[Info-vax] The changing world

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2022-07-07 02:22, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 7/6/2022 7:33 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-07-06, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>> On 2022-07-06 19:23, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> On 2022-07-06, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>>> I don't expect that to happen if this was somewhere else, which is 
>>>>> why I
>>>>> doubt direct democracy would work in other places.
>>>>
>>>> Some Nordic countries, especially Norway, come across as having a
>>>> reasonable population so it might work there as well. However, that's
>>>> just an impression I have formed.
>>>
>>> I'm originally from Sweden, so I think I can make some comments about
>>> the nordics as well. They are rational to a certain point, but I
>>> wouldn't trust them to make totally rational decisions. Sometimes they
>>> would, but there are also times when they very broken. Of those
>>> countries, the one I would trust behaving the most responsible are the
>>> Finnish.
>>
>> Interesting. Based on my knowledge so far of the Nordic countries,
>> Finland would not have been the first Nordic country I would have chosen.
>>
>> [Norway is by far the Nordic country I hear the most about.]
> 
> Norway has proven to be financial responsible. They are putting
> all their extra oil revenue in a fund instead of spending it
> (the fund now has 1.35 T$ in assets for a population of
> 5.4 million - that is very impressive).

They do have an impressive financial situation. Not convinced about 
their sensibility, though. :-)

Norway haven't shown much success in general. But the oil have been a 
windfall that they have made good use of. But apart from that, I can't 
see much that they do very sensibly.

You could even argue that they are not using all the oil money sensibly 
either. They are putting it all more or less in a fund. It's being 
careful in a way, but is it sensible?

> Finland with Soviet/Russia as neighbor has always
> been aware that the good things has to be fought for - they
> do not fall down from the sky.

Yes. That is definitely true. But they have also pretty much always 
never had much excess, and have always had to be frugal and careful with 
what they do, and how they spend.
So both in a political sense, and in an economic one, they have had to 
be very careful and responsible.

> Denmark and Sweden are not like that. Their economy is way
> better than in southern europe, but I suspect that
> is more due to an extremely good starting point and
> not due to any political will the last 20 years.

The good starting point comes as a payoff from way back, when they 
actually were more responsible. The problem is that they were so 
successful at it back then that they have now gotten used to that they 
can do and deal with anything without having to consider the costs or 
alternatives.
Lessons forgotten from the past.

If you go back 100 years, Denmark and Sweden was certainly not in a good 
position.

   Johnny