aint the object, it could still be good. Also - moving money into norway have a different effect than earlier with the weaken NOK compared to e.g. USD and Euro.
I am amazed to find out that there is such a thing as a "Big Mac Index". I started doing this when backpacking around the world in the early 2000s to find out what was an appropriate price for food in each country since McDonalds was something I could find in almost any country, as there is a McDonalds in over 100 of the 193 countries in the world. Some locals like to charge more to foreigners thinking they can afford to pay more, so it was nice to know when I was being ripped off. For example I know that in Thailand I can buy a Big Mac for 145 Baht (THB), which is about NZD$6.84, but in New Zealand that same Big Mac is about NZD$9.50. Even today I still think "How many Big Macs is that?" when thinking about income per hour / day / week / fortnight. If I'm earning less than three Big Macs per hour before tax then I'm probably not getting paid properly.
mmm, Norwegian krone is super fuggin weak atm and the middle and lower class are suffering. but hey super positive videos without any deep dive in to the current economical situation always helps..
From a non economic point of view I think the strongest part of the Norwegian economy shown here is its cultural acceptance and trust. That the high taxes and limited use of all this wealth is for the best and that growing slowly and safely is the best approach. Imagine what places like the US could accomplish if the government came up with a plan it didn't have people form every direction inside and out side the government try to tear it apart for glory.
As a Hungarian I look at these countries like a child looks at an astronaut. The mixed feeling of I want to be like him in the future and the feeling deep inside that tells me that never going to happen and I know it for sure.
They were occupied by Germany early in WW2, and very little damage was done to the country. Switzerland and the US also kept their infrastructure and working age men, which gave them huge economics boost after the war. Norway ain't that special, they just got lucky Hitler didn't see them as untermenschen.
@@solaroid4442 while our lands weren't directly harmed much (comparatively) during the war, our significant merchant fleet suffered quite a lot. That said, we got out of it better than most of Europe, and apparently considered refusing the Marshall plan money. Eventually decided to accept to cement alliance with the emerging power in the west This might be partially influenced by at the time largest party, labour, which was in control of the government, may have flirted with joining comintern in the past. There was still a lot of rebuilding to do after the war though, as a lot had stagnated, often due to lack of markets, and a lot of buildings had to be fumigated to get the nazi stench out (ok, I joke).
small population, good governance and well managed abundant natural resources - definitely not a secret recipe to success and prosperity but most countries are lacking. Some countries have abundant natural resources too but very corrupt and ill managed, in addition to having big population.
hope you're not referring to "corrupt" countries like Cuba or Bolivia (and any other south american country socialising their natural resources). The corruption literally stem from american coups to oust democratically elected leaders and lobby to keep their pro-american corrupt politicians in government.
I learned that I need to start importing my Big Macs from Taiwan. On a more serious note all my customers that ordered my product out of Norway always wanted me to devalue the product on the paperwork when I shipped it there. My product wasn’t cheap nor overly expensive most invoices ranged between $5-10k US.
@@fenrirgg At that time I was one of the largest producers of turbo systems for rotary engines. I was selling my systems all over the world and to just about every other rotary shop on the planet. Places like Norway, Sweden, Turkey always had customers who asked to devalue the products to avoid the taxes.
You failed to mention that Norway is also one of the world's most over regulated bureaucracy dictatorships in the world. Almost everything is prohibited, heavily taxed or regulated so you would have to apply for a permit to be allowed to do something. Regular people have almost no freedom on their own property, and can't even legally drive a dirt bike on their own field or mount an electrical outlet in their own house.... We Norwegians like to think about Norway as the greatest country to live in and in many cases it is, bud the sad reality is that personal freedom is slowly fading away
As a fellow member of the Nordic Council, I’m glad Norway has potentially found success again. They are usually a trustworthy business partner, discounting some of their fisheries policies (long story, lol). 🤗
What countries from the nordic council would be unhappy about Norwegian fisheries policies, I mean apart from Denmark and Sweden both the faroes and Iceland have abundant fisheries as well, don't they?
@@heart4740 I’m from the Faroe Islands originally (live in Denmark now), and yes fisheries is abundant there, but there are often disagreements about quotas. :)
Sounds like a smart nation with people that actually care about their own people and work together for the good of everyone. Something lacking in large and multicultural nations.
As An Immigrant I just Love Norway. To all my Norwegian friends you guys are the most amazing humans I've ever been with. Work life balance, great Healthcare, better job opportunities, decent lifestyle, affordable school education and I'm not even going to mention the Safety part.
Great to hear, thank you. Not perfect country, no one is, but I belive the country is high upon the list. In Norway we are very lucky concidering safety and freedom
@@Rimrock300 I’m starting to believe that the image of Norway is only living in our heads. We’re clearly going in the wrong direction lately, especially with taxation getting out of hands. Norway’s safe? Some bits for sure, though I wouldn’t consider Oslo safe anymore ;)
@@steezlimeYou wouldn’t consider Oslo safe? I’ve lived in the east side of Oslo (the so called “bad part”) more or less my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything violent happen to anyone apart from some kids fighting (with their hands only) like maybe once every two years. But maybe you just read tabloid news lol
@@Gran_Torino I've been living in Oslo long enough to clearly see the change and notice what's the direction city is heading. Even though most of the city is really great, clean and safe, there're are bits in the city center and especially in Grønland that are just awful. I don't really wish to live in denial with rose glasses, the same way Swedes did :)) Apparently sweeping problems under the carpet solves most issues, er det ikke det.
Something wrong with Norway. A lot of money but cutting comfort for people. Forcing people to use bicycle all year even in -30. Electric buses doesn’t work in the winter 🥶 inside is colder than outside. Forcing electric cars without infrastructure. High taxes and expensive live.
As a Norwegian, I'd like to point out that even though there has been a huge find of phosphate and other minerals. That doesn't actually mean that we want to exploit these resources and worsen the nature. Nature is really important to Norwegians, so there is no telling if they are actually gonna be allowed to extract nearly as much as is being said in this video. Also, we should have at least 50% of the profits 🤑
I am norwegian, and i have often wondered about moving to another contry. But where would i go that would ever provide the safety of Norway? Economicly, naturaly and criminaly. To leave Norway is to leave the best safety net in the world, and for what? More money? Is it really worth that in the end? Alot of higher paid people probably end up having family here, and to leave is to expose their kids to a world where only their parents are their safety net to.
the secret to our success with oil is state control and ownership and not letting foreign capital interests taking all the profit. sure hope we stick to the same plan with our mining resources.
We're not though. Poverty is on the rise. Food queues have tripled over the past year. Cost of living has exploded. Incompetent political decisions everywhere. Government is rich, but the people are getting poorer.
@@Mosern1977 I disagree. Most people thought they voted out of that this time around. "Vanlige folks tur". The parties know that the average joe doesn't follow politics that closely, they are easily fooled. Democracy only works when they are honest. They are anything but.
There was so much wrong in the intro. Am from Norway, and we are the crown example of wasted potential. We have almost no industries compared to our neighbours and nothing we produce profit the people. the oil fund is used as a personal wallet by our politicians to buy high-status positions after they leave office. one example is Jens Stoltenberg, whom now is the leader of NATO even without any relevant experience. And recently tried to steel the job of national bank director a head of much more qualified people, but decided to stay in NATO when Russia attacked Ukraine.
It's good to see some acknowledgement of the role of culture in places like the Nordic countries and their economic model. You can't really get away with high tax welfare states unless broadly everyone is on board with it and prepared to shoulder their part of the burden. It's also pleasing to see it recognised that this model doesn't work everywhere.
This has become a problem in Norway though… Norway has one of the highest rates of sick leave in the world, twice as high as in Sweden. This is somewhat anecdotal, but an acquaintance of mine has worked in the public sector for a while and she tells me it is “normal” that people are *sick* 20% of the time. It’s worse in the public sector than the private one, but people living if welfare alone is on the rise. 10% of the population between 18-67 (workforce) is receiving some kind of *disability benefit*. That is an insanely high number when compared to the rest of the world…
@@leonhorn7727 "Norway has one of the highest rates of sick leave in the world" is almost true (we actually have the highest: source OECD), but its far from twice as high as Sweden. Sweden had between 2010-2016 2,35 % sick leave, Norway had at the same time 3,38 % (again source OECD). About your point on disabilities and benefits. The high number of people on disability benefits is down to how Norway's health care system/NAV handles this issue compared to other countries. This is far to complex to go into, and is often hyped up in media, without the proper context. However if you compare statistics on how large part of a country's population between 15-64 that are a part of the work force, the numbers appear quite different. In Norway 64,9 % of all inhabitants between 15-64 are employed, in Sweden this number is 62,2 % (source: OECD 2022). This means that on workforce participation, compared to all OECD-countries, Norway is in the middle of the pack - while Sweden is the 5th lowest on this metric.
Perfect Economy? Inflation is going bananas in this country, and we can barely afford electricity and cheese, our currency is low af. Sounds perfect to me!
@EconomicsExplained Great video, but at 5:38 there was map shown with the members of the EU where Slovakia 🇸🇰was missing, not marked by blue color. Slovakia joined EU back in 2004 and is using Euro as currency since 2009.
Norway is supposed to be rich enough to be inflation free, but prices are already bad enough that inflation made it so much worse. This is one of the main reasons to why Norway sucks, coming from a norwegian.
Yara International is already one of the leading and largest fertilizer companies in the world. And it’s Norwegian and 30% state owned. Kind of an important side note to the Phosphate story.
@@derbirider6646 Yes, it's very worrying, especially how the Labour Party is also basically right wing now, just more sneaky about it. If we're not careful they're going to sell this find off to private corporations in the name of free market capitalism, might be why we're not hearing about it in the news and why they're down playing it so much.
