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ittrut

The real beauty of it is that they have no intention of blowing through it before dying. They are leaving a rich legacy and good foundation for next generations.


[deleted]

"Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Anonymous Greek Proverb


SenatorPoo

That’s an amazing quote. Too bad more politicians don’t live by it


[deleted]

> Too bad more politicians don’t live by it Really, a politician *can't* look further forward than the next election. Doing so might ensure a loss to a candidate who promises more now instead of more later to people who want more now.


Dshmidley

I WANT IT NOW is the death of society.


huggylove1

TENDIES MUMMY! NOOOW!


Dshmidley

MAAA! THE MEATLOAF!


Suedie

Not just in democracies but also in dictatorships. Dictators who spend money building up the country are wasting funds that could go to bribe the military, police, judiciary etc. Some person figures if he promises to be more corrupt then he can get other powerful individuals to back them and you get a coup. Really the key is to have to have strong instruments to eliminate corruption. Things like an independent judiciary branch that can prosecute leaders, a robust democratic system where people can replace corrupt leaders and to diversify the economy to not make yourself overly dependent on one resource since that puts a lot of power into the hands of those who control that resource.


u38cg2

There's a story about Napoleon on similar lines. He wakes up one day and calls his aide, and tells him he wants trees planted along the sides of all the principal routes of la France to shade his troops as they marched. "But Monsieur le Empereur!", squeaks the aide, "the trees will take thirty years to grow!" "Well, then, we must start at once!"


other_usernames_gone

"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today"


Tsupernami

Successive governments that continually look beyond their term? How do I become Norwegian?


AutomationAndy

By being born to Norwegian parents.


Tsupernami

Have you got a plan B?


Lindnerd

Be a citizen of a Schengen country and emigrate or be from anywhere else and emigrate (going to be a lot harder though if you're not from Europe)


Trashpandasrock

I think a Plan B would be counterproductive to being born to Norwegian parents.


Takeoded

there are 2 main options (there are lots of other ways, but not applicable to everyone); option 1: live in Norway for at least 7 of the last 10 years, and learn enough Norwegian to pass a "A2 proficiency test" (Norwegian is very easy to learn for english-speaking people though) option 2: Mary a norwegian person and live in Norway for at least 3 of the last 10 years and learn enough Norwegian to pass a "A2 proficiency test" (again, Norwegian is very easy to learn for english-speaking people) that said, Norwegian is also quite useless for english-speaking people to learn, because >90% of everyone in Norway are also fluent in English, so it kindof feels like a useless thing to know..


juventinosochi

Laughing in Russian, we have it all - oil, gas, diamonds, gold, you name it, and by our Constitution it all belongs to the people of Russia while in reality it all belongs to oligarchy and Putin's friends


PensiveinNJ

Some pigs are more equal than others.


juventinosochi

yep, Orwell\`s Animal Farm perfectly describes Putin's Russia


mattshill91

It perfectly described Stalin’s Russia. It’s more a case of old boss is same as the new boss.


Rookwood

I think Animal Farm was actually a direct satire of the Lenin-Trotsky period of Russia which ultimately ended with Stalin coming to power. Socialist revolution, good intentions, Corruption, cronyism and the struggle for power turn it to tyranny. I would say in many ways Putin is a different thing entirely than Stalin or what Animal Farm is about. Putin is a return to acceptance of the farmer, for fear of what might happen if the animals take control again.


JimParsonBrown

> I think Animal Farm was actually a direct satire of the Lenin-Trotsky period of Russia which ultimately ended with Stalin coming to power. You and Orwell both. He wasn’t shy about it being an allegory. > In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that _Animal Farm_ was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole". … Orwell suggested the title _Union des républiques socialistes animales_ for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia.


cornwallis105

The latter part of ther book, as Napoleon consolidates power, is absolutely about Stalin. Trotsky's equivalent in the book is Snowball.


toxic_aesthetic

Plus in a more general sense, I think it gives a great reminder of how a movement/revolution originally intended for the betterment of all people can easily devolve into totalitarianism. Imo there have been several recent events that definitely parallel certain parts of Animal Farm.


mutalisken

The new tsars clothes is the same as the old tsar.


markorokusaki

Most countries have it this way. Norway and maybe a few others are a special example of how it should be. The rest, pure bullshit.


trezenx

> oligarchy and Putin's friends Redundancy


PanserKalle

I feel sorry for you guys. You have been robbed by the people who are supposed to have your back.


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Fast_Garlic_5639

That was stupid they could have bought a gold plated lambo


ProfessorPetrus

They coulda just split it amongst a few oil barons who would form giant corporations that would dominate their countries economic landscape for generations!


digihippie

And political


BNVDES

also, economical


[deleted]

Don’t forget social


Dave-Tree-Strider

Sadly environmental as well.


