A Good Country

By almost all social indicators, Norway is the most successful country in the world. The best place to live. It is at the head of the class that includes Switzerland, Iceland, Canada, among other wonderful places.

Norway has remained strong and independent of the EU, has the most friendly immigration and refugee acceptance policies in the world, has universal health care, universal free education, rehabilitation instead of prisons.  The people are happy healthy and content.  It is peaceful and virtually crime free.  They live longer than almost anywhere else. They have high taxation, keep corporations in check and the people have an astonishingly high standard of living. Everyone has good food and lots of consumer products.  It is the envy of the world.

Even more than Switzerland when i visited i found it to be a place i really wanted to live. I was overwhelmed at comfortable it felt. 

How do they do this?

They have proportional representation and have very outspoken, active progressive political parties spawned from the resistance to occupation during WWII.  These parties have spoken strongly for progressive social and economic issues in an open and clear way that is different from most other places.  They have spun these ideas away from the Commie-Fascist axis and made an almost perfect state.

But like Switzerland (and Canada and Iceland) they've been able to do it because they are outrageously rich from very nasty, dangerous, dare i say 'evil' means.   With Norway it is unrestrained resource extraction.  Fish,  Metals.  Oil.  Massive extraction at a extinction rate.  This is the dark side of such a wonderful place.

Nothing is simple unfortunately.   Keep in mind that it is such a 'perfect' place to live (and i think it is!), while you read this short, horrifying interview.  Norway's Foreign Minister on arctic drilling, with it's accompanying maps & charts.