"They enjoy prosperity primarily through natural resources and oil rather than a diversified economy. It might be beneficial for them to broaden their economic base to reduce reliance on countries such as the USA and China."
"Their wealth is primarily derived from natural resources or oil rather than a diversified economy. It could be beneficial for them to broaden their economic base to reduce dependence on countries like the USA and China. It's also crucial to acknowledge that oil is finite, and being mindful of this can safeguard their long-term quality of life."
@@0n0thing0correct, it can be created in a lab as a result. Also seed oil fueled Diesel engines are the future- as Rudolf Diesel and his financier Jacob Astor intended. But the Rothschilds and Rockefeller’s they were competing with play dirty, Astor was killed on the ‘Titanic’ and Diesel’s corpse was found floating in the English Channel.
@@0n0thing0 it’s a process which takes millions of years. If we kept using up Oil at the rate we currently are we’ll run out and have to wait millions of years. That of course won’t happen cause we’ll switch away from it before that. The Oxford definition is as follows, a natural resource of energy that is not depleted by use. Most things exist because of natrual processes that doesn’t mean it’s renewable
As a Norwegian, I can just say that the people in general are NOT that rich, the state is rich. High income tax is just the beginning, high vat and other taxes quickly eat away your income. I do not agree that the taxation should be used to level out the social differences. If you worked hard and you earn well, you deseve to keep more of your money. With my wage, that is pretty much average, after tax, it would take 14 months saving, if I saved it all, for me to affort to buy a new Toyota Corolla.
This story seems a bit off. As a Norwegian, this story should have been bigger here in NO if we had found something that would make us the absolute richest country in the world
I wonder if Norway could get in the business of managing the wealth funds of other countries. They should be able to benefit by collecting a fee and having more assets to manage, thus increasing the diversity of investments and reducing risk of losses. Developing countries handing their money to Norway get an experienced national wealth fund manager and have transparency on how their assets are managed. The one big caveat is that it wouldn't necesarily stop corrupt use of these assets. If country X asks for a dividend to add to their budget, Norway has to give the money to them in accordance to whatever terms were agreed upon. Once the cash is out of their hands, they have no say on whether it was used properly. But I do trust them to be transparent regarding how much money comes in and out of those nation's accounts.
Norway is very open on account information considering you can freely and legally* check any norwegian's tax register. (The person's taxes you're checking will be notified if you check them, no other penalties/fines as far as I know)
This would have been a great video for citing Thornstein Veblen - not only for being also a Norwegian, but also for his distrust on how economists overly lean on the maths, basically not trusting it as wizard magic. Apart from his theory of the Leisure Class, he had a lot to say about the relationship between culture and economy. Having written during the industrial revolution, Veblen knew that economic decisions were just as driven by culture and habit and expectation and politics, as they were about financial self-interest or long-term investment returns.
As someone who lives in Norway and just make enough to barely crest the threshold of being in lower middle class, it’s always rung hollow for me how rich Norway is as a country. Sure, we have many benefits, but we pay for that in taxes. Sure, we have a lot of money , but a lot of it isn’t being spent and is invested. And it is expensive here, as stated in the video. The ringing is sounding even more hollow now that inflation has risen, the prices on necessities has risen, our currency is worth little, more people are in que for food aid, families having to sell their houses and skip buying their kids Christmas gifts just to pay their bills. The government is shutting down hospitals and overworking the staff to burnout, which in turn has given rise to more private clinics being opened. Privatization is rising as a whole. An increasing amount of upper middle class and upper class people get richer while the poor get poorer. Yes, Norway is great, if you can afford it or have inherited wealth
Yes, its sad to see how bad economic politics makes life unnecessary hard for the poorer parts of the population. Hopefully voting AP is now out of the question.
I hear all these fantastic numbers and I wonder, why is my bank account still empty? I think the quality of our free public education is low, and many public services are suffering in some way or another, I don't rely on medical assistance to survive so what are my benefits from living in this country? We have our share of crooks and corrupt politicians, it is just that the way corruption works here is subtle and difficult for the public to notice.
"The countries philosophy is that the oil is found in the countries borders and therefore some of the wealth should belong to the people" What a great ideology. Many countries that suffer a collapse let companies come in, extract their resources, and bail.
I am a Norwegian and live in Norway don't get caught up, our country is imploding from corruption and political greed, i don't plan on sticking around for much longer.
Yeah, but the Norwegian people did vote those idiots into power. However, I knew it wouldn't be good, but I didn't expect them to do so poorly. Class act. Oh well, they'll be gone in 2025, and hopefully we won't see them again before 2033 at the earliest.
Come to the United States, prepare to see what real mismanagement is. Only way things could be better is if society is completely hive minded, which it isn't.
I have a huge amount of respect for how Norwegians live their lives and do sensible things with investments the country makes. If only Canada had done the same.
@@Cal_Night If you have money in Norway, the world is your oyster. if you don't have any money, nobody is going to help you, unless you're a junky, then the government will throw money at you, no matter how much the family asks them to stop because they are just allowing them to buy more drugs and stay high. So they can migrate to the big cities then be picked up around Christmas time to bolster the gains of the Police force. (True story, this happens every christmas, They lure people to the city with good deals, then they arrest them in droves, because they need to prove that the criminal situation is just as bad as last year, so they get the same amount of tax money next year) If you live in Oslo you're good, anywhere outside of it, you are kinda fucked unless your family is rich. and if your family is rich, good luck with that too, because one day that familymember will die, and you will stop seeing the rest of your family, forever. Because of... you guessed it, Money. Welcome to Norway, where we only socialize while drunk, or in School. Where old people get forgotten in old folks homes, Where CPS has more cases against it than children they have helped, Where you keep your high school friends for life, or have no-one for the rest of it. Where the government decides your fate on a whim. Where poor people die waiting for treatment, and rich people get their treatment immediately because they pay for it like in the states. Where green energy is all the rage, which btw is sent out of norway and traded for dirty energy from Germany. Every Hydroplant on the eastern side of the country does not provide to their local communities, but rather sells their energy to the highest bidder, usually china. Then we buy power from germany, so we too can experience the high cost of electricity. Welcome to Norway, propaganda paradise.
@@andreasrnning2339Does that really matter if the society is the most egalitarian in the world, a society with both the benefits of socialism and that reigns in the excesses of capitalism, balancing freedom and collective success hardly seems like a bad thing.
As a Norwegian I can tell you that the country of Norway is rich, but the people of Norway is not. We don’t own our of houses, the bank does, we live on credit card and live month by month. Everything is extremely expensive and price keep increases, we pay probably 70% tax or more with the double taxes on salary and goods. We like these kind of videos that give us the illusion of being rich, but believe me we are not.
As a Norwegian from the area where the phosphate has been located, I can promise many do not want nature destroyed because of this. This will be fought tooth and nails. Let Morocco keep it...they need it more than us. We better become a tech nation like South-Korea but without the social misery they have crated for themselves.
While we are a rich country, we always have shortage of nurses, doctors and policemen. We can`t afford to hire as many we want to. The hospitals have to save money each year, which means they cant threat how many patients they want too. We can`t use the money we have in "pensjonsfond" without risking higher interest. The biggest problem is out politicians. They can`t seem to agree on anything
The current market/economy is unnecessarily tougher for boomers/senior citizens, I’m used to just buying and holding assets which doesn’t seem applicable to the current rollercoaster market plus inflation is catching up with my portfolio. I’m really worried about survival after retirement.
Yes, gold is a great investment and a good bet against the devaluating dollar, been holding some for awhile now, I’m grateful my fin-planner momentous changes in the market are lightening quick, cos who know how much losses I would’ve had by now.
Private investing is the best way to go about the market right now, especially for near retirees, I've been in touch with a wealth manager for awhile now netted 370thousand this downturn, made it clear there's more to the markets than we average ones know.
To get started with unlimited stock media downloads at one set price, head to storyblocks.com/EconomicsExplained
Nor way
EE your western supremacy is too annoying
do a video on angola
The claim of 70 billion metric tons of phosphate was debunked by the company that found the resources. They "only" found 2.1 billion metric tons. The 70 billion claim was referring to several different types of minerals, phosphate being one of them. There are recent Norwegian news articles describing this. Apparently the wide-spread news stem from a reporter misunderstanding a company representative.
Not a fan of the big mac index. It is influenced too much by the minimum wage, so it is as useful as it sounds.
Sustainable fishery.........
As a Norwegian.. i didn't even know we hit the natural resource jackpot again 😅
Our ancestors decided to settle a cold, wind blasted and rocky land. Seems like this location was godlike for late game.
As an American with a burning passion for the European project, this is great news. The rare earth market is overwhelmingly dominated by one state. Placing so much of the market in the hands of a single actor is always dangerous. Time for Norway to turn its refining talents to another resource.
@@Achmedsander The Norway build has a high barrier to entry but it scales very well in the late-game
Congratulations, I'm Brazilian, and we too have tons of natural resources. Unfortunately, political instability and corruption have deprived our people of benefiting from them. ):
@@davidblair9877 ughhhh 🥲 can't we just leave it in the ground... Norway is such a beautiful country with amazing mountains and incredible unspoiled nature.
Do we really need to start stripping down our mountains...
I think the mountains are worth more than we can ever get for destroying them.
I'm Norwegian and I'm afraid you got the premise of your story completely wrong here. A journalist from The Economist massively exaggerated the find. It's correct that they found 70 billion tons of phosphate-rich rock (in the west of Norway, not the north) but according to Norway Mining, the company that owns the rights to the find, only around ~2 billion tons will be profitable to mine. There's also no knowing exactly how much pure phosphate will come out of it until they start digging. It's still a huge find, and advances in technology could make it profitable to extract more material in the future, but the numbers being thrown around in international media is way, way off. This is not the new oil.