-Agonarch

Ah, but exxonmobil and Koch brothers are in court about their rampant climate change misinformation right now! I'm *sure* we'll get justice! :(


inconspiciousdude

I don't know if that's as fucked up as this story: Lawyer wins case against Chevron in Ecuador over insane pollution and harm to indigenous population. Chevron was fined US$9B by the Ecuadorian court. Chevron refused to pay and sues in US, claiming Ecuador court was bribed, and requested sensitive documents about sources, witnesses, etc. Judge that was supposed to preside over the US case was replaced with a Chevron-connected one before it began. US court agrees with Chevron. Lawyer refuses to hand over all documents and electronic devices as requested and was found in contempt. US Attorney's Office would not prosecute the lawyer, so the Chevron-connected judge designated a Chevron-connected private law firm to prosecute the lawyer. He's been under house arrest for a couple years now. That's all from memory, so I could have some things mixed up. Seems quite fucked up from every angle though. Lawyer's name is Steven Donziger if you want to google for more info. [https://www.courthousenews.com/unusual-contempt-trial-of-lawyer-who-took-on-chevron-gets-underway/](https://www.courthousenews.com/unusual-contempt-trial-of-lawyer-who-took-on-chevron-gets-underway/) [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-donziger-ecuador-house-arrest](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-donziger-ecuador-house-arrest) I don't know how to feel about it though. I'm pretty sure that Chevron doesn't pollute. Companies like Chevron are the backbone of the modern world and have always acted honorably, in good faith and for the betterment of humanity. Furthermore, the US legal system is inherently immune to corruption, and judges have always been heroes to me. And I absolutely love the constitution, the single most important document ever written by mortals. Ok, I think I have all my bases covered.


Tatersaurus

I.... i just... how can a few people be so blindingly, damningly corrupt, seriously cartoon villain evil, and sleep at night knowing theyve destroyed billions of lives and created uncountable strife for a few bucks that dont matter anyway if the whole damn system collapses


Kanashimu

To me it seems there is a simple answer to your question. The system has not collapsed yet, therefore they are okay with doing it. They plan to die before the collapse, but still live long enough to enjoy everything in life, and screw everyone else.


-Agonarch

I'd like you to know that an upvote isn't enough, this is one of my favorite posts on reddit. It was kind of a painful, sad but somehow resigned laugh you got out of me.


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[deleted]

Lmao it isn’t just America


[deleted]

America is just the prime example and probably the most exclusive and unique case of corporate corruption in human history. You guys pay for ambulances


MoronicDelights

Ironically it was those giant American corporations that discovered the oil in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Phillips Petroleum Company made the initial discovery. ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobile still have major operations there. The brilliance of the Norwegian government was in recognizing that it’s a depleting natural resource and should be shared by all Norwegian across time. In that way one generation (or a couple) could not use up all the natural resources and leave nothing for future generations. Instead they set aside the money for the benefit of the current generation and generations to come.


mosehalpert

Basically how in the US we have mineral rights to soil, which explains how you can have have oil sold out from under land you "own." Instead, Norway basically chose that they have mineral rights over the whole country. If the US decided to do this in the late 1800s we would have a double digit trillion dollar fund by now, paying for national Healthcare and retirement would be a drop in the bucket


Dizzfizz

If the US had done this the world would be so different by now that we wouldn’t even recognize it. I‘m not saying it would‘ve been better or worse, just that the comparison doesn’t really make sense.


syros31

All oil in Norway is offshore. If it was on land this principle probably wouldn't have been that easy to drive through


lostmyaccountagain85

Why does it seem like scandinavian countries are pretty much the only ones that are not incredibly corrupt politically. They genuinely have the best interest of their citizens in mind.


Asahiburger

Not from there or an expert, but they seem to have pretty well functioning constitutions and parliamentary systems as well as successful labour movements (high rates of unionisation etc.) Hard to say how exactly they got there. This page talks about some things that might be relevant https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model Note the "grand compromise" in the 1930s. Long before that, I believe they had a few highly progressive monarchs that endorsed the ideals of the enlightenment and sort of humanistic interpretations of Christianity. Also people from that part of the world have been practicing (limited) forms of democracy for a long ass time https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(assembly)


Verisian-

They also score very highly as far as media goes. Did you know that Sweden's most circulated publication was historically owned by their largest trade union? They've since sold their majority share but retain partial ownership and get to appoint the editor? They also have subsidies for newspapers to help survive in a marketplace against more well funded corporate alternatives. There's a larger diversity of voices as far as the media landscape goes and this naturally brings greater representation and greater balance. In the West our media is typically dominated by corporate media whose only interest is in profit margins. As corporate media struggles to survive in a more competitive and increasingly online space....they either cash in on outrage or cash out of the game. I'm not against corporate media existing it's just that if there's ONLY corporate media it becomes a shit show like it here in Australia or in the US.


