Author Topic: damn, Oslo is the most expensive city in the world.. (Read 2011 times)

Nilsen · « **Reply #30 on:** August 25, 2003, 10:39:17 AM »

Yup, we are like americans and canadians

except for the language (yeah yeah, some speak french there)

Ripsnort · « **Reply #31 on:** August 25, 2003, 10:43:29 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nilsen10
Yup, we are like americans and canadians except for the language (yeah yeah, some speak french there)

My Great Grandfather on my Fathers side is from Stockholm, my Great Grandfather on my Mothers side is a "Dover" from England (Our family tree goes back to the Dover Castle). I'm about as "White boy" as you can get.

Nilsen · « **Reply #32 on:** August 26, 2003, 06:26:25 AM »

Staga...

Our petrolium fund is now: 101,4 billion USD, and is growing by 10-15 billion every year. Foreign debt is still 0$

This money is partly invested in foreign companys and some is just sitting there collecting interest.

Nice to know we have it there for a rainy day or two.

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #33 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:20:54 AM »

So nilsen and gscholz tell me whats it's like for ypu two sucessful and productive guys to be forced to pay more than double price for your goods just to have "free" medicine? Gscholz how much health insurance and other things could you have purchased for $40,000, hell think if you could have invested that money.... But of course you dont have that option, the state knows best....

Bonded: by boutique I mean small and/or homogenous financial center type countries, they tend to rich as hell but that only works at small numbers.

For example norway has only 4.5m people, and its by far the "biggest" up there until you get to the USA and Japan at 280 and 120 mil. respecytively.

Curval · « **Reply #34 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:31:45 AM »

Hey Nilsen,

Had dinner with some Swedish clients last night.

This one should irritate you:

The subject of the most expensive city to live in the world came up. Someone at the table put forward Stockholm. This thread enabled me to correct them.

Then one of the guys, who obviously isn't a big fan of the Norweigens, said..."They are like the Arabs with their oil. They don't actually WORK, as a nation, they just collect royalties on the extraction (by large oil companies) of their oil."

He then went on to ask,

"Can you tell me the make and manufacturer of a Norweigen car? Airplane? Pharmacutical company? etc, etc?"

I said no.

He said "That proves my point rather well."

Your thoughts?

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #35 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:35:37 AM »

Thanks curval, that explains my point rather well too...

Btw the name for your house should be:

Casa de Super Jizz

Bonden · « **Reply #36 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:36:12 AM »

Grunherz - thanks

Nilsen · « **Reply #37 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:37:59 AM »

Well Grunherz, i dont know wich system is best .
Our welfare system benefits those that are less fortunate and are at the bottom of sosciety. The middle and upper class have "less" buying power than they could have had but they still have a very good family economy. (Of course the rich get richer in our economy aswell and always find "smart" ways of awoiding taxes)

Personaly i think its better that the system benefits those less fortunate than the rest of us.

In the US you have a better chanse of getting very rich if you work hard but i also guess that if you are among the less fortunate you have a far worse personal economy / healthcare and quality of life.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #38 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:45:23 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Curval
Hey Nilsen,

Had dinner with some Swedish clients last night.

This one should irritate you:

The subject of the most expensive city to live in the world came up. Someone at the table put forward Stockholm. This thread enabled me to correct them.

Then one of the guys, who obviously isn't a big fan of the Norweigens, said..."They are like the Arabs with their oil. They don't actually WORK, as a nation, they just collect royalties on the extraction (by large oil companies) of their oil."

He then went on to ask,

"Can you tell me the make and manufacturer of a Norweigen car? Airplane? Pharmacutical company? etc, etc?"

I said no.

He said "That proves my point rather well."

Your thoughts?

So, Norweigens = Professional Welfare State Slackers? They'd vote Democrat if they lived in this country.

Nilsen · « **Reply #39 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:58:31 AM »

hehe

It may sound like thats the case but we hardly use our oil income at all, its it put in the petrolium fund for use when our oil/gass is expended in 50-100 years.

True, we dont make airplanes and cars but we have other industries as well.

We export technology, fish/fish products and other stuff to. Until ww2 we had the largest merchant navy in the world (ALOT where sunk trying to supply brittain with what they needed). We still have some very large shipping companys that have not yet flagged out.

If we did not have oil we would still export more than we import.

As to sweedes talking crap about norway, that does not come as a suprise to me

, we do the same about them. It has been like this for years and there is no hard feelings. Its kinda like to siblings teasing eachother (canada/us).

Ripsnort · « **Reply #40 on:** August 26, 2003, 11:09:56 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nilsen10
As to sweedes talking crap about norway, that does not come as a suprise to me , we do the same about them. It has been like this for years and there is no hard feelings. Its kinda like to siblings teasing eachother (canada/us).

But, we're not teasing, Canada is seriously the red-headed step-child of the North American continent(Socialism, screwed up politics, etc). I can only assume the same of Norway.

Nilsen · « **Reply #41 on:** August 26, 2003, 11:11:53 AM »

Ripsnort · « **Reply #42 on:** August 26, 2003, 11:17:05 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nilsen10
LOL

We have a name for fish like you in the Pacific Northwest..."Steelhead". Its basically a cross between a Sea-going trout and a salmon. They get their name from the ability to throw a hook from their mouth at will, thus the name "Steelhead"

Urchin · « **Reply #43 on:** August 26, 2003, 11:19:41 AM »

Well, someone asked earlier about the cost of healthcare, college expenses, etc.

Since I'm going back to school (and paying for it myself this time ), the cost for my school is ~4,000 a semester (8k a year), figure 500-700 dollars for books per semester (1,000-1,400 a year), so roughly 9 to 10 grand a year. That is a public school, I commute there. You can about double that if you live on campus. And as I said before, that is a public school, not a private school. Private schools run in the area of 30 to 40 grand a year.

Health care (just medical, no dental or vision or etc), last I checked it was around 300 a month, for me and only me. You can get it a lot cheaper if your company offers it as a benefit. Needless to say, I haven't had health insurance in quite a while.

Sorry Grunherz, I know capitalism is the "holy grail" and all, but your "average joe" gets ****ed up the bellybutton in our system. Maybe you come from a wealthy family or something, who knows.

Curval · « **Reply #44 on:** August 26, 2003, 11:28:50 AM »

Urchin...very very true.

I audited a company in Arizona a few years back. When I looked at the payroll I couldn't believe the low wages that were being paid to some employees. The reason...they got health care benefits and would accept such low wages just to have it.

I couldn't figure out how some of these people could survive.