Oooohweeee, it’s cold outside again. -13C/8F with a bitter north wind right now (7.00pm Sunday), although the sun did warm things up the tiniest bit in the middle of the day. Sadly, based on the weather report in Aftenposten, we may not see much of the sun for a while, as snow is predicted through the week. Bummer, man! Everyone I talk to is sick to death of the cold and ice and the only thing keeping folks from going completely mad is the hope that spring is just around the corner. Please, spring, get here fast! We need you!

To cope, Husband and I hunker down most evenings at home, in front of the fire, watching a bit of television or reading this and that on the net. Friday night we caught a fairly riveting 20 minutes of the Norwegian news program, “Aktuelt,” that featured a debate between Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and opposition Progress Party leader Siv Jensen. Jensen was being taken to task for an interview she gave to an American libertarian group on ReasonTV. In that interview, Jensen said most Norwegians pay 70% of their incomes in tax and that the healthcare system here is, basically, a Socialist nightmare of inefficiency and bloat. On Aktuelt, both the host of the show and Stoltenberg accused Jensen of painting a false and ugly picture of Norway with her inaccuracies and conservative bias.

You can see Aktuelt here (it’s in Norwegian) and the ReasonTV interview here:



My opinion is that Jensen did lie about the level of tax most Norwegians pay, which is more like 45 or 50%, including income and sales tax, and, therefore, not much higher than I used to pay when I lived in San Francisco. She should be very ashamed of telling such huge porky pies about the economic realities of living in Norway.

Her complaints about Norwegian healthcare are just the same old tired arguments that a government-run system can’t work because it lacks market-driven competition and robs people of their ability to “choose.” She moans and moans about how people here sometimes have to wait a year for surgeries and other vital procedures; I very much appreciate Stoltenberg pointing out that, in America, 40 million people are uninsured and have no access to any care whatsoever.

I understand that waiting-one-year vs. no-care-at-all is an unattractive, complex problem. I certainly do not have a solution to offer. But I also know that I have no desire to go back to the American system of private, employer-based insurance that leaves way too many people with far too little control over their healthcare (and their careers) while leaving others out altogether.

I talked to my brother last week and he told me that the bills for his cancer diagnosis and treatment are starting to roll in. He has very good medical insurance through his wife’s employer but he’s still going to have to pay a big chunk of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars in costs incurred because of his illness. So, imagine that---not only is he dealing with the trauma of fighting a 5%-survival-rate cancer, he’s also got to manage the stress of increasingly unmanageable debt. He’s too sick to work, hasn’t received a cent in disability money yet, has no income, and the bills are piling up. It’s a disaster!

So when I hear Siv Jensen say that a “private” system is far superior to Norway’s “socialist” system, I wonder if she knows what she’s talking about. I fear that if the Progress Party gets into power in Norway, they would work to create a two-tier healthcare system, i.e. great medical for those who can afford it, shit for everyone else. What a sad thought.

Do you think the world would be a better place if people could choose their country of residence based not on nationality or asylum-seeking-chance but on political philosophy? For example, there could be Capitalist Country, where the Siv Jensens of the world could be happy, and Socialist Country, where Husband and I could be content. Well, okay, for Husband to be content it would have to be Socialist Country Where No One Is Allowed to Drive a Car and All The Trains Are Super Cool Japanese-Style, but I digress. There could be Religious Fundamentalist Land #1, #2, #3, etc.(pick your faith), and a Dudes Who Want Women to Wear Burkas Country far away from the Women Who Refuse to Do What Men Tell Them To Do Land. The would be Racist Dickhead Land A, B, C, and D (pick your skin color) and Carrying Concealed Without A Permit Land (where everyone could just shoot each other). Canada could remain Canada because most Canadians are pretty happy. I know it’s ridiculous but it seems like it would be so much easier than the current situation where 55% of the people want something different than the other 45% (or whatever the statistics are), which is really stressful.

Yeah, I know. And maybe it will be 20C here tomorrow.