Even if true, it doesn't really affect the whole video, which focuses more on the overall economy and how they managed their natural resources in the past
The world will run out of phosphate in well under 80 years. It will become more and more profitable to extract the scarcer it gets.
The same thing about only a microscopic amount being profitable to extract was said by the Americans when oil was found in the seas outside of Norway. But what you said is interesting if true, so where can I find sources for that? I have had a hard time finding anything similar of your statement from NRK, Aftenposten, E24, NGU, stortingen.no, regjeringen.no, forskning.no and Norge mining. I could have only missed it by a hair, so sorry if it has been said anywhere obvious.
I'm a Norwegian speaker. This is from the article at 16:28 interviewing the company.
"En sannhet med kraftige modifikasjoner.
Internasjonalt ble funnet omtalt til å være i størrelsesorden 70 milliarder tonn av fosfatstein. Det er en sannhet med kraftige modifikasjoner, ifølge selskapet selv.
- Det var en journalist som presenterte funnet som noe mer enn det var, sier Joa i Norge Mining.
- Da tok det av.
Han presiserer at det til nå er etablert ressursestimater på rundt to milliarder tonn definert som drivverdig i henhold til internasjonale standarder.
Litt mindre enn 70 milliarder tonn altså.
- Men det er et voldsomt stort tall det og, legger han til.
Joa sier at estimatet på 70 milliarder tonn er et anslag geologer har gjort over hvor mye stein som inneholder tre mineralene ilmenitt, magnetitt og apatitt ned til 1500 meter. Disse beskriver bare hvor stor forekomsten er. Det betyr ikke at det er realistisk å hente ut en slik mengde stein."
"A truth with powerful modifications.
Internationally, the finding was reported to be in the order of 70 billion tonnes of phosphate rock. This is a truth with powerful modifications, according to the company itself.
- There was a journalist who presented the finding as something more than it was, says Joa in Norge Mining.
- Then it took off.
He clarifies that up to now resource estimates of around two billion tonnes have been established, defined as mineable in accordance with international standards.
A little less than 70 billion tonnes, that is.
- But that too is a huge number, he adds.
Joa says that the estimate of 70 billion tonnes is an estimate geologists have made of how much rock contains the three minerals ilmenite, magnetite and apatite down to 1,500 metres. These only describe how large the deposit is. It does not mean that it is realistic to extract such a quantity of rock."
@@Splattis1996Thank you! Good to know!
As a Norwegian, i find it weird that i've never heard about the discovery of "Phosphate". Never seen it in our news, online etc. this is the first time ive heard about it... well that's good and maybe bad who knows
It's been in the news but is not as large as this video claims. More like 2B tons, not 70B, that is profitable to mine with todays technology. But improvement of technology can make it more than 2B tons.
Remember it was on VG one day
As a Norwegian? What is a Norwegian right now? We can't set our own rules, we don't manage our own power supply, we don't run our own financial banking and we have to apply to eu if we want boarder controll. So how is this still Norway?
Same here
Not easy to sell us the story that we need the EU with this new income..
Small correction, a lot of the hydroelectric power plants was built before the oil, as this was something that drove the early industrialisation of Norway.
Also the wind industry is something that Norway is doing quite well in. Pretty soon that’s likely to become more important than always gas or oil.
And now will become part of the People's republic of China.
And now the Chinese will take it over.
I also want to add that the jante Law is danish, and has nothing to do with ´somed´ individuals that gets theyr narsis overun.
@@hiervi janteloven was coined in denmark but it describes a social phenomenon that exists in norway too.
As a norwegian, i cam attest you did good on the pronunciation of Pensjonsfond. Now the Norwegian Hydro eletric was not developed because of the oil industry, it was developed because of the Nitrate industry, as Norway was the leading producer and inventor of Artifical Fertilizer that is now used everywhere in the world in the early 1900's. But in order to produce this, high amount of energy was in demand and Norway being a natural hotspot for ideal Hydroeletric locations started developing this, which in turn help spreading the industry which also included ship building, which was a major industry for Norway back in the pre-oil days, and its legacy still remains today as Norway is one of the biggest shipping nations in the world and even more influential, most of the Global Shipping insurance companies are owned by Norway. Which gives them a massive influence in world shipping.
And then oil.
And now potentially phosphate in due time.
Another interesting thing with the oil-fund is that Norway is currently experiencing record high inflation rates, however as our currency drops in value, our pension fund reaches record high values due to exhangerate but also due to more income from all its exports.
So while yes, I am partly suffering from constant interest rate increase, at least I know the country won't turn into a 3rd world country within my lifetime at least.
Norway didn't invent artificial fertilizer. It was a german guy.
@@kaplanbahadir2301 Some Norwegians did develop a process for making artificial fertilizer, the Birkeland-Eyde process. This process is very energy inefficient which is why an absurd amount of hydro energy was necessary for it. I was made obsolete by the Haber process (German) as it was far more energy efficient.
Jeg skulle virkelig ønske oss normale folk her faktisk fikk kjenne litt på denne økonomiske revolusjonen, men i det siste har økonomien til Ola Nordmann generelt hatt en ganske annerledes historie rundt seg. Alltids greit å vite at vi aldri vil helt forfalle, men det er også utrolig kjipt å se så store og gunstige pengebeløp bli så dårlig forvaltet innenlands blant befolkningen på et vis som virker som det bare er for å se bra ut på papir for videoer som dette.
@@kaplanbahadir2301 Haber-Bosch, the great alliance
Where's the contradiction?
Fed the world by ways of science
Sinner or a saint?
a high interest rate environment is also an opportunity, just of a different kind.
Back a couple decades ago people were able to live off of their interest rates.
Then it was low interest rates so you are supposed to borrow money to buy a home or build a home or borrow to start a business that would give you more returns.
I guess it might hampen some productivity as people will borrow less to build something new, and rather try to do smaller, type business, or stick to a large organization instead of starting something new.
I think you already said it, perhaps indirectly: Norwegians can check what eachother’s salary (and tax payments) every year. They log into a website and can literally check any person’s taxable income. In this way, Norwegians have full control over Norways tax income.
Well, yes, you can quite easily check online how much tax someone has paid, but these days that person will be notified that you looked (you have to log in with your national ID number), so it's not like people are spying on their neighbour's salary levels. If you're a celebrity or politician, journalists might take a look, but it's not really newsworthy, so most don't bother.
Not full control. Not all calculations are shown, and part of someone’s fortune will still be hidden
@@-_James_-importantly, journalists do check the entire population's taxes, resulting in public lists of highest earners per local govt area. in my home area of
You can, but it's not even remotely accurate for people earning serious money, it's just not reliable. Besides, when you request to check someone's salary like that, the person being checked will know exactly who made the request. Rather embarrassing to get caught pocket watching your neighbour lol
@@Matfridt You just KNOW that there are hordes of nosy cheeky bastards checking out their neighbours and friends, not knowing they know lol
Hi. Australian surgeon working in Norway here. Can attest to the dissatisfaction at the relative flat incomes. That in addition to the extreme work hours is causing a huge shortage of medical professionals. There may be no brain drain, but there is an internal brain redistribution to careers with better work/life balance for the same money.
People need to value their health more.
Virtually all smart kids do IT for over two decades now. The vast majority of young doctors are second, but more like third rate brains.
If you want to beat home office, flexible work hours, you need to pay up.
Was your decision to go to Norway as a surgeon largely economic or social? (ie spouse/family etc)?
How would you compare your quality of life as a surgeon in Norway as compared to if you were still in Australia?
@@N7sensei I feel this simple market principle is overlooked here in the name of janteloven.
@@hjf3022 it’s not easy to do the counter factual. I’m here for social reasons and life is good here because of that. Outside of that, I don’t know that I would have left Australia to come here.
Medical personnal situation is surprisingly mediocre in Norway. I am a french classical musician living in Oslo and my conditions are order of magnitudes better (short hour, great conditions, good pay) than almost anywhere else in the world. The quality of life is sky high, even though I am not rich by any means.
I live there and haven’t heard about this until now, but it makes sense given it happened in July, that’s when all of Norway is on vacation and people are more concerned about whether they remembered to take the hiking boots to their cabin.
The people are brainwashed by socialist news propaganda, orchestrated by the same political elite in order to keep the narrative going. In this context, Norway is undoubtedly the most communist country in Western Europe
As a norwegian this is very interesting, more people struggle financially here and the prices are rising alottt so i really hope this will help these people
Aldri i livet😂 rett i lommeboka til mannen til Erna
It will make zero difference for the people.
This will only make the goverment richer. Not the people. For sure EU and Ukraine to
@@apeape9878 kom til Norge ble lovt gull og grønne skoger. Endte opp fattig og sliter for livet LOL
Sliter ja, men jeg ser nada av de pengene der.
I don't think it's correct that the Phosphate deposit is readiliy available. From what I remember reading in the local news, it's very deep and the experts being interviewed said it might even be too deep to worry about. Now, I don't know if that's true, and it does give off a vibe of someone being overly sceptical, but at least it shows that nothing is _obvious_ regarding this deposit. BTW, the deposit is in the South, not in the North.
I would also like to confront the impression the video left regarding hydropower. Norway predominantly uses hydropower for electricity, not because we wanted to foreswear fossil fuels to make electricty, but because we have very plentiful water running down towards the sea in landscape with many steep slopes. The big build-out of hydro was around a century ago, long before oil and gas were discovered.
The first Economics explained video I've seen was about Norway. Since then, I've been following this channel and felt happy to see another video on Norway. It's gives always some optimistic vibes on humanity.
indeed :)
As a Norwegian i can tell you that it's pretty frecking cold here.
I was on vacation in Norway a couple months ago. The most beautiful place I've ever seen. Don't ever change.
