The hidden cost of prosperity: the country that has become too rich for its good / “We have received our salary six times, but we waste the highest opportunity”

In a small country that has become a financial power after discovering vast oil and gas reserves, people feel as if they were gained in the lottery: they allow themselves to work a little and have a lifestyle centered in free time. But precisely this success can prevent her progress, more and more observers say, according to Ynetnews, a publication from Israel in English.

In the 1960s, the discovery of natural resources in the North Sea transformed Norway into the third world energy exporter and one of the richest countries in the world. Its investment fund currently holds 1.5% of all shares in the world stock exchange and has registered investments of $ 222.4 billion in the last year.

Norway has also demonstrated resilience in the context of accentuated decrease in energy prices, and its currency remains relatively stable despite global geopolitical disorders.

With an investment fund evaluated at over $ 2 trillion, about $ 340,000 per citizen, Norway gives signs of crisis, warns an increasing number of observers.

Until recently, the main dissatisfaction of the Norwegians were concentrated around the strict government control over this richness – only 4% of the fund is used for the national budget – and on the conservative investment policy.

These dissatisfaction were largely covered by the country's economic power, low unemployment rate, universal health and education system and generous social assistance programs, including extended unemployment benefits, 49 weeks of paid parental leave and a constant rank in global equality indications.

But there are new concerns in Oslo: did this immense wealth lead to insane public investments, protected from the background of the background? Some critics now claim that the investment fund has made Norwegians demotivated, capable of tolerating the budget deficits because their pensions are effectively guaranteed.

A constant decrease in students' performance

The combination of massive oil and gas revenues and a social assistance policy that aims at general equality is now considered a challenge for the long -term economic health of Norway.

According to Ynetnews, an increasing number of Norwegians feel as if they were earning the lottery, allowing a four-day work week, four-hour working days and a lifestyle centered on holidays and quality time spent with the family.

Despite its generous immigration policies, Norway is struggling to occupy qualified jobs, especially in areas such as engineering. However, due to the equalary salary structures of the country, even low -qualified workers earn relatively high salaries, contributing to the increase of the costs of the Norwegian export goods.

In a book recently published by Martin Bech Holte, “the country that became too rich,” the author claims that Norway has come to pity from an economic point of view, living from its wealth instead of building new productivity sources.

In addition to slow economic growth, Bech Holte highlights data that suggests that Norway has weak performance in relation to the resources it invests in its citizens.

For example, Norwegians take on average 27.5 days of medical leave per year, the largest number in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (with 38 member countries) and four times more than the group's average. The grades of the students in the international evaluations of science, mathematics and reading are decreasing for a decade and is now below the OCDE average, despite the fact that the country invests almost double compared to the average amount per student. Norwegian households also have the largest debt/income report between the OECD countries.

“It should be a magnet for opportunities. Instead, it is the opposite.”

“Norway should be a magnet for opportunities and people,” said Bech Holte, in an interview with Bloomberg last month. “Instead, it is the exact opposite. There is no ambition and this is due entirely to the oil fund.”

The book “The country that became too rich” has sparked public debates unusually lit. The author offers numerous examples of public funds scattered on projects that have far exceeded the budget, lasted longer than expected or never had a solid economic justification.

While some economists have criticized the factual and numerical inaccuracies of Bech Holte's book, many others-both in public and academic life-have expressed their support, arguing that Norway should be much richer than it is today.

Although the Sovereign Investment Fund of Norway owes much of the wealth to smart investments in actions, technology and artificial intelligence, Bech Holte claims that these sectors – together with research and development – have stagnated.

He accuses the Norwegian complaining institutions and states that the country is experiencing a national scientific crisis.
Instead of attracting innovators and entrepreneurs to lead new discoveries, Norway now sees them, discouraged by a fiscal structure that they consider a punishment for success, meant to finance social benefits for citizens who could work, but choose not to.

“I tried to write in a way that causes people's anger, for good or bad,” said Bech Holte. He advocates for drastic tax reductions and restrictions on government spending, to bring Norway back to a more productive economy.

“We have become heirs, we received our annual salary in the bank, which means we can choose the easiest way,” Bech Holte said in April. “We waste the biggest opportunity that a Western country has had in the modern era,” he added.

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