ampguy said:
Hi Olsen,
These are fine opinions and may be relevant and useful for the current times, but things change fast.
We have some Norwegian friends who have done very well here, came with very little 20 years ago, benefited from the tech bubble, put their kids through public colleges here, own 3 mercedes, and a house that has European style heating and would cost ~5-10M USD in the bay area, if you could find one available with the acreage.
On top of that, their parents both died with diseases, that they feel would have been diagnosed sooner, and treated better if their parents were here in the US.
So the advice you're giving students now, may not be applicable if/when things hopefully get better here.
Also, doesn't the weather suck in Norway? 😀
Sure. Quite a few Norwegians are doing well in USA. Students studying at US universities marry Americans and stay on. That's the typical. Or they have and education - or business that does not offer that much over here. I know of at least three Norwegian dollar billionairs living & working in USA, like the Stolt-Nielsen family - within shipping. But if you are rich you will be fine just everywhere. Still: According to American statistics (Forbes) Norway is the country in the world with the highest rate of dollar millionairs. So, it is easier to 'make it' over here, on a more modest scale.
For more ordinary people, and a far bit up, the situation is drastically better over here. Due to a better public service and a national economy that produces a economical surplus. Not a deficit. Ordinary Norwegians don't have to pay the huge cost of any 'federal debt'. On the contrary, the Norwegian state has a huge fortune which covers pension costs and long term public investments. Relatively speaking; taxes are lower over here when the cost of healthcare, pension funds and education is included. Far lower!
One of my neighbours is an architect from Dallas, Texas. He and his wife are very glad to be tied to the lavish Norwegian healthcare and pension system. They say it is 'impossible' to buy something equal on the market in USA. His problem is his old parents back home with insufficient health care coverage - with huge health expenditures which he has to cover. A heart operation for his father cost the price of what a Mercedes costs over here. - Here a heart operation is practically free. You even get the taxi bills going to and fro hospital covered.
The Norwegian health care system is public and all their documentation from budgets to quality control is public matters available to all. Their quality can be compared to similar establishments - as long as their matters are public too. Researchers - and not the least the press, spend a lot of time digging in this in this information. If the health care system had been run by private companies this information would have been company secrets.
It could well be that the parents of your friends could have had their cancers discovered earlier, but it is just a hypotetical claim. What is a challange for the Norwegian health care system is hefty cost increases the last few years. Still it is about half the cost of the health care system of USA - relatively compared.
When it comes to the weather; I can confirm that it is lousy. Right now we have the darkest time of the year with daylight only 6 hours per day even as far south as Oslo. A snowstorm hit us this weekend and I had to spend hours digging out our cars. And yes, there was a little patch of blue sky up there. I took a picture of it for all to see. It is documented below.
Don't misunderstand me. I love USA. America for me is the beautiful national parks of the west, - and John Steinbeck's Cannary Row. Happy one can be just anywhere. But the economical situation is going to be tough on ordinary people. That's my message.
The picture is from down-town-Oslo this afternoon. M8 with a 35 mm 2,0 Cron. An excellent lense. Far better than any Noctilux, by the way.