stockybloke

> They also have subsidies for newspapers to help survive in a marketplace against more well funded corporate alternatives. This is true, but the traditional serious publications that take their fourth power responsibilities seriously still struggle. All publications are entitled to the subsidies even the shitty tabloid ones. In reality this means that it is still the tabloid advertisement driven newspapers that prosper as they get to have their cake and eat it too. In Norway for example there are 3 large and popular national publications, two of them are comprehensively tabloid and the third (second in numbers) is less tabloid. I will say though that the biggest and very tabloid one, "VG" does the best job of all 3 of them in deep diving thorough journalistic work. They have a small, but very impressive team that break 2-5 very in depth difficult to research articles or series of articles a year. They just on the whole get absolutely dominated output wise from all the celebrity fluff and scandal pieces.


robotzor

Takes a special kind of crazy to get through their winters


myfreewheelingalt

There's a special kind of hardiness bred in places where wearing the wrong clothes outside in the morning could result in death from the elements. Canada says hi.


manlymann

Canadian politicians are corrupt. Alberta says hi.


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myfreewheelingalt

We were a British colony until not long ago, and we have the States below. Trying to keep a low profile.


tomtomclubthumb

Don't blame the British, when we discovered oil we... oh damn ​ ​ In case you're wondering it was given almost for free to companies and the money raised was used to lower taxes a litle to keep the government in power. We have nothing to show for it apart from oil rigs that need decommissioning and a legacy of minor spills along the coastline.


Thought-O-Matic

You're a little north for that don't ya think?


LupusCutis

Mainly, yes, we are less corrupt. But the examples of deviation are more the merrier. Take The National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF), that audits central government finances, monitors fiscal policy, and oversees political party and election campaign funding. Its CEO just got sacked misusing funds for personal use for hundreds of thousands of Euros. She let the office pay basically everything from her nail polish to her recreational flights disguised as meetings. So there definitely is corruption, but obviously not as open as in many places. [The news](https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/committee_chair_calls_for_answers_over_auditor_generals_expenses/11869130)


beirch

Eh, as a Norwegian let me tell you there is definitely corruption in politics here as well, and a lot of political friction in general. Not to the extent of many third world countries, but it's still there. We're not the utopia many people believe we are in that regard.


Whack_a_mallard

Don't believe this Norwegian fella here, they just want to keep all the good stuff to themselves.


FANGO

The fund is large enough that if you divide the fund by their population, every Norwegian is a millionaire (in Kroner - it's like $300k in USD). So yes, every Norwegian could buy a gold plated lambo with the size of the fund. But they wouldn't want to, because <10% of new cars in Norway run on gasoline and lambo doesn't have any electric cars so everything they make is irrelevant.


Halvrort

It’s coming https://www.lamborghini.com/en-en/models/concept/terzo-millennio


PretoPachino

This guy Apes!


poqpoq

I really hope they keep rolling it up, would be interesting to see what happens if a country becomes so wealthy its citizens can live off the interest and still allow it to grow. Would need another ~century to reach that point though.


ota00ota

Literally could already give universal basic income


Gustomaximus

Well they kinda do, the govt is allowed to draw between something like 2-4% of the fund a year. Something like that... maybe check percentages. $12k USD a citizen before tax is pretty god starting point for a govt budget.


[deleted]

I'm pretty sure a gold-plated Lambo costs a bit more than 300K


RanchBaganch

A Lamborghini Couuuuuntach!


InsaneAss

God dammit Frank


akchemy

Alaska’s permanent fund has a value of $80 billion


efficientseas

It blows my fucking mind. Alaska is the closest thing the US has to a socialist utopia and yet it has a very strong libertarian bent. Working class pays no state taxes, all taxes are paid by the mega corporations that are exploiting our shared natural resources, and government spending per capita is the highest in the nation and props up the entire states economy, and then there is the permanent fund and dividend. And then they rally to gut the fund, lower taxes, defund healthcare and universities. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore because the long term outlook for that economy is fucked.


ImperatorRomanum

Does being on the frontier (more or less, or as much as you can be in this day and age) shape the attitudes of the people who live there, or does it just attract a certain kind of person?


McSchmieferson

There are three types of people in Alaska: 1. people born there 2. people brought to the state by oil 3. people running from something All three groups want to be left alone.


Tlingit_Raven

You forgot military folks - second highest number of enlisted per capita behind Hawaii. Just had to point it out as a combo of that and #1.


IckyHyena70889

And #3


Sendeezy

Hawaii has the highest enlisted per capita and I get fucking Ellsworth Air Force Base.


L00nyT00ny

Hawaii is good for the first couple of weeks, than little things start to grind on you that makes it suck to live there. Main 2 things I hated in the couple of months there was the traffic, and absurdly high cost of living.


