Average Salary in Norway

[Duff338]

[shikitohno]

Some quick internet research yields a range of 60-70NOK for a pint of beer at a pub. 65NOK is just over 11USD. Around the corner from where I sit in downtown Seattle, pints are currently being poured for 3USD.

Edit: but 3 is admittedly cheap and it's a dive. Most of us know what a beer costs though, $2.50 - $5. $11 is crazy. For any UK members reading, what are pints going for these days? When I was there a few years ago I remember a pint going for about 10USD -- I don't remember how many quid that amounted to at the time, it's just my conversion.

Based on accounts from members of Snuffhouse, I've heard it ranges from £2.30 out in Cornwall, to £5 and upwards in London. In my experience, most British consumer goods and food, you can generally swap the currency symbols for the price you'd pay here, and it'll be pretty close.

[precious007]

It's all relative to the cost of living, though. Norway has one of the highest costs of living in the world.

Hmmm, there's quite a lot of opinions I see on the thread.

Whilst Norway is expensive country to live in, it always depends on your living standards.

You can get a one room flat in Oslo for $500 - $600 ... and as somebody that has lived in Norway for 6 years I can tell that you can actually buy groceries and food for another $300/person/month if you cook at home.

So that would be $1000 - $1200 the total expenses, you can go even cheaper if you have a room mate :-)

The cost of living might be expensive but Norwegians on average all have $500K - $1 mil homes ... so that is a solid proof that they do earn well.



I'm not making a comparison - that's not the point I just want to mention that in Romania and many European countries at the moment it's impossible for someone to buy an apartment, due to low salaries and high costs of living. In Romania an apartment at the moment sells for 80K - 100K (3 rooms) - that's would be just about 30 years of hard labour just to buy an apartment.

Norwegians on the other hand - would buy a similar apartment (100 sq m) in just about 5 years)

[sgreger1]

Nope, it's actually a man who's talking out his ass because his response to anything socialist is "Capitalism is #1!" Norway does alright for itself, consistently maintains one of the highest standards of living for its average citizen, and if their economy takes a serious turn south, they've got a good deal of oil up north that they could tap to keep their economy afloat for at least a couple of decades if things slowed down. Norway also never joined the EU, so they've avoided some of the bigger problems the EU nations are going to face. They'll take a hit from lower trade with EU nations, but Norway won't be financing Greece's or Portugal's bailouts. Could you guys maybe bother to do some basic research before running your mouths off about a country? You're both smart guys, but it's seriously tiring to see the knee-jerk reaction to socialism, and the same tired crap about how capitalism and the free market will solve all our woes.

There's plenty of capitalist nations in Africa and Latin America that are absolute shit holes that none of you could honestly tell me you'd want to switch with the average guy making $1 a day and living in a hovel. There's also plenty of crappy country's with socialist regimes. There's a handful of fairly successful representatives of both systems, predominantly concentrated in Europe and North America. It's poor form for you guys to constantly present this false dichotomy of, "Capitalism is great, it takes care of everyone's problems and now I fart rainbows!" and "Socialism is completely evil, totally abhorrent, and it's just moments away from launching us all into the gulags!" There's plenty of shades of gray here for both systems, and neither one's perfect. You don't get to just ignore all the flaws in your preferred system and any positive examples from the one you dislike.

Perhaps you've had one too many beers tonight and failed to realize that both Vegan and I were being entirely sarcastic (in case that wasn't painfully obvious already).

I don't know why you are singling me out multiple times in this thread but for the record I am a strong proponent of socialized medicine, and believe Norway should be a model for us to follow. I have no problem with socialism whatsoever. My opinion regarding America is that our government couldn't ever implement something as simple as single payer healthcare because we are particularly corrupt and would manage to **** it up. I would love to live in a country where we all pay our fair share of taxes and then receive basic benefits like healthcare, pensions, etc.

Not sure why your sarcasm meter is off this evening.

"Capitalism is great, it takes care of everyone's problems and now I fart rainbows!" and "Socialism is completely evil, totally abhorrent, and it's just moments away from launching us all into the gulags!"

Lol wut? When have I said this? All systems can be ****ed up if run by corrupt officials. Capitalism has advantages, socialism has advantages. Preferably we would integrate the two and select for the strong points. That was sort of the point in America but we have since watered it down so that the corporations pretty much dictate everything since they have the money to spend to influence decisions that are weighted in their favor.

Calm down man, I would much rather live in Norway than here, and am half Norwegian myself. My comment to govegan Re: "There's a man who knows what he's talking about" was completely in jest.

[sgreger1]

I'm not talking about you lx. Sgreger is more representative of the group I'm speaking of. There's a pretty strong conservative element to the boards that worships Adam Smith and Ayn Rand, and flat out hates anything to do with socialism. Any tax increase is an abomination to them, regardless of benefits it might bring. That group. Some of them are fun guys to chat with about other stuff, but the over-simplified economic ideas they put forth can be rather disheartening and tiring to anyone who hasn't dug in too firmly into the ideological trenches.

