OSLO, NORWAY—Not wanting reports of the happy, healthy lives of its citizens to demoralize people living outside the Scandinavian nation, Norway announced Monday that it would start hiding its standard of living to make other countries feel better about themselves. “In an effort to not lord it over the rest of the…
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.