Timothy Garton Ash: Norway's Many Lessons
[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University.]
"Equal pay now! Equal pay now!" The chant echoed up to my hotel window in Oslo, as strikers and their supporters marched past the Norwegian parliament. How could this be? Are there strikes even in paradise?
By most comparative measures, Norway is something close to a paradise on Earth. It is one of the world's richest countries.
It is also one of the most equal. It has a welfare state that is the envy of social democrats everywhere. Mothers get 10 months' maternity leave with full pay. Last year, the country led the world in the United Nations' well-respected "human development index," which combines measures of life expectancy, literacy and standard of living. Norway is free, rich, peaceful, safe, healthy and, so far as anyone can measure these things, happy. Oh yes, and in these times of fiscal hardship, it has a budget surplus of more than 9%. And it gives more than 1% of its gross national income in overseas aid; so it's virtuous too.
No wonder all sorts of people cite it as proof of all sorts of things.
British Conservative Eurosceptics like Daniel Hannan and the newly elected, aptly named, member of Parliament Mark Reckless hold it up as an example of how well Britain could do if it left the European Union. How wise the Norwegians were to vote no to EU membership, in 1972 and again in 1994. If only we had voted no, we too might be as rich, safe, healthy and happy as they.
For Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, by contrast, Norway is an example of the benign effects of equality. In their influential book, "The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better," they cite Norway several times, along with other Scandinavian countries, to illustrate the many good things that come with greater equality: welfare provision, fewer teenage pregnancies, high levels of literacy and social trust.
"Humbug!" cry others. The key to all this is simply oil. The whole egalitarian social democratic model is actually sustained by Norway's vast exports of oil and gas, the revenues from which it has been stashing away into what is now the world's second-largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of about $440 billion. If the fund goes on growing as it has been, it will even — uniquely in Europe — almost cover the future pension obligations for an aging population. So, according to these hard-nosed hydrocarbonists, the only way you can continue to enjoy such an old-fashioned statist model of social democracy is to "drill, baby, drill."...
Read entire article at LA Times
"Equal pay now! Equal pay now!" The chant echoed up to my hotel window in Oslo, as strikers and their supporters marched past the Norwegian parliament. How could this be? Are there strikes even in paradise?
By most comparative measures, Norway is something close to a paradise on Earth. It is one of the world's richest countries.
It is also one of the most equal. It has a welfare state that is the envy of social democrats everywhere. Mothers get 10 months' maternity leave with full pay. Last year, the country led the world in the United Nations' well-respected "human development index," which combines measures of life expectancy, literacy and standard of living. Norway is free, rich, peaceful, safe, healthy and, so far as anyone can measure these things, happy. Oh yes, and in these times of fiscal hardship, it has a budget surplus of more than 9%. And it gives more than 1% of its gross national income in overseas aid; so it's virtuous too.
No wonder all sorts of people cite it as proof of all sorts of things.
British Conservative Eurosceptics like Daniel Hannan and the newly elected, aptly named, member of Parliament Mark Reckless hold it up as an example of how well Britain could do if it left the European Union. How wise the Norwegians were to vote no to EU membership, in 1972 and again in 1994. If only we had voted no, we too might be as rich, safe, healthy and happy as they.
For Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, by contrast, Norway is an example of the benign effects of equality. In their influential book, "The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better," they cite Norway several times, along with other Scandinavian countries, to illustrate the many good things that come with greater equality: welfare provision, fewer teenage pregnancies, high levels of literacy and social trust.
"Humbug!" cry others. The key to all this is simply oil. The whole egalitarian social democratic model is actually sustained by Norway's vast exports of oil and gas, the revenues from which it has been stashing away into what is now the world's second-largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of about $440 billion. If the fund goes on growing as it has been, it will even — uniquely in Europe — almost cover the future pension obligations for an aging population. So, according to these hard-nosed hydrocarbonists, the only way you can continue to enjoy such an old-fashioned statist model of social democracy is to "drill, baby, drill."...