Getting a motorbike or a car to go see Norway is a dream of mine. It's just expensive 😅
I didn't drive while there. The traffic laws and roads are very different and they drive fast. But they have great public transportation. It is expensive. I was blessed that I had my trip paid for. That being said there were a lot of tourists doing the hostel thing.@@FrozenDung
@@FrozenDung it doesn't have to be; costs can be somewhat mitigated if you plan sensibly, and get local allies ahead of time. And ironically, planning sensibly might be a good way to get local allies :D
@@RichardsShortHorrorFilms Norwegians drive fast? We have lower speed limits than most countries and are among the safest drivers in the world (one of the reasons being that we don't drive fast)...
🤣🤣🤣
I'm norwegian, and I haven't even heard of this phosphate discovery.
This is the second time I’ve heard about it. Haven’t really seen any politicians talk about it either
Den har vært i tech nyheten et par ganger men ikke hørt mye om det fra de store nyhets kildene enda nei
For å være helt ærlig ...
Vil heller beholde fjellan og naturen.. gruvedrift e gruvedrift liksom.
@@sveinungchr - exactly. I've just seen it mentioned, and thought it was some company fishing for investor money blowing up some minor find into something big.
Because norwegian media always asks the company in question for a response before pushing a story like that :P As this video explains "nettavisen" did just that, they asked the company is this (what this video is claiming btw) true? The company itself, that found the minerals, said no. So nettavisen decided to "mock" foreign news instead for spreading fake news. Like what else are you supposed to do ? 16:26 They did find something and it should be able to generate some money eventually, but 24 trillion USD is probably a tad optimistic :D
18:05
The Norwegian Industrial Revolution was kickstarted by hydroelectric power in the 1800, because of how cheap the power was. And we used them long before we discovered oil, and we kept the hydro plants because it's cheap and clean.
Exactly. This video has so many mistakes. Not even the phosphate findings did he get right
Morroco's strategic importance just took the biggest hit in history.
Not really. There is a such a large global demand for phosphates, Morocco will never struggle to find a buyer for them. Morocco and Norway will basically have a duopoly on the global supply of them so I doubt there will be a big crash in price.
I guess they'll just have to keep occupying Sahwari for a while yet to get their money's worth
@@FlintIronstag23Morroco has 100% lost the hability to blackmail Europe or USA with phosphate, something they have done in the past.
Morroco has lost it's most valuable geopolitical card bv far.
@@PedroPedro-k9p You are assuming Norway will exploit their phosphate deposits in a big way. They could easily just mine them slowly as supplemental income to their oil industry. Like it was mentioned in this video, the rest of the world seems more interested in the discovery of this phosphate deposit than the Norwegians themselves. Morrocco most likely will remain the dominate power in the phosphate market for the perceivable future.
And will be easier for China to invade it.
Do Denmark next! The explosive growth of Novo Nordisk is almost like the discovery of phosphates, and it now has a higher market cap than the GDP of Denmark. However Novo also still pays some of the highest corporate taxes in the world, and refuse to use loopholes to pay less, which seems to counter all economic principles. Could be an interesting topic to explore.
Would love to learn more about Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries
Me too
i also wonder about greenland. do greenland contribute toward denmark economy since it is semi independence. and is there no natural resource to be mine there?(oil,mineral etc)
@@High1QWealth😂 #IgnoranceIsBliss
I am not so sure about your statement " refuse to use loopholes to pay less,"
Shell has over the last 30 years considered their DUC investment as top-3 most valuable. Why, I don't know. They have made considerable profit in Norway too, but Norway has never been in their top-3 ( I got this from a former Shell employee)
Living in Norway since 2010, you dont really see any of that money saved up in the national fund. You usually pay more taxes then other countries, yes the system is strong and prosperous, but it costs for private persons, and everything is very expensive. So even if you earn a lot it is hard to amass any real wealth.
I have been living in Norway for about a decade and agree with you 100%
And you pay for undesirable migrants from other countries who come to Norway to leech off system welfare ( that you pay taxes for) and attaçk ethnic Norwegians
Yep. Can’t really get rich here
@@uvunitos71 luckily you do not have to be wealthy to live a good life here though.
Probably better to put in as little effort as possible and let the state take care of you.
as a Norwegian this flattering perspective of our economy seems foreign to me
It's weird how he rates Norway so positively but then for Australia he says that its mining (iron, minerals, LNG) is a negative
My quick uninformed opinion. Australia mining is : insane owners who would drink coal mixed water for a quick buck and Norway is : socialized profit, large scale benefits.
Be happy that you live where you do. Even only living in a different EU country (i know Norway is not 100% EU) feels like I got unlucky
You don't know how good you have it.
youtube grifters gaslighting you aint fun ?
One thing is certain is that Norway wouldn't just waste this boon to their economy.
well, they wont use it on their citizens thats for sure...
@@makk1Do you even pay attention to the video? They ARE giving it to the people, just not immediately. Norway is playing the long game. They’re being prudent and know that it’s better to be patient and grow money trees first, before enjoying the fruits of their patience.
It's a bot.
@@kaplanbahadir2301 If that’s true, that’d make me the fool that I am, or it’s a throwaway account.
@lolithighs There are so many bot comments these days its so hard to know. Its not just he spam or russian bots but just all kinds of comments I can tell by replying and there is no reply back. You get the small red dot by the bell icon so you would think a normal human would respond no?
Very small population=Biggest reason for economic success. Wherever the number of people is low, this also allows more wealth, more job opportunities. It's also a fact that the rich natural resource also helps a lot to improve the economy.
Imagine if Australia took this approach rather than selling of the rights to foreign entities
In the other end is Mexico who owns 100% of petroleum in the country, and the petroleum company (PEMEX) is one of the less profitable companies in the world that mostly produces debt. So it can be worse.
That's not even remotely true. The biggest mining companies in Australia are locally headquartered and pay enormous amounts of royalties and taxes to the state and federal governments in this country. To wit, the WA state budget surplus is the size that it is in large part because of the rivers of gold coming from local miners. The mining companies are also the largest payers of company tax (which is a higher rate than Norway, BTW) in the country. Oil and gas is another story and yes, the recent steps by the feds to get a better deal for the country around offshore gas are good ones.
Literally, Australia should be so far ahead of any other country on the planet. The fact that we're only top 10 is honestly embarrassing
@canis_lupus_canus Australia used to have that sense of mateship but the rich pricks worked hard for decades to erode it. We need it back
@@PapaphobiaPicturesImagine if we didn't get fooled into rejecting a super profit tax...
Because apparently there was somewhere else for BHP and RIO to go and sell ore extracted for $25 a tonne for $150 a tonne
I have no problems with resource exploitation to a degree, but let's save a bit for future generations
This is exactly why I think the growth score can be so misleading. Yes obviously, any economy can boost its GDP by taking on massive debts and doing stuff like building huge infrastructure projects, even if those projects are useless. But does that really help their economy in any way? If Norway wanted to, they could use all of the money in their pension fund to get a 300% growth in their economy next year. But that really doesn't mean it's a great idea to do so. Growth for growth's sake is an incredibly shortsighted way to manage your economy. Norway's growth, just like their GDP per capita, is entirely earned unlike most of the economy experiencing growth right now.
It's spending spent on value generating ventures that boost productivity.
But I do think that state investment is an important factor in that part as well.
There's value generating investments that are hidden if you just play on the safe side of stuff like medicine and already established industry.
You won't be able to find the unicorn that tries to invent the next google or facebook or even the user interfaced computer or the user interfaced phone.
American unicorns are mostly privately funded with large private venture capital, we have our own share of unicorns but...
back to your original point, yeah sometimes growth pursued by borrowing lots of money or printing money and then shoving into useless projects is sort of throwing resources into a black hole.
But there is legitimate value generating industries that can use those resources, and in a large enough economy it's "easy" to find. Your most important industries can always use a boost, problem is just that allies will complain that you're distorting the market and it will be a race to the bottom who can subsidize their key industry the most.
But it's still real growth up to a certain point.
True, much like they US is doing to try stabilize their increasingly unstable system
@@ayoCCi feel like you are missing the biggest issue with subsidizing industry; it leads in theory to less innovation and lower competitiveness long term. If an industry is subsidized then that does distort capital allocation and incentives, and it may be that the industry will never actually be profitable.
@@theWebWizrd The key is to only subsidize it as long as there's still competition in the world.
Well and also there's "subsidizing" like giving money to universities to research certain things that your home industry currently is asking for, "optimizing" curriculums, creating more stipends for certain industries, creating certain tariffs for jobs that they have a minimum wage or simply investing by giving money to build a factory with key technology that is a sensitive export. Like building a chip manufacturing plant that will run at a profit longterm. Or a power plant that will pay off in 25 years. It's possible to build a private powerplant, but it's not really going to happen fully.
interesting perspective🤔
As a norwegian it was incrediably interesting to learn about our economy! In school, we learn the basics: fishing used to be the biggest income, found oil in the 60s, we have a national bank etc. However, this video is filled with details about the story I was absolutely clueless about. Including the recent discovery of phosphate! The dots have started to connect now.
This was fun, thank you!😄
I'm Norwegian. The significance of the law of jante is heavily exaggerated in this video. Nobody in Norway thinks that this so called law is a good thing, and it is not something we generally enforce. It is mostly a shorthand for feeling uncomfortable with sticking out.
The so called "law of jante" was introduced in a novel by a Danish-Norwegian writer back in the 1950s, and was heavily inspired by his hometown in Denmark in the 1930s. It was meant as criticism of conformity in Scandinavian smalltowns. It is not a law - neither legally nor de facto.
Some people from small towns in Norway can tell you about being especially uncomfortable with not conforming, or having high ambitions, but I think you can find this experience anywhere in the world. You can find similar expressions in Australia and Japan, to name a few.
