Myths and facts of your country's population

[Hanske]

Yeah people always forget cost of living when they hear about poverty it's like omg 3000 dollars a year that's impossible and then you learn that cell phone service is 5 dollars a month and they don't have houses, cars, electricity, so they just spend all it on food and basic essentials and then the "excess" on education, alcohol, tobacco, medical care, etc.

Hanske I think americans spend 8.6 percent or so of their excess income on food fiftty percent that includes eating out. I traveled to norway and it was absolutely nuts I think we ate meatballs, bread, potatoes, fish, and butter (which is like an official dish over there) eating out is insanely expensive like 20 dollars a meal, my impression is norwegians are cheap on food (my family is half norwegian my grandma was really cheap and we eat like the cheapest stuff ever mostly fast food and whatever meat is on sale, costco bulk food and stuff even though my parents make 250,000+ a year I tend to splurge on a bit on food like chipotle less now though.

Off topic but why is food so expensive there anyway like why is a 1.5L coke five dollars there and one dollar in the U.S.?

First of all, the dishes you have there aren't common anymore. They used to be, but now it's only served for tourists. I've eaten meatballs probably two times in my life. If you find it in a Norwegian home, the owner is 70+. And the reason for the high prices is the reason for the high salaries. A person working in the Coca-Cola production site in Oslo, earns more than an equal in the US. Wal-Mart is the US's biggest private employer, and the salaries of the people in the stores is 34 NOK per hour. In Norway, it's not ALLOWED to give your employees less than 150 NOK per hour. This is what you earn if you wash schools or hospitals etc. If you work in stores, you'll earn about 220-250 NOK per hour. This is considered a low salary. Teachers always complain about their salaries, and they get 500-600 per hour. Nurses usually get 400 NOK per hour, and doctors about a 1000. That's the salaries in the public sector. If you work in a private company, you're likely to earn more.

Another thing I just discovered, is that when the Norwegian average salary is calculated, all people receiving social support and pensions are counted with. I'm not sure about the US, but those numbers are usually left out.