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In the US, we are under a massive oligarch-owned far-right propaganda machine that dominates social media and television viewership.
It works so well that rich people in other countries are trying to adopt the same model as a means of popular control.
To admit that other countries do better would be to violate the dogma of American exceptionalism. It would be to offend the inflated ego of the most brainlessly egotistical among us. And I guess they think their feelings matter more than their own wellbeing.
That tattooed walrus moron has always repulsed me on a visceral level.
This is so true not just for Americans. Norway is such an amazing country.
If socialism "never works" I'd say it's in the same boat as democracy.
My (millionaire boomer) Uncle from Mexico recently shared this (sorry for quick translation using gemini). There are brainwashed people everywhere
This unfortunately, some people are too far gone
Recently my lead hypothesis is that many people would rather personally suffer and die if it means that black people have it worse. I read "dying of whiteness" recently, and it's haunting. "It's socialism" is just a coded way of expressing that.
TLDR: Whites in some parts of America drained public pools rather than integrate them. They should rather no one have a public pool than have to share it with black people.
They are also absolutely floating in oil wealth.
Norway is a stupid example. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland easily have the same level of welfare or arguably better than Norway in many regards. The key is to make public investments into the country's resources (be it farmland, forestry, mines, electricity) and build infrastructure and institutions that benefit the people.
By investing directly, you are doing the thinking instead of deferring judgement to bankers and the "invisible hand" that's really just a bunch of rich dudes with their own incentives that don't align with yours. You cut out billionaire middlemen and money doesn't have to "trickle down", and you can steer the behavior of your industries and universities toward causes that take your country's needs over time into account.
That's how good investors think about their business empires - why should countries choose to not strategize at all and just let nature do its thing?
So is the US
The US citizens are definitely not oil wealthy.
That's my point. America actually has roughly 10 times as much oil as Norway, but in Norway everyone benefits from the oil rather than just a handful of mega-rich oil barons.
USA also has about 60 times as many people as Norway. The USA certainly has an above-average amount of natural resources per capita, but it's not quite "swimming in oil"-level.
Won’t someone think of the ~~billionaires~~ trillionaires!
That definitely ain't right.
Oh wow, I knew Venezuela was rich in oil, but damn!
IIRC Venezuela's oil is both a bit shit, and hard to get at but they have huge amounts. That's why they're not as rich as UAE
Honestly, it's incredible that it took the US so long to invade them.
All the other scandinavian countries that don't swim in fossil fuel wealth are still doing pretty well, though. Also, lots of countries that are rich in natural resources don't actually let the majority of their population participate in that wealth.
Oh yeah, good on them for managing their oil wealth in a way that benefits their society.
They could also have been like the UAE. Or the US.
True, and worth a reminder. But they choose to do, well, social things with it*. In addition to more "normal" social welfare stuff they give money to people who live in the very North, just for living in the North.
They also have so many waterfalls that all their electricity is hydro, and they have too much of it.
They tried to sell it cheaply to the EU some decades ago but of course our energy lobby blocked it.
* also cultural etc. etc. Like another commenter said: they choose to let their people participate in it
Norway has oil. It's horrible example because other states don't have resources to build massive national wealth fund to finance all the welfare
Tons of countries do, they just hoard it at the top
Aren't they both dead now?
Looks like they've been immortalised.
Senior now runs a restaurant + chopper museum. The guy wanted to run it like a proper business, but without the specials it wasn't running that well. Junior now has his own design studio.
This meme is old enough to drive now.
No, Norway and America still exist
They’re either both alive, or nobody cares enough to update their pages.
Its not the welfare policies its the tentacles in the global south and the violence that keeps that in place
I think kind people should push for regional economic independance or at least verification of its viability and acknowledgement that they are working their fair share.
Then one can be sure that at least from your point of view, the exploited worldwide are free to choose their own fate, and you are not a leech.
Economic independence is a useful tool, in that when one is economically independant, it can also be determined for certain that any external law or force is unjust and not a component of livelyhood.