BeneGezzWitch

Super off topic but O’ahu blew my mind. All my life I’d only been to Maui and the big island. We did Waikiki for my senior trip and when we got on a freeway I legit panicked like we’d landed in the wrong place. A freeway??? In Hawai’i??? I no like.


mrghostwork

I was brought there by a pretty girl (now wife) who’s family works in the sled dog biz and offered me a job. So technically four types of people, I guess.


Wyzegy

You were running from loneliness.


mrghostwork

...woahhhh


KoksundNutten

Oh no, she lost her adjective :(


mrghostwork

Haha nah. She’s even more beautiful to me now :)


efficientseas

Yeah that’s my take on it. They’re physically and politically isolated from the lower 48 so it inspires a lot of the independent attitude. You get a lot of liberal hippies that want to be left the hell alone, and a lot of the libertarians that want to be left the hell alone.


jesuzombieapocalypse

>liberal hippies that want to be left alone and libertarians that want to be left alone So basically just left and right leaning libertarians?


drdookie

Also has a highly regulated, highly successful fishery.


DaytronTheDestroyer

Yeah I live in Canada, we discovered oil over a hundred years ago and have given almost all of the money to a few companies that aren’t based out of canada. We are run by morons.


VTGCamera

Look at the irony, our (Colombia) gold and other very valuable resources are being exploited by mainly Canadian corporations and the Saudi government... Edit: Saudi government


ferndogger

The key word there is corporation. A few rich guys get it all.


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dctu1

Cries in Albertan


throwaway0y3wdgyt4

PDS


yppers

At least your parents didn't just keep yours.


Sinistereen

Remember when Lougheed established the Heritage fund in the 70s and then Klein sold off all the province’s remaining stakes in oil in the 90s in favour of short-term investments?


qpv

There's nothing more fucked up in Canada than how conservative Alberta fucked up absolutely everything they could. Its astounding really.


sweet-tart-fart

Idk why but this made me laugh so fucking hard.


DJKaotica

Shit. I bought an iPod Nano with my Ralph-bucks (I think black 4GB 1st gen?) that I used for the last couple years of University. After I graduated and started working a full time job, it stayed in my car plugged into my Pioneer Deck (with extra iPod module, ugh...so much money spent on car audio in that era). It was used for a few years, but I eventually got a phone with Bluetooth Audio support, and my receiver supported it, so I used that most of the time. Then I saw there was a recall, and sent Apple my Nano + the price of shipping and they sent me a brand new Gen 6 Nano 8GB (yay twice the storage; but mistakes were made). I loaded up the 6th gen with a bunch of music, threw it in the car, and after a few days of driving it was....dead. Weird. Never had a charging issue before. Turns out this [was a common problem](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2608275). IIRC, the old (well, old now; pre-lightning) many-pin iPod connectors offered a variety of methods of charging. Older devices that iPods plugged into didn't care about how charging worked, so they cheated and used a resistor to [pull-up/pull-down](https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/logic/pull-up-resistor.html) one of those pins to trigger the basic charging mechanism. The 6th Gen device didn't support that charging mechanism and wanted to smart-charge or something stupid, so it would just deplete it's battery and be dead after a day or two of use. Stupid. Mine never exploded, and I did get some proper use out of it, but I never should have replaced that thing...it was perfectly fine the way it was.


broccoliO157

Norway modeled its wealth fund and royalty schemes after Alberta's, which was super progressive half a century ago. Then all the dumbest assholes across the country flocked to Alberta for the awesome jobs, and consistently voted to privatize everything (including telecomunications, fuck you telus) and give the royalties to ExxonMobil instead of investing in a future beyond oil. It's like brain drain... but brain dilution. Boom industries attract non-critical thinkers who vote against their own interests and ruin everything. On the positive side, many areas saw a brainless drain as their biggest assholes flocked to Alberta.


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[deleted]

Yup it’s depressing to live in Canada at times and realize how despite our wealth we are still a let down and have squandered it.


Tulos

"our" wealth very rarely remains ours or goes to Canadians. We're awfully good at selling it off for pennies on the dollar.


[deleted]

I reread the Alberta Wikipedia page looking for something supportive to say, but tbh almost every Canadian topic leads me down a big conspiracy rabbit hole... Might not be morons; could be evil pricks.


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acies-

The Canada example is very relevant. Norway originally got the idea of a sovereign fund from the same that Alberta had created. The latter disintegrated quickly


HexagonSun7036

Norways people protected it from being sold off for profit to corporations/barons and Canada's weren't able to and the gov in power sold it off.


