• @Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Everyone loves to talk about Norwegian welfare as the pinnacle of social policy while conveniently forgetting that it’s a tiny country of 5.5 million people backed by a trillion dollars of oil money from the state.

    Edit: I love how everyone glosses over the population size as if it has nothing to do with policy making and the politically stagnant environment of the US.

    • @buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      51 day ago

      Someone else posted total inmate numbers from 2022 and it was less that 4,000. Out of 5.5 million people, that’s doing really well compared to the U.S.

      Here’s a small comparison. Oklahoma has a population less than 5 million. Yet their prison inmate population is over 20 thousand. And if you look at all the states, it’s a similar story. Especially in “red states”.

    • @Kinperor@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago
      • Healthcare $200
      • Data $150
      • Infrastructure $800
      • Military industrial complex $3,600,000,000
      • Culture war $150

      someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my country is dying-

    • @SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      Okay, you edited your comment, so then let me add another one

      The US and Norway have roughly equivalent GDP per capita. Norway is also a very rugged country with tons of mountainous terrain. It’s pretty much the worst case scenario for land infrastructure development. It having a small population also makes it a greater challenge for finding workers. More people is better economically speaking

      The US doesn’t really have any excuse here

    • And as we all know, the US doesn’t have any oil itself!

      No, but, the oil fund isn’t really used. For reference, the first withdrawal in history was in 2016. The prison system is far older than that

    • @Khaliso@slrpnk.net
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      102 days ago

      It’s also comparably equal.

      If US wealth was equally distributed, every person would own about 450.000$