Everyone has felt the pressure of conformity in their lives. The difference is that we have a name for it, that we learn in Norwegian literature classes in school. As any other country, we have social media influencers, celebrities that are mostly famous for being famous, our most popular singer is quirky, and our most popular cross country skier of all time acts like he is better than everyone else (if you don't know which one I am referring to, it is both of them). If a Norwegian is mentioned in US news media, it's a national sensation. We love them.
We are proud when a fellow Norwegian does well for themselves, but feeling that you don't fit in is always tough.
As a Norwegian, I was surprised to learn about this phosphorus deposit. However, seeing as we've got some other large deposits of rare, vaulueable minerals to which mining has raised great protests, I bet this phosphorus-adventure won't be as big as you're anticipating. Though, recalling from memory, these other deposits are in mountain and at the seabad, resulting in great disturbance to the local environment. We love our undisturbed nature.
Don't worry it will go to the Chinese when China invades Norway
Vi er for dumme for dette nye eventyret😮💨😮💨
That’s impressive though that Norwegians can actually stop such mining from taking place. That looks like a beautiful part of Norway and it would be a shame to destroy it for some electric cars. Look what happened to Nauru. I’m sure the EU doesn’t care though.
"We love our undisturbed nature".
*Proceeds to sell oil to everyone whilst pretending to be so green*
Norwegians are such hypocrites.
@@leondbleondb ah yes the Norwegian oil extracting environmentalists and the Swedish arms exporting pacifists next door. Luckily these days it’s more important to say nice things than take appropriate action. Still, I’d be impressed if the Norwegians managed to stop this destroying the nature in that area 🤞
Norwegian here. The Norwegian economy is not all what it sounds like. Most people are taxed into oblivion and privately talk about how much they absolutely hate it, and a lot are struggling now that inflation has made it hard to put food on the table. Norwegians also have an astronomical amount of debt in the form of mortgages and credit card/spending debt. Rising interest rates is potentially lethal for Norway, because our vages are not keeping up with the cost of living and norwegians are extremely arrogant when it comes to a potential economic crisis because we didnt really feel anything back in 2008. People got drunk on low interests three years ago and the real estate market and car financing market went completely bonkers. Decades of infrastructure neglect and massive cost overruns on almost every government project from hospitals to roads has led to a backlog of maintenance now costing 10X of what it would have cost a decade ago. Norwegian politicians are fanatical about "going green" at any cost, not realizing we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on. Also, when it comes to not needing money or luxuries, this is completely wrong. Most people secretly want money and luxuries, but the socially enforced oppression permeates every nook and cranny of society, so people are deadly afraid of portraying any desire to stand out from the crowd.
Amen. The amount of people I know that earn just enough to pay their monthly bills with not a krone of profit is staggering
Industry: you forgot to mention that Salmon aquaculture was mainly developed in Norway, and that Norway is a world leader here, producing 1.5 million metric tons of salmon a year. In fact, it is probably Norway's second most important industry today, after oil/gas.
Yea and we are selling fish factory patents to china and Japan. Soon there will be no need to buy our overly expensive fish anymore.
Yes main industries are oil, salmon and "kommune". NOK going only down. Net average monthly salary (adjusted for living costs in PPP) in Norway - wiki, are wery mediocre to EU now ...
Norway wasn’t rich before oil but even without oil it most likely would be at Finland’s level today. I am glad people are not peddling the “poor” argument anymore but it also wasn’t really “average”, it would be like Finland, Belgium, Austria today, regular West European countries that are considered rich globally
At least they had the opportunity to learn from the Dutch, about what NOT to do with oil & gas revenues. Us Dutchies were early to the game, happy with the money it brought, and we subsequently pissed all of it away on building an overly expensive welfare system and a massive bureaucracy. They even named this phenomenon after us: the Dutch Disease. Norway instead has put those revenues in a sovereign wealth fund, that is now - literally - paying dividends.
Europe is on Russia & Iran's oil needle, but this video presents as if it's the opposite. A true western delusion.
Finland is nowhere near rich globally. Our debt is insane and now we gotta cut from students bcs it has gone so bad.
Maybe the state would be, but with a poorer state I'm not sure how well off the rest of us would be. The fact is that mostly because of currency failure the inhabitants in Norway actually have lower purchasing power than the ones in Finland and every other Nordic country. The state has become richer than ever, yet we who live here get significantly less for our money than any neighbors except in Russia.
We are wealthy not rich
Obligatory: As a Norwegian. It's really weird hearing how much the economy as a whole on a macro scale is considered to be in great shape. While the cost of living crisis ravages most young people I know. Especially if you run into any health issues before you start working properly. The good sides are that you will get healthcare and at least money to survive on. However you will never savings like that.
that is the austerity politics meant to mentally prep the young for killing other ppl...seems to be a very European thing to do, ever since they started challenging russia to a ww3 after russia occupied ukraine...
Try being a teenager in a country that has actual economic problems, lol
@@PaniKWardoG Wdym? Just because someone else has it worse we can't feel bad?
cost of living crisis has been a global problem for the last 1-2 years.
The US is a third world sh*thole. Want to talk about economic problems, a quarter of the population is in prison, and the rest sleep on the street.
As norwegian who did leave, it's not that stuff is so great, but everyone believes that it is better. While Norway is great, there are lots of things that are frustrating when I go back. I most likely never return.
Out of curiosity, what are some aspects that frustrate you the most?
@@Balala_ I'm curious as well!
I'm Dutch and people like to praise my country as well. But I can come up with many aspects that are really frustrating about it. I like to know different perspectives y'know, instead of just always assuming Norway = perfect. Like many people state.
It’s cold. It’s boring. Food terrible.
And dark. @@jasonwill5949
I did leave too (though was also an immigrant there), but you have to remember that those that do are not representative samples. People who left for reasons like I did (job) are often in the higher brackets of society wherever they land. In contrast, Norway has a higher average and higher baseline. People ask me what I liked about Norway, and I answer "everything worked". That's of course a generalisation, but it's far closer to the truth than anywhere else I've been.
I am always reminded by seeing videos like this one how very lucky I am to have been born in Norway, and it serves as a wonderful reminder to be more appreciative of the life I have been given.
As an Englishman, now seeing your economy doing well, I demand reparations from all the wealth that the Vikings stole from my land
Someone in Norway: "Sigh, just think Sven...we used to have to travel to other countries to take their money. Now, they just come to us!"
It is funny they raided for riches for centuries not knowing they were sitting on wealth no one knew how to capitalize.
You are not to think you're better than us.
@@nunyabidness3075 pretty sure a lot more countries have these wealths, it’s just that it’s a risky and polluted business that mainly countries like China and Russia go for.
BTW the name "Sven" is not very common in Norway, it's the Swedish version of the name that's written "Svein" in Norway.
@@beepboopbeepp There are definitely unfounded fossil fuel deposits still out there. The peak oil nutters were just ignorant loudmouths. Letting the communists and dictators do the dirty jobs is not green at all. The record on this is very evident.
If you look into the environmental movement you’ll find it’s leadership has almost continuously been Marxists, anti establishment trouble makers, and power grabbers, not conservationists. Actually reducing pollution is not their real agenda, so they are happy to brag about accomplishments which were effectively moving the pollution elsewhere.
Enjoy your content as always 🤩 however, I notice that you and many others on RUclips sharing your thoughts on Norway don't necessarily look at the big picture. Say someone in Norway makes 500K NOK and pay ish 30% tax, you have to take into consideration that includes universal healthcare, around $300 USD/mo daycare for children and $500 USD/year in property tax for an average house. By comparing this to the US for example the cost of Healthcare, daycare and property tax are astronomical and would easily be 10x/price = net tax/cost of living is actually way higher in the US. My impression is that most people simply look at W2 taxation, not the big picture when comparing.
Well, I think he should.
A healthy 25 y.o tech worker in Norway wouldn't have daycare/healthcare costs. He'd be paying 45% tax in Norway, 20-ish in the US depending on the state. They'd be still earning way more net, as most have good insurances as well (that is, even if you fuzzy the healthy part). This is true for many other highlevel professions as well. That's why I think you can't "globally" apply the logic you've brought up.
Your logic though holds true for lower level professions, over lifetime earnings. e.g. potentially a waiter's lifetime expenses in the US, would end up looking like "higher overal net taxation due to healthcare/education", but even then, I'd argue the "capitalist" market has been fixing this organically over time through wealth/opportunity generation to push up the working class. (i.e. 30 years ago, this would have been 100% true, but take a look at how consistent gdp per capita growth in the US has been over the last 50 years)
@@RandomRUclipsr234 It's far more than just free education and healthcare because these and other social systems lead to other things. Less crime, less homelessness, less poverty, which become enormous expenses if they're not dealt with. And this means more people grow up in healthy homes, more people get an education, more people contribute to society. Everyone feels safer and more relaxed, and everyone gets more freedom to pursue their goals and dreams as it makes changing career paths or taking a year off or quitting a bad job much safer, which in turn makes people more productive overall. And it also ends badly run businesses quicker as they have very little leverage they can use to incentivize people to keep working there. It's a whole cycle that both saves and makes us money. So while it's true that highly educated people might not have the same opportunities to basically get rich as they do in some other countries like the US, they do see that money in the form of not only social services, but in a sense of safety, freedom, low stress environment, and generally chill people. Something which is very much the opposite of how people live in the US with their looking hole and seven chains on the front door. I lived in the US for six months, and by that time I went from being very anti-guns to thinking I should probably buy one just in case my neighbour was a mass murderer. Not that that's anymore likely in the US, but the whole culture and atmosphere suggests everyone is trying to kill you and take your stuff all the time. Luckily I had the option to jump on a plane back to Norway instead if becoming a paranoid lunatic. That sense of relief being back in a relaxed place is something that no amount of wealth can replace, and it really has to be experienced to be understood. If nothing else, I'm grateful I spent that time in the US just so I can better appreciate what our social systems actually do for us, as I like most others took that stuff for granted until I didn't have it anymore.