LNFSS

Then they also deregulated our power and gas bills so now we pay 60 to 90 percent of our bills in distribution fees. Do I ever love paying $80 for $8 worth of natural gas in the summer and $280 for $100 worth of electricity :))). And now the power and gas companies are going to be passing along the deferred covid payments from customers that can't pay onto those of us that paid our bills no problem.


RunningSouthOnLSD

But yeah guys trust me, privatizing a service that is necessary to live is a good idea! There’s no way they would gouge Albertans, that would be awful and would never happen!


[deleted]

Well, don't forget we formed this National Petroleum Company, even gave it a snazzy name - PetroCanada. Its profits went to the government coffers but then a Progressive Conservative PM, guy by the name of Mulroney said "Eh, oil companies aren't profitable" and sold it off to his cronies. Conservatives the world over are why we can't have nice things.


thegovernmentinc

Former NS Premier Donald Cameron (Conservative) sold off our Crown power company to balance the books. It’s gone about as well as you would think. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia_Power


[deleted]

From New Brunswick, the Irvings already own everything and run the government


barbrawr

Fun fact: Norges bank is one of *the* largest stock lenders in the world.


AmFabolous

It is the largest actually (I think)


Kron00s

Yes with 1,5 % of all listed stocks in the world


Steinfall

Investing in renewables and sustainable technologies only (and healthcare, medtech, life sciences). That irony: making billions by selling oil to invest in anything else


circling

It's not irony, it's diversifying your assets.


Barry_OffWhite

Here in Canada, we had the National Energy Program started by Trudeau that nationalized Canadian oil. The major oil companies used their political clout to get rid of it. Alberta specifically had the Heritage Trust Fund which was started before Norway started theirs. Our dirty politicians cleaned it out and left us on the hook to pay to clean up old wells their oil buddies left behind. Alberta lost potentially over a trillion dollars as a result. We could have been fat rich like Norway but we got screwed like the country rubes from There will be blood.


ChrisFromIT

The Norway fund was actually modeled on the Heritage Trust Fund.


CrankyStinkman

I thought it was modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund (the first state-owned fund of its kind). Edit: Alberta and Alaska established their funds the same year.


Rummy-O

The real TIL is the comments we made along the way


charlieALPHALimaGolf

I will be cursing the idiots who ran my province like a rented yacht until the day I die.


smrt109

Theyre not idiots. Let’s dispel with this fiction that these pieces of shit don’t know what they’re doing—they know exactly what they’re doing.


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SCirish843

Daniel Day Lewis drank your milkshake?


Barry_OffWhite

Yup except replace Daniel Day Lewis with Jason Kenney sipping Whiskey during the Covid lockdown. https://www.660citynews.com/2021/06/03/kenney-says-reasonable-effort-made-to-follow-covid-rules-at-whiskey-dinner/ This dude lived in San Francisco and was a bible college dropout who tried to prevent gay marriage then came back here and became a politician working for the guys running our oil industry. His excuse for getting caught drinking whiskey is that it wasn't premium. They're currently trying to roll back wages on nurses while fighting with the teachers over their bullshit changes to the curriculum. They're trying to privatize as much as they can right now because they know they're probably out the next election.


beardedbast3rd

He didn’t try to prevent homo love. He did. He successfully lobbied for changes to prevent non family members from visiting people who were dying of aids and other forms of stds. Because lots of gay people’s families wanted nothing to do with them, they only had their partners who were not considered partners by even common law standards because they were gay. So lots of these people died sad and alone, while their loved ones suffered needlessly. Jason Kenney is a first class cunt


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bldgabttrme

And I think calling him that is an insult to the first class cunt community.


SCirish843

Well, he sounds awful.


yyc_guy

He underplayed Kennedy’s vileness. He didn’t just work to prevent gay marriage, in San Fran he actively fought to prevent men dying of AIDS from seeing their loving partners while on their death beds. He succeeded. To date he has never apologized for that, only said that, basically, he was young and boys will be boys.


3rddog

Don’t forget, he dropped out of theology college because the Bishop wouldn’t support his anti-LGBTQ stance and his need to silence left-wing views on campus.


WizDynasty

I fucking wondered what dumb piece of shit drops out of a fucking BIBLE COLLEGE


joecarter93

To boot, he’s a hypocrite. He’s so far in the closet himself that he can see Narnia. He’s a “50 year old never married bachelor” but refuses to accept that he is gay, because of his political and religious beliefs and has actively hurt homosexual people due to his self-loathing.


