Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by laurencerowe on Sunday April 07, 2019 @12:44AM
(#19594874)
While this is true, proportionally the oil dividend is much smaller for the UK (60M population) than Norway (4M population.)
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by keithpeter on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:52AM
(#19596024)
Using common goods to finance tax cuts is a conservative party policy and it has been mentioned in their manifestos, although not in bald terms.
They could therefore argue for a mandate for the policy.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by EliRivers on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:42AM
(#19596461)
With tongue-in-cheek apologies to Thatcher, the problem with capitalism in the UK is that you eventually run out of public assets to sell off :)
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by keithpeter on Sunday April 07, 2019 @11:12AM
(#19597252)
Education and the health service (think buildings and land as assets for the latter) are the two remaining ones apart from something like the road system. I'm sure they will try these soon.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by EliRivers on Sunday April 07, 2019 @11:20AM
(#19597314)
Didn't they already have a shot at education? That whole Academies mess. Although the master plan to make every school an "academy" [0] was shot down days after it was announced.
[0] This is a weird, UK government definition of the word. Don't think Plato.
In Norway it’s EU regulations that makes it easier for the conservatives (and the last 20-30 years the social democrats) to privatize the economy and exploit workers. EU is a neoliberal project with some benefits for the common man.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by vnorilo on Sunday April 07, 2019 @01:29AM
(#19594990)
Norway is not in the EU.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by lixtra on Sunday April 07, 2019 @04:25AM
(#19595557)
Nonetheless, plenty of EU driven rules apply in Norway.
So gp’s statement could be true.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–European_Union_relati...
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by village-idiot on Sunday April 07, 2019 @10:28AM
(#19596951)
Mostly around trade, so that Norwegian products can be sold in the EU and vice versa without secondary inspections. Only 21% of EU laws apply to Norway, and I don’t see any evidence that the EU could do anything like force Norway to privatize things.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by thefounder on Sunday April 07, 2019 @08:11AM
(#19596314)
How did you come to that conclusion? My complain with EU was it's driven too much by social(ist) policies at least compared with the US? At least the money that goes into small agriculture is upsetting.
Re:An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)
by lenticular on Sunday April 07, 2019 @11:47AM
(#19597510)
The EU is quite neoliberal. Austerity was the policy there after the recession. It has also presided over a massive financialization of the European economy. The US is far out of the political mainstream with other wealthy countries. In comparison to where they were 20 years ago (as opposed to where the US is now), Europe has shifted markedly right economically.
The subsidies of agriculture are kind of ludicrous, I agree.
If this article (referencing a 2008 paper) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/north-... is to be believed, the UK had the same thing, but the money went to tax cuts for the rich. So it does smell like corruption to me.
[He talked about some conservative governments being corrupt, to which I think:] Conservatism is a con anyway, selling austerity as a pain that the citizenry needs to suffer to get a "healthy economy", which means cutting budgets where somehow the solution is to outsource things (e.g. with the NHS), meaning the private companies owned by the elites rake in the money. And then they sell the "it's the immigrants who are overtaxing our resources" to get the public to vote for Brexit. (Where less EU regulations mean the elite will have more power to influence the government to allow worker exploitation)