@@daniel4647 I fully agree with you. I think though there's a lot of factors playing into e.g. US's situation. Extensive immigration for one, stupid gun laws, and a handful of other things, leads into what you've experienced. I think you can pick the more capitalist approach of the US (i.e. more relaxed taxation), and bundle it with a sensible immigration/gun/education policy, and get the best of both worlds. In other words, I think the more relaxed approach to life here, has led into a less highly skilled labor force, subsequently leading into a less efficient economy and day-to-day life (just compare getting deliveries in Oslo and how many days it takes, vs the "same hour" deliveries in SF etc). Now potentially with the perfectly handled oil wealth, Norway wouldn't ever need to be globally competitive as that requires this sense of chill to be reduced, but I think with the same logic, relying on the wealth, it can provide the path for those who want to try more and achieve more. Basically I think the forceful "equalisation" approach is suboptimal and I think that's what needs to be taken from the US.
Norwegian here. This is why the immigration inflow is so dangerous to the Norwegian economy. With "welfare tourists" who dip into our collective wealth and do not share out mindset of high trust and great feeling of personal shame for misusing collective assets (for example most Norwegians would tend to not utilize welfare even if they're out of a job if they got savings they could use, even if it's their right).
I didnt know about that discovery, but that is awesome. I had often wondered about a solution to the "Moroccan issue". It is good to know an additional source of phosphate has been discovered.
You won't say that once we start the next OPEC with just us and Morocco :P
Funny thing is that i had a discussion about how expensive vegetables have become with a cacher at a low cost grocery store about 200m away from the spot in which the footage at 20:25 was filmed. Just around the time this video was uploaded
Hello from norway
As a Norwegian: Norway is actually getting worse. More money to the already rich, and less to everyone else.
There are people in Norway now that has to stay for hours it food queues, and choose between a warm winter or food.
The discovery was in the Dalane in Rogaland (South West Norway), and it was not 70B but realisticly more like 2B Tons
The reserves are 70B, but only 2B is profitable to extract. Rest is too deep inside the rock.
@@hevnervalstrue. For now that is. Its been said about oil and gas productions before too and they managed to subtract it anyway. The future will tell us!
Any credible sorccese ?
@@nilso3719 its true man I saw norwegian interviews about it
Oil industry in Rogaland. Now this 😅 too much for one place 😂
My bet is that they will succeed🎉, because , unlike any other part of the world, they have managed to isolate the tasks of public enterprises and public services from the realm of conflict based, power seeking politics.
this.
😂
Like what he said
well i share the sentiment but the oil situation few years ago are first symptoms that this may not be a guarantee
Its easy for norway cause they are a very small country with a small population.
People in Norway do not know this. Actually, there have never been so many people needing food aid and having to get donations to give presents to their children at Christmas (Jool).
"Never": wrong
Har i alle fall aldri vært så mye klaging som nå.
Det er vel en grunn til det, @@OleKristianFjelltun-Larsen
I can see why Norway would keep the phosphate discovery on the “DL” - especially to its citizens … they’ll likely slow mine it. Norwegians are a practical and methodical people and also incredibly responsible (in relation to other countries). Speaks to the culture and values you mention (happy you discussed this) - I am 3rd gen Norwegian and now I understand why I’m so minimalist and miserly. 😂
You haven't been in Norway iguess. Now in the east its all about expensive fashion and consumerism. Things changes fast when u get money in your pocket. 😉
Hmmm🤔
As an Australian, we voted against imposing extra taxes on iron ore miners who were selling for $150 tonne at a cost of $25 a tonne.
We were afraid that the market would go somewhere that didn't have a metric fuckload of easily exploitable iron ore apparently.
Political manipulation is very possible, even in a supposedly educated nation
So that's for that Tony Abbott and co
And also for the carbon tax revocation
Now our current leaders will let the profiteering of major companies continue, regardless of actual costs, because high inflation is a great excuse 😖
Makes me so mad!
I'm not sure that they'll necessarily slowly mine it, because of how useful the resource is/could be it might be more helpful to exploit it maximally when considering climate change.
@@sino_diogenes slow is relative here. They'll take time to come up with a non environmentally destructive plan to extract as much as they need to to meet global demand while still keeping prices stable. Compare that to Nauru that just opened the flood gates for foreign companies to destroy their country as quickly as possible to make a quick buck.
@@TagS883 Have you been in other countries? There is still a world's distance away from Norway to US levels of consumerism.
Thanks for analysing culture as well, it seems far too many policymakers and economists have a massive blind spot for this, assuming all nations and cultures value and prioritise things in the same way, then being surprised when the outcome isn't what they expected.
It's quite interesting really, because a lot of things that make Norway so rich make it quite unattractive for many skilled high earners. From my perspective as a well-paid software engineer in London, the country's very high cost of living and high taxes make it difficult to justify moving there for opportunities as I once calculated I'd be a lot worse off even after accounting for the higher salaries and benefits like free childcare and education. Switzerland in comparison, with its far more individualistic culture is more attractive as the low taxes and very high salaries balance out its equally high cost of living. But for an average person earning an average wage, Norway would handily beat out both the UK and Switzerland. Assuming of course they could move and get a job there.
Yeah I totally agree. We earn alot, but have to spend alot to live here. Funny you should mention Switzerland, because all our rich people move there to avoid high taxes
As already remarked, this phosphate find is _not_ a big story in Norway. Even if the size of it is not exaggerated, it's safe to predict that Norway will not do anything of the kind like jumping on it and flooding the world market with phosphate. In fact, if anything there's a lot of political discussion about further _reducing_ mining activities, what with ongoing protests about how companies are polluting Norwegians' beloved fjords with mining spoils.
Go green go green go green!!!
Oh no, not the underground fjords.
Norwegian Biology-student here, I can see the potential benefits of mining, and it makes me thrilled to hear about this find. However, from my personal perspective, i don't think that the culture would allow it to be mined easily, even if the consequences on nature are limited.
@@kasparrnningen1542 Considering INP is massively growing (now bigger than Senterpartiet), that's probably going to change.
Of course most people are against reckless mining and destroying our nature over here. But I think people are fed up with the senseless restrictions that are being upheld just to "look good".
There are strict rules about how the state can use the money from the wealth fund. They are only allowed to put a small amount each year into their budget.
Their currency has been quite weak in recent years.
Though these rules are simply what would be bi-partisan agreements in the US for example, not something that would be politically stable in other countries.
The weakened currency is actually purposeful, makes Norwegian products stronger on the global market, but I do miss the 50% cheaper dollar :(
@@Half_FinisWouldn’t increased demand increase for products increase the currency’s value? Is the government printing money to keep the value relative low despite high demand?
@@Half_Finis I think it's a little bit more complicated. I read a report from Nordea about it.
It's just a little bit strange. I'm from Denmark and usually Norwegian, Danish and Swedish kroner has been on a similar level. It's very different now!
@@jacobriis7859its because of a stagnated european/global marked. Also norway isnt in the eu, so cant rely euro. Both swedish and danish kr are worth more because they are in the eu.
What do you mean by we're having the perfect economy? Our "oil fund" is owned by the state, not the people. More and more people are struggling economically in Norway, and our welfare system doesn't cover everything needed to live a decent life. And with the current government, things are getting worse. A huge change is needed, and when that happens, I'll consider moving back to my home country.
Inreresting to hear about the find of natural resources. That said I miss a take on the new tax on capital, and how a large portion of the countrys wealthiest are now moving to Switzerland, and the ripple effect of this.
Interesting that Alaska got a mention, there's also plenty of discussion regarding land value tax (some may even say Georgism) which could be considered highly relevant to that case, and indeed also the case of Norway.
as a Norwegian student. the country might be well off, but the people is not. earlier this year (2023) the prices of everything basically doubled. Yet peoples lowest income, or any income did not increase. so now instead of having enough money for bread, butter, milk, eggs, potatos, ham sandwich, tampons. i eat noodles and buy tampons.
Yeah norway got rated as one of the worst countries to move to right now due to prices
One of the reasons to move to Norway earlier have been to earn money and take it back home. With the development for NOK versus e.g. Euro, it is not as attractive as earlier. But if moving money out of norway aint the object, it could still be good. Also - moving money into norway have a different effect than earlier with the weaken NOK compared to e.g. USD and Euro.
A video on moroccos economy would be intresting!
the phosphate price in market is low very low
Moroccan economy doesn't rely on it at all
they knew this since ages
@@Vladimir97607it will be in the future
I am amazed to find out that there is such a thing as a "Big Mac Index". I started doing this when backpacking around the world in the early 2000s to find out what was an appropriate price for food in each country since McDonalds was something I could find in almost any country, as there is a McDonalds in over 100 of the 193 countries in the world. Some locals like to charge more to foreigners thinking they can afford to pay more, so it was nice to know when I was being ripped off. For example I know that in Thailand I can buy a Big Mac for 145 Baht (THB), which is about NZD$6.84, but in New Zealand that same Big Mac is about NZD$9.50. Even today I still think "How many Big Macs is that?" when thinking about income per hour / day / week / fortnight. If I'm earning less than three Big Macs per hour before tax then I'm probably not getting paid properly.
It's been around for a long time. I remember learning about it at school in maybe '84 or '85.
mmm, Norwegian krone is super fuggin weak atm and the middle and lower class are suffering. but hey super positive videos without any deep dive in to the current economical situation always helps..
From a non economic point of view I think the strongest part of the Norwegian economy shown here is its cultural acceptance and trust. That the high taxes and limited use of all this wealth is for the best and that growing slowly and safely is the best approach. Imagine what places like the US could accomplish if the government came up with a plan it didn't have people form every direction inside and out side the government try to tear it apart for glory.