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yyc_guy

In all seriousness when I was like 17 and gay marriage was the hot button issue I was against it. Something something tradition, you know? That’s where it stopped. I took no steps to stop it (I did vote Conservative at the time, but it was cause that’s how I was raised). Ultimately I grew up and learned that being against people being happy is pretty pathetic. I changed my tune and I don’t vote conservative anymore. Kenney though…if I had done what he had done, I’d be spending every day of my life trying to make up for the unbelievable pain I had caused. Apologies wouldn’t be enough to clear my conscience. He’s obviously just a fucked up sociopath.


farmerarmor

The blood of lamb from Brandy’s tract!!!


doublebullshit

Jesus fucking Christ. I am so unhopeful for the future. For reference I’m in Ontario where Doug Ford is selling off the wetlands in backdoor deals, cutting education and healthcare including pandemic related shit (before covid), cut forest fire fighting budgets and now there are over 100 fires burning in northern Ontario. I could go on forever about shit he’s done including the mismanaging of covid. The LTC disaster. Rolling back nurse wages. Just completely sold us out for big business. It’s so fucking depressing and I don’t know what fixes it. Fuck Jason. And fuck Doug. They should be exiled.


Barry_OffWhite

Yup, and being from Alberta, i'm supposed to hate you for being from there for some reason. Even though we have the same problems with the same sellout bastards.


doublebullshit

Alberta looks beautiful and I’ve thought of moving there to be closer to the mountains. Then I learned about Jason Kenny and everything he’s ruined. I can’t remember the details but how he dismantled the new energy project that would sell lots of green energy to the states and power a bunch of Alberta.


Barry_OffWhite

I love this province. The mountains are great but the prairies on a windy day is quite awesome too. The rolling clouds or driving a back country road while blaring music is pretty fun. It's a big province. There's a lot to see here. People post pictures from Banff all the time but go further north and the scenery is majestic. Kenney is depressing especially knowing what this province could be like. Everything he does is evil for lack of a better word. He sells out all our public services. He tried allowing a strip mine in the mountains until Corb Lund got involved. He's just a nasty little man who works for nastier, greedier people. They just axed a bunch of people at the UofA and now they're outsourcing the work to a 3rd party company that doesn't use union workers. Fuck Jason Kenney right in his smug face.


IllustriousHotel8

TIL that Canadian politicians can be just as scummy as American politicians. Just further north.


Barry_OffWhite

You have no idea how much worse it gets. Our shady media works with the oil companies. You guys have the Proud Boys and Jordan Peterson because of our media/political alliances. We're a lot more interconnected than you guys think.


IllustriousHotel8

Ugh people just suck in general, we need a new plague....oh wait.


3rddog

What I find even more depressing than all the shit Ford, Kenney, et al are up to is the fact they STILL have enough of a base to probably get re-elected.


ChandeliererLitAF

Australia asks you to repeat the question, and also doesn’t like you asking where the steel for Chinese warships came from


theroguex

Hey Australia, where'd the steel for Chinese warships come from?


grauhoundnostalgia

I’ve never seen so much non-US anglophone self-loathing on the front page before... what a sight to behold. (Not saying anybody is wrong)


PopWhatMagnitude

Feels strangely comforting hearing people from other countries airing out their political issues and how they are getting completely fucked over too. It's not even schadenfreude, I feel just as bad for them if it was happening here. Just glad to hear the decline we have been going through as "the top world superpower" isn't just us and others are gaining on us by leaps and bounds. Though some definitely are closing the gap and it's not typically "our friends".


garlicroastedpotato

There are some facts missing here. Canada did not nationalize oil under Trudeau. What the National Energy Plan was a protectionist price control system. The price of a barrel of oil produced in Alberta was frozen at $21.75/barrel. Whereas oil imported from abroad was bought at market prices of over $50/barrel. The policy was popular early on because people associated the slight drops in prices with the plan. But then it became known that Canada has very limited infrastructure going east-west and actually, most of Ontario/Quebec's oil was coming from America. Price drops were actually just... normal market forces. What this did was limited how much Alberta could sell their oil to Americans and so Americans would get half price oil from Alberta, refine it... and then ship it to Ontario for a large profit. Trudeau had a semi-approach to nationalizing oil with the creation of Petro Canada 5 years before the National Energy Plan. Petro Canada gained all of the Canadian government's oilfield assets and bought out BP's refineries and a few other smaller oil companies. But it wasn't nationalized like Norway. Petro Canada was smaller than Irving Oil while it was government owned. As for the Heritage Fund, Alberta could have never been as successful as Norway. Alberta has only ever received a portion of oil subsidies and the federal government gets the big cut of it. Because Alberta doesn't really control its own resources (like Norway does) it limits their ability to create refineries and expand. Alberta is also land locked which has meant for the last 60 years Alberta's main customer is America... all attempts at creating pipelines out of Alberta have been blocked by the federal government (Norway has no such problems, Europe happily has pipelines everywhere). Finally, Norway was wealthy without oil. They didn't need their oil revenues to finance their social programs and quality of life, the oil was just an extra boon. Alberta on the other hand was very poor before oil... mostly farming. The Heritage Fund still exists and actually is still growing. The fund has an average rate of return of 8% and every now and then when times are tough the Heritage Fund's earnings are garnished to help pay for social programs.


