Norway's Wealthy Millenials

[Cheerful Charlie]

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180709-unlike-most-millennials-norways-are-rich

....
Young people across the western world are on track to become the first generation to grow up poorer than their parents. So how are millennials in just one country bucking this trend?
It’s old news that university debts and rocketing housing costs are common concerns for people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, living in the US, the UK and many other countries. Multiple studies suggest this group will be the first in recorded history to end up poorer than those which came before.

People in their early thirties in Norway have an average annual disposable household income of around 460,000 kroner - around $56,200
​

But perhaps this doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion.
In Europe’s northernmost country, things are decidedly different.
...

Well, if this is socialism, we need more of it. A lot of the Faux monkey's like to mention socialism - Venezuela, and the rejoinder should be socialism, Norway. Maybe Venezuela can hire a bunch of Norwegian economists to help them straighten out the mess Venezuela is in.

It is nice to see somewhere on planet Earth somebody is managing to figure all this out.

 

[Axulus]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

 

[Underseer]

Scandinavian countries are social democracies, which is the exact same thing as communism.

Therefore, this story is Fake News[ent]trade[/ent]. Communism failed, remember? [/conservativesandlibertarianswhojusthappentousethesameargumentstotakethesamepositionsoneconomics]

- - - Updated - - -

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Yes, but Norway is a communist country, so 100% of that money goes to the state.

Also, profits and corporations are illegal in Norway. Because no one told the Scandinavians that communism failed.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Venezuela has immense oil reserves and drilling. So to be successful takes more than that. Norway spent decades developing themselves into a very successful country. It is going to take Venezuela decades to dig out from their current predicament. Provided they can find competent leadership to get that long term project started.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Exactly. Is it any surprise that an oil nation is different than the others??

 

[Horatio Parker]

They could give all that oil revenue to the 1%. After all, did they not create the jobs and wealth?

Just think of all the potential for profit driven education or health care with all those millennials raking in $50+k/yr. Stupid kids throw their money anyway.

 

[Jokodo]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Exactly. Is it any surprise that an oil nation is different than the others??

Exactly. It's why Louisiana is so much better of than anyplace else in the US.

 

[RVonse]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Exactly. Is it any surprise that an oil nation is different than the others??

The US is on track to beome the largest oil producer in the world. Even more than Saudi Arabia.

Questions for Loren And Axulus:

1. How come the US has the biggest treasury deficit of any of the western nations?

2. How come the US has one of the worst problems with wealth disparity of any western nations?

3. How come the US has the worst record for medical care for its citizens?

4. Why are millenials faring poorly compared to Norway?

5. Where has all the oil money gone and why hasnt it created a similar situation found in Norway??

Clearly, the emperor has no clothes. And Im not talking about Trump either.

 

[dismal]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Venezuela has immense oil reserves and drilling. So to be successful takes more than that. Norway spent decades developing themselves into a very successful country. It is going to take Venezuela decades to dig out from their current predicament. Provided they can find competent leadership to get that long term project started.

Reserves yes, drilling no. Because they got teh socialism.

 

[dismal]

Here is a chart, btw, of oil production per capita.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Energy/Oil/Production/Per-capita

Norway has 554 bbls per day per 1000 people, which at $70/bbl is about $14,000 per year of oil per person.

The US, by comparison, is at 28 bbls, though this is from 2007 so it may have about doubled since then, what with all the drill, baby, drilling.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Exactly. Is it any surprise that an oil nation is different than the others??

The US is on track to beome the largest oil producer in the world. Even more than Saudi Arabia.

Questions for Loren And Axulus:

1. How come the US has the biggest treasury deficit of any of the western nations?

2. How come the US has one of the worst problems with wealth disparity of any western nations?

3. How come the US has the worst record for medical care for its citizens?

4. Why are millenials faring poorly compared to Norway?

5. Where has all the oil money gone and why hasnt it created a similar situation found in Norway??

Clearly, the emperor has no clothes. And Im not talking about Trump either.

I think on average Norwegians are smarter than Americans. That might explain lots of things. Americans like those scratch-offs, the true path to wealth.

 

[ZiprHead]

I think on average Norwegians are smarter than Americans. That might explain lots of things. Americans like those scratch-offs, the true path to wealth.

