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Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by umeshunni on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @01:11AM (#21255726)
> as they were not a wealthy country for hundreds of years before striking oil in the 60s.

I was surprised by that statement and had to look it up and it was, of course, false. Norway was a wealthy country back to the 1800s: sources: https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/no-norway-was-not-a-poor-count... and https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-norway/

Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by vidarh on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @02:18AM (#21255970)
The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue.

Even in my lifetime - I'm 44 - the growth in wealth in Norway has been astounding.

Ironically, for example, whale meat is something I remember from my childhood as a cheap meat substitute (but that is now an expensive "delicacy"; we never saw it as a delicacy then - it is tough and oily) because my parents despite both having good jobs could not often afford beef in the early 80s. Even then we'd usually have it only once a week.

When I was a kid, a packed lunch was an economic necessity for many families.

This was also in some sense exacerbated by more income equality: eating out is relatively expensive in Norway because serving staff are also paid reasonably well.

But I think the main reason the matpakke has survived is basically that this was much closer to the norm a lot of places with low population density (~13 per square kilometer in Norway) berfore urbanization and well into early industrialisation and that Norway also for a long time was very severely lutheran, with a puritan streak. Even if you have money, showing it off is not the done thing.

Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by graeme on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @04:26AM (#21256551)
> The second paragraph of the first link specifically makes it clear it is a question of point of view and concedes Norway was poor relative to today. Meanwhile the distribution of wealth was a bigger issue.

Every rich country was once very poor relative to its current status though. This doesn't change the fact that Norway was not poor relative to other European countries at the time.

Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by vidarh on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @06:30AM (#21257154)
Yes, but the change was very rapid and very noticeable. My parents grew up with very noticeable, very visible poverty around them. A lot of the habits the post war generations grew up with, and that still affected society throughout the 70's still permeates the culture.
Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by graeme on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @07:15AM (#21257360)
Every european society had this kind of change though. Norway isn't unique.

Here's an Italian movie from the 1970s, showing a family in a large slum around Italy.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074252/

Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by vidarh on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @08:11AM (#21257611)
While "everyone" has seen growth, Norways GDP per capita went from ~167% of Italy in 1967 around the time of the start of the oil wealth to about 230% that of Italy in 2017 (world bank numbers). The oil contributed substantially to that.
Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by navlelo on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @05:14AM (#21256784)
Whale meat is quite inexpensive actually
Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by vidarh on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @06:26AM (#21257139)
It might be again now that the novelty of it being more widely available again has worn off, it's been a while since I looked.
Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by marvin on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @05:49AM (#21256958)
Huge local differences. My grandparents almost starved to death in the 1920s due to failing crops, multiple long winters, collapse of lumber exports and general economic crisis.
Re:How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring... by ryzvonusef on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @05:58AM (#21257004)
What was the wealth disparity back then?