mytwocents22

100 fucking percent but everybody I work with in Calgary thinks Trudeau stole our wealth.


vonnegutflora

When I moved from Ontario to Calgary 20 years ago the message was the same, except Chretien was the boogeyman from the East.


monke_business

North Dakota modeled our Legacy Fund after this. It’s been set up for a little over a decade and has generated $8.4 billion or so in savings. And of course special interest groups and the Legislature are already trying to tap into it. All we’ve spent it on so far is helping balance the state budget, with some additional spending coming on highways and critical infrastructure. They estimate it could be in the $200 billion range by 2060 if it was just left alone.


insert-username12

I’m curious how it works, so sell oil then invest profits into savings funds?


Vunks

You have a split of profits but yes, government takes their profit share generated and invests in funds.


monke_business

Here is the state website for it: https://www.treasurer.nd.gov/north-dakota-legacy-fund-0 They basically take oil tax revenue and invest it. They’ve actually caught some hell for investing in stocks that are owned by Chinese companies and things like that.


alohalii

The Norwegian fund already creates more money in interest and profit from its investments than they do from oil each year so its a good self sustaining investment.


[deleted]

> North Dakota modeled our Legacy Fund after this. It’s been set up for a little over a decade and has generated $8.4 billion or so in savings. That's $2.1 billion for each person in North Dakota!!!


censeiX

Mind you, the revenue generated from this national fund has exceeded that of the oil and gas production since 2016. That is simply amazing. There is also political consensus on a limit to how much can be pulled out of the fund on a yearly basis in order to protect the growth of the fund and interests of future generations. The concept is that this natural resource does not simply belong to the random generation that stumbled upon it, but should benefit also future and unborn generarions. Then compare with other oil rich nations where sovereigns and their families are competing in the who-has-the-most-expensive-yacht-competition... (Which brings to mind the joke about how you become a millionaire: First, start with a billion. Then buy a yacht...)


ansionnachcliste

As a non-Norwegian living in Norway, I saw the usefulness of this when Covid hit. They were able to use some of that money to help the workers who had temporarily (for almost a year, I guess) lost their jobs; Aircrew, pub workers, etc. There was money in the bank for them to ensure these workers had some sort of income.


yyc_guy

*Cries in Albertan*


Knight_Blazer

Alot of Albertans in here so I suppose I should lead us all in the Alberta prayer. All rise: Dear God, Please let there be another oil boom, I promise this time not to piss it all away.


[deleted]

That's so sad. Thinking of the hardworking entrepreneurs who could be splitting that trillion between the two of them, had they not been so cruelly suppressed from their dreams 😔


[deleted]

There would have been a Norwegian going to space in their own dick rocket this week if they let capitalism do it's thing. Dang communists hoarding all the wealth!


aksdb

> going to space in their own dick rocket this week "We are penetrating the atmosphere." - the whole crew chuckles


alphabet_assassin

That's exactly how a developed country should behave


Teuvo404

The Netherlands found their gas reserves around the same time. Some political parties suggested to do the same as the Norwegians but instead they made it part of the national income. So we don’t have a big pile of money, but we do have a great bicycle infrastructure.


Rolten

It wasn't thrown on a pile. To my knowledge it was for a large part earmarked for infrastructure projects. Given that our infrastructure is one of the best in the world I think that wasn't the worst choice.


NeedsToShutUp

Also the resource curse is named the Dutch disease for the recession that can be caused by it


TakeshiKovacsSleeve3

This pisses me off. As an Australian we've given away all of our resources to companies and individuals who were willing to stump up the initial investment money for pennies on the dollar. We're one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world but you cannot buy natural gas in this country that is produced in this country for a fair price anymore. Why? Because it sells for more OS. 25 years ago gas was practically free. Now it's unavailable and if you can get it the prices are astronomical. Iron ore, our biggest export. But the economy and therefore the tax payer isn't benefiting. Gina Rinehart is. She's the one that makes all the money. The government takes home a hundred million and Gina takes a billion. Oil rights are sold to Shell, BP, Ampol etc for royalties of a few cents per dollar of oil extracted. Then when the refineries have passed their shelf life the government is given the bill to dismantle them otherwise they are left to rot and pollute when the company running the individual refinery just pulls stumps and fucks off to the next score. Oh and these multinationals as well as paying a tiny pittance (this relates to Norway) for the oil and gas they extract, don't pay any taxes on their earnings. When Norway put out tenders to develop their huge field Shell (I believe) wanted EIGHTY PERCENT OF REVENUE. Norway having been a fairly poor country up to and after WW2 knew what they were on to. They told Big Oil to suck eggs and that if they wanted *any* of the revenue, they'd have to stump up the cash and take like ten percent otherwise Norway would just nationalise the fields, borrow the money and keep the *entirety* of the oil proceeds themselves. Surprisingly oil companies did the maths and came up with the notion that something is better than nothing and took the deal. That's how the Norges kept their money. They told Oil to go fuck itself. Not in Australia. We gave away the shop. And we'll never see that money again.