USA may not be perfect but in raw terms its helping Ukraine much more than Norway. Norway is selfish fullstop.
As a Hungarian I look at these countries like a child looks at an astronaut. The mixed feeling of I want to be like him in the future and the feeling deep inside that tells me that never going to happen and I know it for sure.
They were occupied by Germany early in WW2, and very little damage was done to the country. Switzerland and the US also kept their infrastructure and working age men, which gave them huge economics boost after the war. Norway ain't that special, they just got lucky Hitler didn't see them as untermenschen.
@@solaroid4442 while our lands weren't directly harmed much (comparatively) during the war, our significant merchant fleet suffered quite a lot. That said, we got out of it better than most of Europe, and apparently considered refusing the Marshall plan money. Eventually decided to accept to cement alliance with the emerging power in the west This might be partially influenced by at the time largest party, labour, which was in control of the government, may have flirted with joining comintern in the past. There was still a lot of rebuilding to do after the war though, as a lot had stagnated, often due to lack of markets, and a lot of buildings had to be fumigated to get the nazi stench out (ok, I joke).
Hungary lives too much in the past, which makes it harder for the forward thinking people to get to politics.
Trust me it's miserable here
@@solaroid4442 yeah they only burnt down half the country when the Russians came to liberate the north, but yeah no harm done there.
As a norwegian, i never heard of this discovery of phosphate
small population, good governance and well managed abundant natural resources - definitely not a secret recipe to success and prosperity but most countries are lacking.
Some countries have abundant natural resources too but very corrupt and ill managed, in addition to having big population.
hope you're not referring to "corrupt" countries like Cuba or Bolivia (and any other south american country socialising their natural resources). The corruption literally stem from american coups to oust democratically elected leaders and lobby to keep their pro-american corrupt politicians in government.
I learned that I need to start importing my Big Macs from Taiwan. On a more serious note all my customers that ordered my product out of Norway always wanted me to devalue the product on the paperwork when I shipped it there. My product wasn’t cheap nor overly expensive most invoices ranged between $5-10k US.
What's your product? I guess it's a container with 20 reindeers 🤔
@@fenrirgg At that time I was one of the largest producers of turbo systems for rotary engines. I was selling my systems all over the world and to just about every other rotary shop on the planet. Places like Norway, Sweden, Turkey always had customers who asked to devalue the products to avoid the taxes.
40% import tax
You failed to mention that Norway is also one of the world's most over regulated bureaucracy dictatorships in the world. Almost everything is prohibited, heavily taxed or regulated so you would have to apply for a permit to be allowed to do something. Regular people have almost no freedom on their own property, and can't even legally drive a dirt bike on their own field or mount an electrical outlet in their own house.... We Norwegians like to think about Norway as the greatest country to live in and in many cases it is, bud the sad reality is that personal freedom is slowly fading away
Holy shot you’re stupid
As a fellow member of the Nordic Council, I’m glad Norway has potentially found success again. They are usually a trustworthy business partner, discounting some of their fisheries policies (long story, lol). 🤗
What countries from the nordic council would be unhappy about Norwegian fisheries policies, I mean apart from Denmark and Sweden both the faroes and Iceland have abundant fisheries as well, don't they?
@@heart4740 I’m from the Faroe Islands originally (live in Denmark now), and yes fisheries is abundant there, but there are often disagreements about quotas. :)
Doing great here in Norway, just almost freezing to death
It's ok. You can always wear a jacket 😊😊
Ah, remember that one time Norway offered to buy Volvo from Sweden and they said no? Well, China paid a lot less for it, so snooze you lose Sweden.
Sounds like a smart nation with people that actually care about their own people and work together for the good of everyone. Something lacking in large and multicultural nations.
As An Immigrant I just Love Norway. To all my Norwegian friends you guys are the most amazing humans I've ever been with. Work life balance, great Healthcare, better job opportunities, decent lifestyle, affordable school education and I'm not even going to mention the Safety part.
Great to hear, thank you. Not perfect country, no one is, but I belive the country is high upon the list. In Norway we are very lucky concidering safety and freedom
@@Rimrock300 I’m starting to believe that the image of Norway is only living in our heads. We’re clearly going in the wrong direction lately, especially with taxation getting out of hands. Norway’s safe? Some bits for sure, though I wouldn’t consider Oslo safe anymore ;)
@@steezlimeYou wouldn’t consider Oslo safe? I’ve lived in the east side of Oslo (the so called “bad part”) more or less my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything violent happen to anyone apart from some kids fighting (with their hands only) like maybe once every two years. But maybe you just read tabloid news lol
@@Gran_Torino I've been living in Oslo long enough to clearly see the change and notice what's the direction city is heading. Even though most of the city is really great, clean and safe, there're are bits in the city center and especially in Grønland that are just awful. I don't really wish to live in denial with rose glasses, the same way Swedes did :)) Apparently sweeping problems under the carpet solves most issues, er det ikke det.
Something wrong with Norway. A lot of money but cutting comfort for people.
Forcing people to use bicycle all year even in -30.
Electric buses doesn’t work in the winter 🥶 inside is colder than outside.
Forcing electric cars without infrastructure.
High taxes and expensive live.
As a Norwegian, I'd like to point out that even though there has been a huge find of phosphate and other minerals. That doesn't actually mean that we want to exploit these resources and worsen the nature. Nature is really important to Norwegians, so there is no telling if they are actually gonna be allowed to extract nearly as much as is being said in this video. Also, we should have at least 50% of the profits 🤑
Yeah, but we will do it if the world really demands it...
for some Americans the American dream is to move to Norway.
No. Unlike the US, Norways immigration is tight! That and theyre racist AF. All their smiles are 'F You' smiles.
I am norwegian, and i have often wondered about moving to another contry.
But where would i go that would ever provide the safety of Norway? Economicly, naturaly and criminaly.
To leave Norway is to leave the best safety net in the world, and for what? More money? Is it really worth that in the end?
Alot of higher paid people probably end up having family here, and to leave is to expose their kids to a world where only their parents are their safety net to.
the secret to our success with oil is state control and ownership and not letting foreign capital interests taking all the profit.
sure hope we stick to the same plan with our mining resources.
Until China invades it and take all its wealth.
Even though I don't live there I love seeing Norway succeed
Worldwide celebration of any countries success is how we succeed as a civilization!🇳🇴
We're not though. Poverty is on the rise. Food queues have tripled over the past year. Cost of living has exploded. Incompetent political decisions everywhere. Government is rich, but the people are getting poorer.
@@Cernunn0s90 - yes, but people voted for a government that said that the government should get more of people's money. So that's democracy working.
@@Mosern1977 I disagree. Most people thought they voted out of that this time around. "Vanlige folks tur". The parties know that the average joe doesn't follow politics that closely, they are easily fooled.
Democracy only works when they are honest. They are anything but.
There was so much wrong in the intro. Am from Norway, and we are the crown example of wasted potential. We have almost no industries compared to our neighbours and nothing we produce profit the people. the oil fund is used as a personal wallet by our politicians to buy high-status positions after they leave office. one example is Jens Stoltenberg, whom now is the leader of NATO even without any relevant experience. And recently tried to steel the job of national bank director a head of much more qualified people, but decided to stay in NATO when Russia attacked Ukraine.
It's good to see some acknowledgement of the role of culture in places like the Nordic countries and their economic model. You can't really get away with high tax welfare states unless broadly everyone is on board with it and prepared to shoulder their part of the burden. It's also pleasing to see it recognised that this model doesn't work everywhere.
This has become a problem in Norway though… Norway has one of the highest rates of sick leave in the world, twice as high as in Sweden.
This is somewhat anecdotal, but an acquaintance of mine has worked in the public sector for a while and she tells me it is “normal” that people are *sick* 20% of the time. It’s worse in the public sector than the private one, but people living if welfare alone is on the rise. 10% of the population between 18-67 (workforce) is receiving some kind of *disability benefit*. That is an insanely high number when compared to the rest of the world…
@@leonhorn7727 "Norway has one of the highest rates of sick leave in the world" is almost true (we actually have the highest: source OECD), but its far from twice as high as Sweden. Sweden had between 2010-2016 2,35 % sick leave, Norway had at the same time 3,38 % (again source OECD).
About your point on disabilities and benefits. The high number of people on disability benefits is down to how Norway's health care system/NAV handles this issue compared to other countries. This is far to complex to go into, and is often hyped up in media, without the proper context. However if you compare statistics on how large part of a country's population between 15-64 that are a part of the work force, the numbers appear quite different. In Norway 64,9 % of all inhabitants between 15-64 are employed, in Sweden this number is 62,2 % (source: OECD 2022). This means that on workforce participation, compared to all OECD-countries, Norway is in the middle of the pack - while Sweden is the 5th lowest on this metric.
o.o
Norway have all this money and still can't fix the rounds here up in Finmark 😭
Perfect Economy? Inflation is going bananas in this country, and we can barely afford electricity and cheese, our currency is low af. Sounds perfect to me!
Kan du forklare mere nøye? Jeg kan ikke så mye om norsk politikk
@EconomicsExplained Great video, but at 5:38 there was map shown with the members of the EU where Slovakia 🇸🇰was missing, not marked by blue color. Slovakia joined EU back in 2004 and is using Euro as currency since 2009.
If only they could solve our electricity problem.. Jonas...
Norway is supposed to be rich enough to be inflation free, but prices are already bad enough that inflation made it so much worse. This is one of the main reasons to why Norway sucks, coming from a norwegian.
Yara International is already one of the leading and largest fertilizer companies in the world. And it’s Norwegian and 30% state owned. Kind of an important side note to the Phosphate story.
Ex Hydro, but something that worries me is how much politisak gain the right side is getting! They want to go for captitalism.
