Althouse: Best country to live in: Norway.

October 5, 2009

Best country to live in: Norway.

Mainly because of a lot of extra wealth from oil.

(The U.S. is listed 13th.)

63 comments:

Hoosier Daddy said...: Well isn't that special. And here I thought it was the temperate climate and hot blonde babes. Who knew it was because they're contributing to global warming.; 10/5/09, 1:27 PM
The Drill SGT said...: notice how they don't talk about the horrible environmental damage done by those terrible offshore wells...

Because there isn't any.

And I am certain that it's tougher to put an oil platform in the North Sea than off of California.

Drill now!!; 10/5/09, 1:27 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Is the USA the highest ranked among racially diverse countries? I noticed the top three are pretty vanilla in terms of melanin.; 10/5/09, 1:33 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/5/09, 1:36 PM
Anonymous said...: When the U.S. defense umbrella is gone sometime in the next few years, those countries won't be very nice to live for long.; 10/5/09, 1:36 PM
TosaGuy said...: "For every dollar earned per person in Niger, $85 was earned in Norway."

Shouldn't the Norwegians spread that wealth around?; 10/5/09, 1:38 PM
Expat(ish) said...: I always wonder about the false precision in these things.

I live in a town with slightly higher taxes than the town down the road. Our schools are worse, our crime is worse (better?), and frankly the traffic is worse.

I just like to live here more and put up with it. So in a survey I'm living in a worse town by choice?

Well, it depends on your measures.

Norway, no-way!

-XC; 10/5/09, 1:38 PM
Joaquin said...: Sure, if you like to freeze your a$$ off.; 10/5/09, 1:39 PM
TosaGuy said...: Dear Sweden,

Suck it.

Sincerely,
Norway; 10/5/09, 1:39 PM
The Drill SGT said...: AJ Lynch said...
Is the USA the highest ranked among racially diverse countries? I noticed the top three are pretty vanilla in terms of melanin.

And all the the countries are above average?

typical UN stuff... You can live in pretty much a hell hole (am thinking Haiti or Cambodia) and be classed as Medium Human development; 10/5/09, 1:43 PM
The Drill SGT said...: ah, poor Sweden,

Norway without oil :)

both have their Arabs, but only 1 got oil; 10/5/09, 1:45 PM
Shanna said...: Sure, if you like to freeze your a$$ off.

Seriously, why do so many of those top countries sound cold? Maybe when the snow piles up you have nothing to do but read.; 10/5/09, 1:45 PM
bearbee said...: UN Ranking

Sure, if you like to freeze your a$$ off.

Exactly; 10/5/09, 1:45 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm sure the evaluation didn't take into account the ability to go from poor to rich (opportunity and freedom), nor did it count the disadvantage of living where nearby nations may destroy or steal everything you value at anytime.

In fact, take away the U.S. and Norway becomes a fearful and poor former nation, now ruled by Putin.

Take away Norway and ?; 10/5/09, 1:45 PM
Paddy O said...: Funny how things change in a millenium.; 10/5/09, 1:47 PM
MnMark said...: Reminds me of a story I heard where Milton Friedman was being interviewed by a scandinavian and the interviewer noted, "In scandinavia, we have no poverty." Friedman shot back, "that's interesting. In America we have no poverty among scandinavians, either."

Not too hard to make a paradise if it's nothing but the whitest white people, with free money pouring from an oil spigot.; 10/5/09, 1:54 PM
Bissage said...: I find myself pining for the fjords.; 10/5/09, 1:55 PM
Paddy O said...: Pining for the fjords?!!; 10/5/09, 1:58 PM
Amexpat said...: In fact, take away the U.S. and Norway becomes a fearful and poor former nation, now ruled by Putin.

Perhaps not. The Soviets had liberated northern Norway towards the end of WWII and withdrew without any conditions once the war was over.; 10/5/09, 2:01 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Perhaps not. The Soviets had liberated northern Norway towards the end of WWII and withdrew without any conditions once the war was over.

Well considering how well the Winter War with Finland went for them, they probably figured what's the point?; 10/5/09, 2:03 PM
Amexpat said...: Notice how they don't talk about the horrible environmental damage done by those terrible offshore wells...

Actually there is a lot of talk and protests about it now in connection with drilling offshore of the Lofoton Islands and areas further north.; 10/5/09, 2:05 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Norway's consistently high rating for desirable living standards, is, in large part, the result of the discovery of offshore oil and gas deposits in the late 1960s.

