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this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Norway is a country built on oil, oil and lots and lots of oil. While I love Norwegians, everything is easy when you have one of the largest sovereign wealth funds literally funding the country (I know, I know, it isn’t because it’s well managed. But pretty easy for the state to borrow against it and what not).
If you want an example of a Nordic country that’s just built on taxes, strong work ethic, unions and corporate success, visit another Nordic country, like Sweden, Finland or Denmark.
Just because your have large natural reserves does not mean you will manage it well.
It's easy to dismiss Norway and say that oh well they have all this money. But remember that it's not that long ago that Norway was a very poor country. And then culture that was built up remained through the economic growth.
Norway wasn't that poor before the oil either. Their main exports before the oil were boats, fish and lumber. The oil definitely didn't hurt them, but they would likely have done okay without it, like their Nordic neighbors.
Just for the avoidance of doubt: Norway would have done complete fine without the oil. They are hard-working, great people and I don’t have a bad word to say about them. I’m just saying that the oil definitely does do something for them.
All Nordic countries are built on that, Norway included. The Norwegian oil fund is rarely tapped into beyond a small fraction of the capital gains, although it did smooth out some 2008 financial crisis pains which hit Sweden harder.
Denmark has had some oil, but nowhere near what Norway did. Sweden has hardly had any oil reserves, nor Finland.
I’m aware that Norway manages its oil wealth extremely well. Probably better than any other country, which should be no surprise given it’s Norway.
But having an ENORMOUS bank balance does mean Norway can invest in projects and take up loans with extremely favourable rates.
Fun fact: Sweden was once offered half of the Norwegian oil in exchange for half of Volvo. Sweden declined.
In their defense, this was before we had any way to get the oil up from the bottom of the ocean, so Sweden was basically asked to gamble that there was a cost-effective way to do it.
I didn’t know this. Do you have a source I could read?
Volvo was not "offered half of Norway's oil". But there was indeed a large collaboration in the works. Norway would trade cash and the rights to three unprospected regions of the North Sea to Volvo, and would get 40% of the shares of Volvo.
The deal was declined by the Volvo general assembly. Even if it had been approved by the assembly, it would also need to be approved by the Norwegian Parliament afterwards, and it's not a hundred percent clear that would happen.
Here is one article on the matter. It is a bit confusing, because the main proponent for the deal (CEO of Volvo at the time) says the deal would have been worth $85 Billion. While the main opponent of the deal thinks Volvo made the right call because only one of the three regions had gas, and none of them had oil. Both sources are biased though, so it's a bit hard to know how true these statements are.
https://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-made-85-billion-mistake-2016-6?r=DE&IR=T
So it's true there was a major deal in the works which would trade rights to natural resources for Volvo shares. But it was a much more technical deal than simply "half of the oil for half of Volvo".
Canada could have had the same amount of wealth but instead of socializing the profits, individuals pissed it all away and now there is nothing left