@@derbirider6646 Yes, it's very worrying, especially how the Labour Party is also basically right wing now, just more sneaky about it. If we're not careful they're going to sell this find off to private corporations in the name of free market capitalism, might be why we're not hearing about it in the news and why they're down playing it so much.
yara burde være 90% eid av staten
"They enjoy prosperity primarily through natural resources and oil rather than a diversified economy. It might be beneficial for them to broaden their economic base to reduce reliance on countries such as the USA and China."
true
What are you on about?
A video about how fantastic Norway is. As a Norwegian I approve.
You are very lucky to be Norwegian.
"Their wealth is primarily derived from natural resources or oil rather than a diversified economy. It could be beneficial for them to broaden their economic base to reduce dependence on countries like the USA and China. It's also crucial to acknowledge that oil is finite, and being mindful of this can safeguard their long-term quality of life."
yes
exactly
Oil is not finite. It's a renewable resource that Earth replenishes by crushing organic matter.
@@0n0thing0correct, it can be created in a lab as a result. Also seed oil fueled Diesel engines are the future- as Rudolf Diesel and his financier Jacob Astor intended. But the Rothschilds and Rockefeller’s they were competing with play dirty, Astor was killed on the ‘Titanic’ and Diesel’s corpse was found floating in the English Channel.
@@0n0thing0 it’s a process which takes millions of years. If we kept using up Oil at the rate we currently are we’ll run out and have to wait millions of years. That of course won’t happen cause we’ll switch away from it before that. The Oxford definition is as follows, a natural resource of energy that is not depleted by use. Most things exist because of natrual processes that doesn’t mean it’s renewable
As a Norwegian, I can just say that the people in general are NOT that rich, the state is rich. High income tax is just the beginning, high vat and other taxes quickly eat away your income. I do not agree that the taxation should be used to level out the social differences. If you worked hard and you earn well, you deseve to keep more of your money. With my wage, that is pretty much average, after tax, it would take 14 months saving, if I saved it all, for me to affort to buy a new Toyota Corolla.
This story seems a bit off. As a Norwegian, this story should have been bigger here in NO if we had found something that would make us the absolute richest country in the world
I wonder if Norway could get in the business of managing the wealth funds of other countries. They should be able to benefit by collecting a fee and having more assets to manage, thus increasing the diversity of investments and reducing risk of losses. Developing countries handing their money to Norway get an experienced national wealth fund manager and have transparency on how their assets are managed. The one big caveat is that it wouldn't necesarily stop corrupt use of these assets. If country X asks for a dividend to add to their budget, Norway has to give the money to them in accordance to whatever terms were agreed upon. Once the cash is out of their hands, they have no say on whether it was used properly. But I do trust them to be transparent regarding how much money comes in and out of those nation's accounts.
Nah, haven't even done well the last years
Venezuela, Latin America and Africa need Norway
Norway is very open on account information considering you can freely and legally* check any norwegian's tax register. (The person's taxes you're checking will be notified if you check them, no other penalties/fines as far as I know)
@@Half_Finis buy the dip!
This would have been a great video for citing Thornstein Veblen - not only for being also a Norwegian, but also for his distrust on how economists overly lean on the maths, basically not trusting it as wizard magic.
Apart from his theory of the Leisure Class, he had a lot to say about the relationship between culture and economy. Having written during the industrial revolution, Veblen knew that economic decisions were just as driven by culture and habit and expectation and politics, as they were about financial self-interest or long-term investment returns.
As someone who lives in Norway and just make enough to barely crest the threshold of being in lower middle class, it’s always rung hollow for me how rich Norway is as a country. Sure, we have many benefits, but we pay for that in taxes. Sure, we have a lot of money , but a lot of it isn’t being spent and is invested. And it is expensive here, as stated in the video.
The ringing is sounding even more hollow now that inflation has risen, the prices on necessities has risen, our currency is worth little, more people are in que for food aid, families having to sell their houses and skip buying their kids Christmas gifts just to pay their bills. The government is shutting down hospitals and overworking the staff to burnout, which in turn has given rise to more private clinics being opened. Privatization is rising as a whole. An increasing amount of upper middle class and upper class people get richer while the poor get poorer.
Yes, Norway is great, if you can afford it or have inherited wealth
Yes, its sad to see how bad economic politics makes life unnecessary hard for the poorer parts of the population. Hopefully voting AP is now out of the question.
Wow, the bots are really hitting this comment section hard
I hear all these fantastic numbers and I wonder, why is my bank account still empty? I think the quality of our free public education is low, and many public services are suffering in some way or another, I don't rely on medical assistance to survive so what are my benefits from living in this country? We have our share of crooks and corrupt politicians, it is just that the way corruption works here is subtle and difficult for the public to notice.
"The countries philosophy is that the oil is found in the countries borders and therefore some of the wealth should belong to the people"
What a great ideology. Many countries that suffer a collapse let companies come in, extract their resources, and bail.
I am a Norwegian and live in Norway don't get caught up, our country is imploding from corruption and political greed, i don't plan on sticking around for much longer.
Norway sounds like the dream even to highly developed countries, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed moving elsewhere
I am a bit tired of people saying Norway is great, given how badly politicians keep mis-managing the country.
Yeah, but the Norwegian people did vote those idiots into power. However, I knew it wouldn't be good, but I didn't expect them to do so poorly. Class act. Oh well, they'll be gone in 2025, and hopefully we won't see them again before 2033 at the earliest.
Come to the United States, prepare to see what real mismanagement is. Only way things could be better is if society is completely hive minded, which it isn't.
Loved the video! And really excited about the geopolitics collab planned for the future.
I have a huge amount of respect for how Norwegians live their lives and do sensible things with investments the country makes. If only Canada had done the same.
you are uneducated on the topic, careful what you wish for. Most norwegians dont live, we survive.
@@Rasmustheforest i mean thats a bit dramatic? i think most norwegians are overall happy with how we live our lives
@@Cal_Night If you have money in Norway, the world is your oyster. if you don't have any money, nobody is going to help you, unless you're a junky, then the government will throw money at you, no matter how much the family asks them to stop because they are just allowing them to buy more drugs and stay high. So they can migrate to the big cities then be picked up around Christmas time to bolster the gains of the Police force. (True story, this happens every christmas, They lure people to the city with good deals, then they arrest them in droves, because they need to prove that the criminal situation is just as bad as last year, so they get the same amount of tax money next year)
If you live in Oslo you're good, anywhere outside of it, you are kinda fucked unless your family is rich.
and if your family is rich, good luck with that too, because one day that familymember will die, and you will stop seeing the rest of your family, forever. Because of... you guessed it, Money.
Welcome to Norway, where we only socialize while drunk, or in School. Where old people get forgotten in old folks homes, Where CPS has more cases against it than children they have helped, Where you keep your high school friends for life, or have no-one for the rest of it. Where the government decides your fate on a whim. Where poor people die waiting for treatment, and rich people get their treatment immediately because they pay for it like in the states.
Where green energy is all the rage, which btw is sent out of norway and traded for dirty energy from Germany.
Every Hydroplant on the eastern side of the country does not provide to their local communities, but rather sells their energy to the highest bidder, usually china. Then we buy power from germany, so we too can experience the high cost of electricity.
Welcome to Norway, propaganda paradise.
@@Cal_Nightnoppe!!!!!
@@Rasmustheforesthow do you survive ? We know you have a wonderful living standards
A population not driven by greed is “dystopian”?
Doesnt that make the goverment greedy? 67% of all the monry in Norway run though the government taxes, tolls and govermental companies take a lot.
@@andreasrnning2339Does that really matter if the society is the most egalitarian in the world, a society with both the benefits of socialism and that reigns in the excesses of capitalism, balancing freedom and collective success hardly seems like a bad thing.
yes
As a Norwegian I can tell you that the country of Norway is rich, but the people of Norway is not. We don’t own our of houses, the bank does, we live on credit card and live month by month. Everything is extremely expensive and price keep increases, we pay probably 70% tax or more with the double taxes on salary and goods. We like these kind of videos that give us the illusion of being rich, but believe me we are not.
As a Norwegian from the area where the phosphate has been located, I can promise many do not want nature destroyed because of this. This will be fought tooth and nails. Let Morocco keep it...they need it more than us. We better become a tech nation like South-Korea but without the social misery they have crated for themselves.
You will get your freedom very soon don't worry 😂
25 triliom dollars worth of respurces? Does Norway need more freedom? USA will help.
Good thing we're already free I guess
While we are a rich country, we always have shortage of nurses, doctors and policemen. We can`t afford to hire as many we want to. The hospitals have to save money each year, which means they cant threat how many patients they want too. We can`t use the money we have in "pensjonsfond" without risking higher interest. The biggest problem is out politicians. They can`t seem to agree on anything
The current market/economy is unnecessarily tougher for boomers/senior citizens, I’m used to just buying and holding assets which doesn’t seem applicable to the current rollercoaster market plus inflation is catching up with my portfolio. I’m really worried about survival after retirement.
buy gold, the govt has failed us.
Yes, gold is a great investment and a good bet against the devaluating dollar, been holding some for awhile now, I’m grateful my fin-planner momentous changes in the market are lightening quick, cos who know how much losses I would’ve had by now.
I have seen a lot about FAs and actually want to consult some pro. How did you go about it? Is yours any good?
Private investing is the best way to go about the market right now, especially for near retirees, I've been in touch with a wealth manager for awhile now netted 370thousand this downturn, made it clear there's more to the markets than we average ones know.
this is incredible! how can I get your advisr, mind sharing info, if you please?
Pewdiepie is going to rage at that intro
😂 facts!
Why? Give me context please?
@@JimmyM1975 He said the N-word on a bridge playing PUBG once. The N-word meaning Norwegians