[ksimukka]

I immigrated from the US to Norway.

You can’t really compare dollar to krone the difference of a US salary to a Norwegian salary.

I’m not sure how to explain it for those who haven’t lived in the nordics, but you don't need a high paying income to live a good life.

[nine_k]

Norway is sitting on a gold mine, I mean, an oil field. It can afford many things other countries can't, while also prudently saving much of its oil income.

[nielsbot]

Denmark performs similarly to Norway and they don't have oil.

[scandinavian]

Denmark has several oil and gas fields. It's tiny compared to Norway but not completely insignificant.

[simonask]

It's largely insignificant when the question is "why is Denmark rich". Same goes for Sweden.

[ozlikethewizard]

The US is the world's largest producer of oil

[bitshiftfaced]

It looks like Norway's oil revenue per capita is somewhere between $20,000 and $90,000, while the USA's is between $200 and $800, depending on how you calculate it.

[lozenge]

The Norwegian government takes basically all the revenue from its oil rights, and the US has sold the oil rights for much less than they're worth.

[jackothy]

This answer always comes up but then how do you explain the other 4 Nordic countries?

[jknutson]

If you don’t mind me asking, how were you able to immigrate there? I have family that lives in Norway on my father’s side and I’ve sometimes fantasized about packing up my life and moving there after I visited them and saw what an amazing place it is. The few times I’ve been manic enough to actually consider its realistic plausibility I’ve always been stopped at the dead end of their immigration policy. Maybe things have changed but when I looked into it, it seemed like a very difficult bar to meet (I would’ve either tried to find a skilled trade immigration policy, or perhaps used my extended family as a reason, but neither of those routes seemed particularly possible).

[ksimukka]

That is a great question and I would be happy to share.

Varnish Software had a job posting in Norway and I asked them if they would consider a US candidate. At that time I was living in the US and was looking for opportunities to immigrate to Norway (or Finland).

After I accepted the position they helped with the “skilled workers visa” process.

Moving abroad has a lot of logistics. Depending on your situation in the US, I suggest to sell, rent, or store your belongings in the US and only bring what you can as luggage on the Airplane. In my case, we had an estate sale, asked family to hang on to sentimental items, and gave away everything else. When we left the US to fly to Norway, we had 5 suitcases of what we needed/wanted.

My partner (at that time) and I had a 6mo old child.

We started with an Airbnb in the Sagene area of Oslo. After landing we rented a car and drove to the Airbnb.

That turned into a 6mo rental (outside of Airbnb) as we explored the area for either an apartment to rent or buy. Again, it helped to have minimal possessions as we moved around to find the area that suited us and our family. Eventually we settled in an area called Torshov.

June or July is a great time move, the city is calm and almost everyone is on summer holiday.

It can take several months before you are in the banking system to receive your salary, so in advance you will need to have a buffer of savings and to keep a bank account in the US.

Forward all your mail in the US to family, friend, lawyer, or service to keep you informed. Forwarding mail to Norway is possible, but it will be delayed by at least one month, which can be a problem for any bills that are due.

[whimsicalism]

norway is a petrostate, it is difficult to compare to the US

[fellowmartian]

Can you elaborate? The sibling comment called this situation dystopian, wondering how you cope.

[IAmBroom]

What sibling comment? I couldn't find any such.

I'd like to point out that any country providing universal healthcare is going to be a big improvement in standard of living for many of my friends. The sometimes hellish nature of the USA's for-profit healthcare system is very real.

Then there's crippling student debt following you nearly to the grave, gun violence, etc.

We grew up being told we had more freedom than anybody else, only to learn as adults that not only does freedom carry a heavy price, but so does every flu and broken bone.

[dustbunny]

Freedom is ridiculous. It's not what Americans have nor want. It's free in a warzone. True freedom is total chaos. Americans do not have nor want real freedom.

[refurb]

That's a bit of a navel gazing perspective, no?

I mean, if you value other things, that fine, but to claim something doesn't exist when it clearly does is rather narrow in vision.

It doesn't take much googling to find examples of speech laws in Europe (for one example) that would have Americans gasping.

[dustbunny]

As an immigrant to America, I do not feel like I have free speech. I think I would have more free speech in Europe. Even writing this comment is scary. What if a border patrol agent finds this? Will I be refused entry? The fact that this is now possible is abhorrent.

[fellowmartian]

Free Trade is the only freedom you should want or need. /s obviously.

[nradov]

Concerns over gun violence (or violence in general) are largely misplaced. Almost all of the violent crime happens in a handful of cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington DC that have been wrecked by decades of failed progressive policies. And even in those cities the violence is concentrated in few bad neighborhoods. We need to fix those places: the residents shouldn't have to live in gang war zones. But at the same time those aren't the same neighborhoods that HN users would live anyway. The rest of the USA is no more violent than most other developed countries.

[qwytw]

> decades of failed progressive policies

Birmingham, St. Louis & Memphis have the highest levels of gun violence, though? Not sure if those are the most "progressive" places.

Also Mississippi (more than 10x worse than e.g. Massachusetts), Louisiana, Alabama are the top 3 states by gun homicide rate.

If Mississippi was a country it would be in the top 10 (between Mexico and Columbia) by gun related murder rate which is quite an achievement..

Massachusetts

[nradov]

The state statistics are meaningless. As I already explained above, almost all of the murders in every state are concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods. It's a very localized problem.

As for the specific cities you mentioned, policies enacted by local governments over decades generally fall into the progressive category. State and federal governments certainly share some blame for the problem but because the causes are mostly local any solutions will also have to be local.

[nielsbot]

If gun violence is concentrated in a few neighborhoods and all states contain such neighborhoods, then state statistics do matter, don't they?

We can all agree that taking away peoples' guns would lead to less gun violence. (This is the part where you say "but that's impossible anyway" or "but the 2nd amendment" which doesn't really refute my point)

[timeon]

> It's a very localized problem.

Yeah schools are pretty local.

Not sure what is progressive about the fact that one can easily obtain a gun. Pool with many legal guns makes it easier to obtain it illegal one as well.

There would be even less violence in Mexico if they were not bordering USA.

[tharmas]

Lead poisoning from gasoline near freeways and then crack cocaine played roles in boosting the crime rates too.

[k7d]

That’s just not true. I’m from Europe but lived in Boulder for several years. For example this shooting (1) happened 5 min walking distance from my home. My kids’ school had several lockdowns due to gun-related stuff in the neighborhood. Something like that is unimaginable in Europe, and big part of why we moved back.

1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Boulder_shooting

[AngryData]

What progressive policies do you think these places were wrecked by?

[dgfitz]

I can’t name any polices per se, but it is very well documented how corrupt the city governments of Baltimore and Chicago are, and have been for decades and decades.

Hard to serve in the best interest of the people what that was never the goal to begin with.

[AngryData]

Well I would agree those places are full of corruption, but I wouldn't call them progressive places or politicians, and I certainly wouldn't blame their corruption on anything to do with progressive policies.

[ksimukka]

From my experience, living in the US was dystopian compared to what I have experienced in Oslo. I have only been here for 6 years, so given a long enough timeframe that could change.

I think it comes down to mindset. For example You have what you need to live, but the things you want are expensive.

Housing is a problem, but it seems that is a problem almost everywhere. That said, it is not always “easy” to obtain what you want, but I think that is good for society. For example the second hand market is strong.

I’m not sure if that answers your question.

[gregorygoc]

It’s not cope. You can compete for the same “quality of life” resources being in the median vs top 5-percentile. It’s not possible in the U.S. or UK.