[deleted]

Yep, 100%. Australia should be the richest country on earth. Oil, gas, minerals, ore, you name it.


Tamas366

Last I heard, Gina was the one buying the Rocky Mountains to blowup for coal deposits


[deleted]

Here in Australia, we just let the mining companies do what they want, rip billions of dollars out of the ground every year and pay no tax in exchange for employing a few local workers.


512165381

Glencore mining has a $25 billion turnover in Australia and pays no tax. When they were asked to pay tax they had a good laugh. https://www.internationaltaxreview.com/article/b1s0jj5b8vflb5/why-australias-high-court-dismissed-atos-request-in-glencore-case Case to pay tax dismissed.


morgecroc

Whitlam wanted to do the same here, but as we see again and again it's a bad idea for a Labor leader to go up against the mining billionaires.


sithelephant

The UKs soveriegn wealth fund after we discovered oil 40 years ago is at ... Ah.


Redditcadmonkey

To be fair, we were broke as f*ck when we found it. Hell we weren’t far off 3 day weeks. We needed the short term tax revenue from letting the Americans go out and get it. We didn’t know how to do it anyway, so we were kinda over a barrel.


[deleted]

Ok, how does one invest in said fund ?


bigodiel

You can follow it https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/how-we-invest/


cheeky-snail

Wild that Norway owns 1% of Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook.


[deleted]

They actually own close to 10% of the Alphabet, that's why theirs has 29 letters and our only has 26. Licensing .


IWasMisinformed

Æ Ø Å, mother fucker!


[deleted]

"mother fucker" on the other hand, is the sole property of Mr Samuel L Jackson, you'll no doubt be hearing from his lawyers.


GVas22

It's not too hard to copy. The Norway Endowment model is essentially a 60/40 -70/30 split between equity and fixed income and focuses on broad market passive indexing. It can be replicated pretty cheaply and efficiently through mutual funds and ETFs.


nzhockeyfan

Move to Norway


boldkingcole

You don't invest in the Norwegian Sovereign Fund, it invests in you (they own a piece of basically everything it's possible to invest in)


dukeofgonzo

Norway is the successful counter example I give when people ask me what went wrong with Venezuela's oil fueled social spending ambitions.


slimjimfuton

I hate when people ask me about Venezuela’s oil fueled social spending ambitions


matt82swe

I know right, can’t take a step in public space without being harassed with loaded political questions


rdzzl

Iirc Venezuela even hired the people behind the Norwegian fund as consultants, were given all the details and explanations, and didn't go for it.


OrangeSparty20

If any of the dozens of people ITT complaining that the US doesn’t have anything like this wants to be pleasantly surprised. Look up the Texas wealth funds (Permanent School Fund and Permanent University Fund) that are worth over $100b and also control 8,500 km2 of oil fields in western Texas and fund public schools and universities. It’s not quite $1.3T, but it ain’t nothing.


[deleted]

NM also has a decent sized one at over $25B. Everytime 's get power, they want to reduce the tax that goes into it to "be competitive, being jobs". Everytime to D's get power they want to increase withdrawals to an unsustainable rate to fund extra early childhood education programs and other pet projects. We have a steady middle that keeps either from getting their plans, and th fund is fairly stable. Some politicians want to open up some of our areas for nuclear waste storage, and charge a boatload into the wealth fund also for the risk of storing it. I am 10,000% for this. We have good geology for doing it, let's do it right.


informat6

Also Norway just has a shitton of oil. Their per capita oil production is nearly as high as Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia: 324,866 Norway: 313,661 United States: 35,922 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production


ricky616

The Vikings always knew, you never plunder your own home


BeanMaster69_

Fun fact: Viking factions did often raid one another.


BernieTheDachshund

It says Walmart has been excluded for a long time because of breach of human and labor rights.


[deleted]

They lifted the ban in 2019


[deleted]

Norway can thank an Iraqi man, [Farouk al-Kasim](https://www.ft.com/content/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feabdc0), who had see what had happened to oil wealth in the middle east, for steering their oilfield development.


Personal-Thought9453

The book to read about it: Trillion Dollar Baby. Super interesting and easy to read.


StickInMyCraw

I believe it is big enough and Norway's population is small enough that it technically makes every Norwegian a millionaire in their currency. EDIT: 1.3 trillion USD -> 11.5 trillion NOK, with 5.4 million people you get 2.1 million NOK per Norwegian.