What's Saudi Arabia's excuse?

Oh wait....; 10/5/09, 2:06 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Pining for the fjords?

IOW, pleasuring yourself while looking at pics of Miss Norway 2009? Heh.; 10/5/09, 2:11 PM
Original Mike said...: How about a link, AJ.; 10/5/09, 2:12 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Watch it, Tosa!!!

Q: What else does Norway have, that Sweden doesn't?

A: Good neighbors.

:-); 10/5/09, 2:17 PM
Joaquin said...: CUBA at #51 in the HIGH HUMAN DEVELOPMENT category. PFFFT!
That's all I needed to see.
I wonder if they counted the thousands lying at the bottom of the Florida Straights?; 10/5/09, 2:32 PM
miller said...: Norway is Sweden without the Swedes.; 10/5/09, 2:39 PM
Clyde said...: Hmmm... Pretty Eurocentric list. Of the top 22 countries, only one (Japan, at #10) isn't either a European country or a nation primarily settled originally by the English (Canada, Australia, U.S., New Zealand).

Sounds pretty... wait for it... RACIST!; 10/5/09, 2:43 PM
Scott M said...: Amazingly, those silly Nords figured out how to find, tap, drill, and extract a previously unknown (several in fact) underwater oil source within a year's time. In one case, as short as six months.

Why is the general consensus that drilling off our shores will take years to make it into the pipeline?

The same logic that brought you cap-&-tax and the same logic that holds that carbon dioxide, that which happens when you breath out...the most ORGANIC of plant food, is pollution.

Madness.; 10/5/09, 2:45 PM
Richard Gabbert said...: Don't get me wrong - I love Japan. Spent half my life there. Might move back one day. But any ranking that tells you that it's objectively a better place to live for the average schmuck than the US simply isn't using the right metric.; 10/5/09, 2:47 PM
Triangle Man said...: Norway is like Sweden without the Swedes.

It also has mani interesting furry animals.

Including the majestic møøse.

A Møøse once bit my sister...

.; 10/5/09, 2:48 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Why is the general consensus that drilling off our shores will take years to make it into the pipeline?

Its only a general consensus among morons.; 10/5/09, 2:54 PM
Kurt said...: You are probably right, Richard, but when you consider that the source of these rankings was a UN Committee, the problems with their metrics are almost a foregone conclusion.; 10/5/09, 3:12 PM
ricpic said...: SAGA

In the fjords pines there are that pine for further fjords;
Thus they march ever njordward toward the njordest njord.; 10/5/09, 3:27 PM
traditionalguy said...: Norwegians use common sense, and not environmental blather to find a plausible way to refuse to drill for oil. Ask the last Governor of Alaska how much oil and gas we are REFUSING to take out of our own northern wilderness. The Knute Rockne approach to winning by tapping that energy usage is highly reccommended and will be put into law the day Sarah Palin and a GOP Congress hit the ground running in 2012, unless The Obamanation and his Pelossiettes have entered into UN treaties to surrender or sovreignty over our own oil.; 10/5/09, 3:28 PM
XWL said...: Any country where people turn to meat smuggling may not be worthy of such a high ranking, afterall.

(heh, heh, he said meat smuggling); 10/5/09, 3:54 PM
Cedarford said...: XWL said...
Any country where people turn to meat smuggling may not be worthy of such a high ranking, afterall.

Would you rather be known as the nation where smuggling cheaper Swedish meat is a problem - or the country that had seniors smuggling lifesaving drugs from Canada and Mexico back into their country?; 10/5/09, 4:04 PM
Scott M said...: @Cedarford

Yours is as loaded as, "would you rather be a country that seniors smuggle drugs from Canada and Mexico or a country who has to rely heavily on foreign powers for defense of your own borders?"

We could play this game forever and it would circle right back around to nothing much settled.; 10/5/09, 4:17 PM
Joe said...: Why do country rankings never take into account that places that are goddamn fucking cold aren't fun places to live?

(Alaskans may differ, but fuck Alaska, I'll take Hawaii.); 10/5/09, 4:54 PM
tim maguire said...: The linked-story didn't give the precise criteria. Usually these sorts of studies are rigged so that somebody like Norway comes out on top and they will do whatever it takes to keep the US out of the top 10.; 10/5/09, 5:26 PM
Phil 314 said...: I believe Paddy O was referreing to this; 10/5/09, 5:39 PM
blake said...: We can fix them.

