Originally Posted by Contendahh:
Originally Posted by direstraits:
Although, i have given a number of democratic socialist models in Europe and South America. none have commented upon which they wish to emulate.
Perhaps, I should go a bit north in Europe -- what about Norway? Before any of our Dems comment, there are a few things one should know about their model. Without North Sea oil, their model would be in the same ballpark as Portugal -- ie. better than Greece, but still going down the drain.
On a business blog I had an interesting long running commentary. The Norwegians were under the assumption that only 10 percent of government revenue came from North Sea oil, plus excess revenue was invested in a sovereignty fund. They overlooked the income taxes paid by those employed by the oil industry, various business taxes directly paid by the industry, and taxes paid by companies supplying the oil industry and those employed by same. Once all that was considered, the truth was that about 33 percent of all government revenue was from oil. Remove that revenue and add the tens of thousands unemployed when the oil runs out, and the socialist model collapses. As to th sovereignty fund, an audit identified about half the investments were questionable, at best.
Basing one's adult Disneyland upon a depreciating asset like oil, with no replacement plan in place will not be pretty down the road.
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Indeed. Reliance upon fossil fuels is folly, irrespective of whether one's nation is inordinately dependent upon revenue from that source. Norway should be in the lead in developing alternative energy sources.
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Spain tried that -- one of the reasons their economy is doing poorly, plus the whole socialist thing. Denmark relies upon North Sea oil, same as Norway. Already cutting back as revenue is decreasing.
The Germans were at the forefront of alternate energy development, Now, alles ist kaput! Drove the cost of energy up well over 200 percent When the high tech EU nations experience such results, a reasonable person would take heed. However, progressives do not meet that mark.