Poor Americans like scratch offs because it's their only hope.

 

[Derec]

Poor Americans like scratch offs because it's their only hope.

The lottery is a voluntary tax on people who suck at math.

 

[ZiprHead]

Poor Americans like scratch offs because it's their only hope.

The lottery is a voluntary tax on people who suck at math.

Thanks for the useless cliche.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What they figured out is deep sea oil drilling.

Exactly. Is it any surprise that an oil nation is different than the others??

The US is on track to beome the largest oil producer in the world. Even more than Saudi Arabia.

For figuring the effects of oil you need to look at per capita oil production, not total.

Questions for Loren And Axulus:

1. How come the US has the biggest treasury deficit of any of the western nations?

Once again, you need to consider size. When you look at the debt as % of GDP you get a very different story. The only country in the G7 with a lower number is Germany.

2. How come the US has one of the worst problems with wealth disparity of any western nations?

The problem here is that personal income and wealth disparity go hand in hand. In America you have more ability to do well, those that don't do well therefore get left farther behind. Americans on average make 1/3 more than the G7 average. Note that this is also a big factor in the supposed disappearance of the "middle class". They reached that conclusion by using a narrow definition of "middle class", as income becomes more dependent on what an individual brings to the workplace the curve gets stretched out. Pretend that only a certain width of the curve is "middle class" and presto, it's shrinking.

3. How come the US has the worst record for medical care for its citizens?

Our survival rates with various diagnoses tell a different story.

Clearly, the emperor has no clothes. And Im not talking about Trump either.

Apparently you don't know what clothing looks like.

 

[Derec]

Thanks for the useless cliche.

It's not a "useless cliche". Nobody is forcing anybody to but lottery tickets, let alone spend 100s of dollars on them each month, like some people do. And not being good at math makes one not realize how awful the odds really are.

Anyway, I like this:

 

[Elixir]

Americans on average make 1/3 more than the G7 average.

Misleading - and I think you know it.
If, of 1000 people in G7 Country X, the top earner makes $5m/yr and the next 998 earners make $100k each, while the lowest earner makes $1k/yr,
Meanwhile, in America, the top earner is making $75m/yr, the next 998 make $20k/yr and the low earner makes $1k. "Average income" is over $75k.

Obviously I made those numbers up, but there's no denying that when top earners make hundreds or thousands times the "average", income disparity is not reflected by "average income".
In 2016 US average income was about $60k. The top 0.01 percent, 16,000 families, had annual income over $7 million (116x).
I don't know how that stacks up against the other G7 Countries (or why that is even a relevant comparison) but it is misleading to advance "average income" as an indicator of middle-class income.

Here's a 2011 graph of US income, and it has gotten worse since 2011 - I wonder what those other G7 countries' graphs look like...

 

[Emily Lake]

Sure, averages are not really the best metric here... but it turns out that the US does have the highest per-capita median income of the G7 countries.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Americans on average make 1/3 more than the G7 average.

Misleading - and I think you know it.
If, of 1000 people in G7 Country X, the top earner makes $5m/yr and the next 998 earners make $100k each, while the lowest earner makes $1k/yr,
Meanwhile, in America, the top earner is making $75m/yr, the next 998 make $20k/yr and the low earner makes $1k. "Average income" is over $75k.

Obviously I made those numbers up, but there's no denying that when top earners make hundreds or thousands times the "average", income disparity is not reflected by "average income".
In 2016 US average income was about $60k. The top 0.01 percent, 16,000 families, had annual income over $7 million (116x).
I don't know how that stacks up against the other G7 Countries (or why that is even a relevant comparison) but it is misleading to advance "average income" as an indicator of middle-class income.

Here's a 2011 graph of US income, and it has gotten worse since 2011 - I wonder what those other G7 countries' graphs look like...
View attachment 16599

What you miss is that there aren't enough of those $75m/yr people to have a big effect on the averages. (And it's the same reason the various soak-the-rich tax proposals won't balance the budget--there simply aren't enough of them.)

As for the distribution of US income--the center quintile of household income in the US went from $43k to $72k in 2015 (the last year I'm finding for some reason.)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Sure, averages are not really the best metric here... but it turns out that the US does have the highest per-capita median income of the G7 countries.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx

Good find. I would have preferred median but I didn't see any data.