Quick, export some environmentalists!; 10/5/09, 5:45 PM
Phil 314 said...: And so now I invoke the M. Python rule; 10/5/09, 5:48 PM
Michael Haz said...: Du kan ikke ha våre kvinner.; 10/5/09, 5:49 PM
Chennaul said...: Oh can it C-4-

You would have no problem with a country where people have to be smuggled out.

Votre Himmel!; 10/5/09, 5:51 PM
Michael Haz said...: Vi elsker oljebrønner.; 10/5/09, 5:53 PM
Michael Haz said...: Blogg lyder like tette, men de er ikke det samme.; 10/5/09, 5:55 PM
Paul Chiari said...: How do I get a job at the U.N. doing worthless studies subsidized mostly by U.S. taxpayers?; 10/5/09, 6:00 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Paul Chiari said...
How do I get a job at the U.N. doing worthless studies subsidized mostly by U.S. taxpayers?

you won't

there is one set of quota's for funding and a different quota for hiring; 10/5/09, 6:20 PM
LoafingOaf said...: The Drill SGT said...
ah, poor Sweden,
Norway without oil :)

Yeah, poor Sweden. They're only ranked in the top ten. How awful for them.

"The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan."

And Sweden's ranked that high while attempting to become the first oil-free country.

Anyway, I think a lot of what makes Scandinavian countries so nice is they aren't as crime infested as American cities. I've read that violent crime is down this year in much of America. I don't know about that. I just know that my city of Cleveland has so much daily, off-the-hook barbaric and senseless violence that there are whole neighborhoods where people are literally prisoners in their homes after dark. And no one cares. (At least the violence in Chicago gets the attention of the national media.)

You go to a country like Sweden or Norway and you can walk around without worrying about thug terrorists who will shoot you over nothing.; 10/5/09, 7:02 PM
blake said...: Unless you're a white woman, no problem with crime.; 10/5/09, 7:43 PM
Paul said...: "You go to a country like Sweden or Norway and you can walk around without worrying about thug terrorists who will shoot you over nothing."

As blake pointed out that is no longer true. Seems as long as a nation is lily white violent crime is low. So much for multiculturalism.

I have a black friend who lived in Sweden for ten years and came back to the States a Republican. I guess he saw the Swedish socialist model as a huge turnoff. And of course their suicide rate is very high. And, the place is BORING. Give me the USA any day. This is the worldwide center of creativity by a large margin.; 10/5/09, 11:05 PM
William said...: Heaven protect us from the Norsemen. Is it too late to submit a claim for reparations?; 10/5/09, 11:08 PM
Alex said...: Another flawed survey. It makes no sense to look at the USA in aggregate. It means Bel Air gets lumped in with South Central and so on. Why can't we look at America in terms of regions instead of as one country which it really isn't?; 10/6/09, 12:46 AM
LoafingOaf said...: As blake pointed out that is no longer true.

Oh, it's no longer true that the USA has much more violent crime than Sweden?

Blake linked to an anti-Islam site that had an agenda of demonizing Sweden's Muslim immigrants.

I don't doubt that Sweden has higher crime than it used to, but since I live in one of the most violent cities in the entire industrialized world (where we have more violent crime per capita than Iraq, and some neighborhoods make one think of Mogadishu, Somalia, without the palm trees), I think it's a bit silly to be pointing fingers at Sweden's crime problems.

I have a black friend who lived in Sweden for ten years and came back to the States a Republican. I guess he saw the Swedish socialist model as a huge turnoff.

Unlike your friend, I haven't felt the desire to live in another country. But you suspect your friend returned to the States because he was turned off by socialists. Strange, because in the last 10 years, while America has been becoming more and more socialist, Sweden has been becoming more and more capitalist. Maybe your friend was actually turned off by the resurgance of capitalism in Sweden and ran back to America to enjoy the rise of socialism here!

From Sweden hardly a ‘socialist nightmare’ LINK: "...Professor Palmer, who ran a controversial course on globalization at Harvard University from 2000 to 2004, believes that Sweden has been one step ahead of the US in adopting and extending economic reforms.

“'To speak of Sweden as socialist today is pretty far off the mark,” he says. “Neoliberal reforms have gone much further here in some sectors than in the US. Sweden has become a sort of laboratory for privatization in a way that the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute could only dream of.'”

