Norway. Norway is special. They don't just sit on an oil field. They own their oil company. The government owns 30% of all shares of stock in the country. If the world economy went into a recession tomorrow they'd be screwed. That's confidence building. Oh and yet another high tax rate at 47%. Almost double the average US tax burden. VAT tax at 25%
Yes, I agree with you, Norway is special. But I disagree with you on some facts. I believe, the Norwegian government owns 66-67 percet of the shares of stock of the oil company Statoil. That's in great contrast to the United States which leases its land and oceans to oil companies for very little money , compared to what the Norwegian government gets for its own resources. Maybe the United States could take a lesson from Norway and follow that example but I doubt that the oil company lobbyists will let the politicians in their pockets vote for that sort of arrangement. They also funnel the money derived from their share of the oil into a Sovereign Trust fund, currently at about 850 billion dollars.(that covers the population of about 5 million people) Only 4 percent of annual revenue from the oil can be diverted to the general budget. The rest goes into that trust fund which funds pensions, or what we call social security.
If the world economy went into a recession tomorrow, they'd be screwed??? Well which country wouldn't be screwed ? But to what degree? We had a world wide recession that started in late 2007 and as you recall, the excrement really hit the fan in 2008. Norway did just fine during that recession. They are also fortunate enough to not be part of the European Union and hence their currency is not tied to the fortunes and policies of 20 or so other countries.
True, Norway has a high tax rate, and I will take your word for it that it is almost double the tax rate of the United States. But Norway does not run a budget deficit nor does it have a lingering debt. The United States could not say the same(about 400 billion a year deficit and depending on you ask, about 16 -18 TRILLION in debt. What would the United States tax rate be if the government actually funded for what it currently borrows to pay ?
. If you want to include taxes to pay down the debt as well, the United States taxation rate would be much much MUCH higher than it is now.
Let's not forget that Norway has universal health care, funded by those taxes they pay. Oh we have universal health care too , I suppose , except that there is a middle man called insurance companies and many people have to pay for those policies in one form or another. Since the supreme court called that a tax, maybe we should consider that a tax as well in terms of figuring out the united states tax rate as well.
Vat tax at 25 percent, yes that is true. We have something similar in terms of raising the prices of goods, called a sales tax(varies by state and municipalities) . New York city, something like 8.8 percent. New Jersey -7 percent. So that vat tax by comparison to New Jersey, is now only 18 percent. Still high , I admit, but everything is paid off in Norway . We're living off a "credit card" in the United States.
Respectfully submitted.
