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by aianus 4438 days ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Norway's welfare system funded by oil revenues (including returns on an enormous sovereign wealth fund created through said revenues)?

It's easy to have a rich developed country with a high quality of life when you have a small population and lots of natural resources.
1 comments
vidarh 4438 days ago
This argument is entirely orthogonal to the argument I was making: That welfare systems can provide more freedom of choice than increased taxes takes away: The incremental "freedom" that a slight difference in taxation provides in the form of disposable income does not do much; the incremental freedom from having a lot of concerns pretty much taken away because the welfare system reduces the worst case impact substantially, on the other hand, is a big deal.

As I said in a response to someone else: Replace Norway with Denmark, or Sweden, or Germany, or France or any number of other European countries in my comment above, and the argument still stands.

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cwaniak2 4438 days ago
No it doesn't. It would stand if Microsoft, Google, IBM, transistor, Apple, etc, etc were all from socialist (regulated economies) Europe and not capitalistic (economic freedom) US. If the system in Europe is so full of freedoms why people are not so creative there? Because they aren't. Whatever it is from IT to movies, from cinema to healthcare, most of the innovation always comes from the US. You tell me why.
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hoggle 4438 days ago
It probably has to do more with being open to immigration and innovation than being ruthlessly capitalistic that the US has been able to maintain its competitive edge.

Immigrating to the US has become harder over the years and "regulators" are against potentially disruptive technologies like Bitcoin while countries like Denmark are trying to embrace those kinds of technologies.

It remains to be seen if the USA can maintain its position going forward. In any case it's tough times ahead for many highly privileged economies. I'm from Austria and the disconnect between what used to be and the current realities is often huge. I guess the most important thing is to not get blinded by your own success, then you survive and possibly even thrive.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/23og0b/danish_polit...

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