---

And of course their suicide rate is very high.

Their suicide rate is about the same as America's (google it), and much lower than countries such as France. I think you're confusing Sweden with Finland on the suicide rate. Also, Sweden ranked in the Top 5 on some Happiness rating jive, whatever that's based on.

And, the place is BORING. Give me the USA any day. This is the worldwide center of creativity by a large margin.

Well, that's nice, but are you saying the reason you stay in America is because we are the center of things? That if, say, India, overtook us in these respects, you'd decide America is now "boring" and it's time to go where the excitement is?

And, anyway, you went to a city like Stockholm and found it boring and filled with uncreative people?

I stay in America because it's my home, it's where my heart is, and because I love shit like our Bill of Rights. Within America, I don't choose to live in New York City, Los Angeles, or any of the other centers of things, so I guess I'm not looking for that sort of excitement except as places to visit.; 10/6/09, 2:36 AM
blake said...: I knew you wouldn't accept it, Oaf, but it ain't white people raping each other (for the most part).

Just that most (liberal) sources don't want to talk about who's raping whom. True in this country, too, sadly.; 10/6/09, 3:02 AM
blake said...: But while American crime has gone down (including Rape), Sweden's has gone up.

Here's a Swedish/English paper for you.; 10/6/09, 3:05 AM
Paul said...: "Unlike your friend, I haven't felt the desire to live in another country. But you suspect your friend returned to the States because he was turned off by socialists. Strange, because in the last 10 years, while America has been becoming more and more socialist, Sweden has been becoming more and more capitalist. Maybe your friend was actually turned off by the resurgance of capitalism in Sweden and ran back to America to enjoy the rise of socialism here!"

I don't suspect, I know. He said as much. And what makes you think he's recently returned? He's been back for years.

Yes it's true that Sweden is moving right as is most of Europe. What does that tell a genius like you? After four years of Obama trying to cram his radical leftwing agenda down a horrified America's throat we'll be shifting back to the right too.

My friend despises Obama and our headlong rush into Marxism just like I do. He's disgusted the first black president is a naked socialist and an empty suit. He knows he has disgraced the black community.

"Well, that's nice, but are you saying the reason you stay in America is because we are the center of things? That if, say, India, overtook us in these respects, you'd decide America is now "boring" and it's time to go where the excitement is?"

No asshole I didn't say that did I? I am privileged to live in America with it's freedom (so far), diverse peoples and influences, and the concomitant explosion of creativity and prosperity that has resulted. As a musician I don't imagine I'll be moving to India anytime soon.

This is why it's useless to talk to bad faith liars like yourself. You never respond to what is said, rather you twist a persons words as far away from their intent as possible in order to create a false context from which to argue your points.; 10/6/09, 9:47 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Blake linked to an anti-Islam site that had an agenda of demonizing Sweden's Muslim immigrants.

Yes, God forbid someone points out the shortcomings from the adherents of the religion of peace.; 10/6/09, 10:51 AM
LoafingOaf said...: This is why it's useless to talk to bad faith liars like yourself. You never respond to what is said, rather you twist a persons words as far away from their intent as possible in order to create a false context from which to argue your points.

It's just that your whole thing about calling Sweden "BORING" because it's not as much at the center of things as America sounded like the way, domestically, people in NY and CA talk about "fly-over country".; 10/6/09, 3:37 PM
LoafingOaf said...: Yes, God forbid someone points out the shortcomings from the adherents of the religion of peace.

I don't have a problem with people talking about the problems with the Muslim immigrant populations in Europe. But Sweden will have a long way to go before they ever catch up with America's violent crime problem.; 10/6/09, 3:41 PM
dick said...: Not in Malmo they won't. It is dangerous for any white to go out at night in Malmo.; 10/7/09, 12:18 AM
Jan said...: Just pointing out that Norway doesn't spend any of the oil wealth, it is all saved up for a rainy day in a sovereign wealth fund.

Probably worth a "well done"

It think the survey has it basically correct, Norway is a better place to live than Niger.

And the top ten are better places to live than the middle of the list, which again is better than the bottom ten.

The problem with the list is that the top countries are very close to each other in score. The difference between number 1 and number 13 is tiny.

At that stage, which country you'd prefer becomes more an issue of liking skiing or the beach, being middle class or upper middle class, having kids or being young and single.; 10/12/09, 6:19 AM