Again, wtf? Worships Ayn Rand? Are you kidding me? You need to chill the **** out and go do some homework yourself because I am no proponent of any of the things you are referring to.

I just this weekend signed a petition for a ballot initiative here in CA to increase taxes on those making over a million$ to help support social programs. Today, I also did my tax refunds. I make about $80k with my wife and I combined, but we pay over $25,000 in taxes each year. And guess what, we owe another $1,500 this year which is due by April. For reference $80,000 in CA is shit, we rent our place because we can't afford anything else. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney pays 15% and has assets hidden in swiss bank accounts.

So no, I do not support tax increases on the middle class. Why you ask? Because I live in CA where they constantly raise taxes and we don't get SHIT in return. I am already paying nearly double what someone with $500 million in assets pays and don't see shit in return other than roads with little upkeep. I receive no pension, no healthcare bonuses, nothing from the state etc. So sorry if I don't support middle class tax increases, our representatives like to squander the money on wars and other bullshit that does not benefit us. This is not Norway where they have responsible government, this is Amerika, where every dollar you pay goes to murdering some civilian in the middle east.

[sgreger1]

Hmmm, there's quite a lot of opinions I see on the thread.

Whilst Norway is expensive country to live in, it always depends on your living standards.

You can get a one room flat in Oslo for $500 - $600 ... and as somebody that has lived in Norway for 6 years I can tell that you can actually buy groceries and food for another $300/person/month if you cook at home.

So that would be $1000 - $1200 the total expenses, you can go even cheaper if you have a room mate :-)

The cost of living might be expensive but Norwegians on average all have $500K - $1 mil homes ... so that is a solid proof that they do earn well.



I'm not making a comparison - that's not the point I just want to mention that in Romania and many European countries at the moment it's impossible for someone to buy an apartment, due to low salaries and high costs of living. In Romania an apartment at the moment sells for 80K - 100K (3 rooms) - that's would be just about 30 years of hard labour just to buy an apartment.

Norwegians on the other hand - would buy a similar apartment (100 sq m) in just about 5 years)

Exactly, small track homes start at $600,000 where I live. I pay $2,800 to rent the house i'm in now and it has no land, no backyard etc. Condos start at $500k for god's sake. CONDOS. And I don't live in San Francisco proper where a 4 bedroom house in a non-ghetto area can run you $1 million +.

[sgreger1]

Where's SnusDog when I need him, lx? I don't know which side of the argument he'd fall on, but if past experience is any indicator, he could come in here and post some erudite comment to shut us all up for a while.

Edit: Ah, well there's derp moment for me. I get so used to the typical reactionary politics of this board that I missed the sarcasm when someone went for it. Figured it was another of the SnusOn libertarians railing on the evils of socialism. My bad GoVegan.

For the record, I am only libertarian in some regards. I believe fully in socialism, but realize that we are decades if not centuries away from ever accomplishing that here in America. The climate is just not right. At this point my goal is to reduce government's power as much as possible because the more power we give them, the more they use it against us. I am not an ayn rand libertarian. I just believe that women should be free to get abortions, adults should be free to smoke pot, and taxes shouldn't be increased on the middle class because all they ever do is squander it on war and other nonsense. Freedom is something that neither of the parties even remotely recognize and on that basis I choose to vote for those who at least show some inkling of respect for our rights as human beings. If I lived in Norway I wouldn't be a libertarian, I would be a nationalist. Here however, the government can not be allowed to gain any power because they will only use it against the people. I pay nearly 30% in taxes and get absolutely shit in return, our roads are so filled with potholes here that the life of your tires is reduced exponentially. So excuse me for not having much faith in government. I just fail to see how my constantly increasing taxes has led to the betterment of anything.

[justintempler]

Norway's ability to pay for its generous social programs comes from revenue derived from oil and natural resources and not because of capitalism or socialism.

[sgreger1]

Norway's ability to pay for its generous social programs comes from revenue derived from oil and natural resources and not because of capitalism or socialism.

One could argue that in a truly capitalist state, the money would have been kept in the pockets of the rich and not redistributed in the form of social programs.

[muddyfunkstar]

Some quick internet research yields a range of 60-70NOK for a pint of beer at a pub. 65NOK is just over 11USD. Around the corner from where I sit in downtown Seattle, pints are currently being poured for 3USD.

Edit: but 3 is admittedly cheap and it's a dive. Most of us know what a beer costs though, $2.50 - $5. $11 is crazy. For any UK members reading, what are pints going for these days? When I was there a few years ago I remember a pint going for about 10USD -- I don't remember how many quid that amounted to at the time, it's just my conversion.

$10 pint? You must have drank in some swanky places, Roo ;-) (Or maybe back when £1=$2)

£4 is probably the average price, so about $6 - $7 at the current exchange rate.

[sgreger1]

$10 pint? You must have drank in some swanky places, Roo ;-) (Or maybe back when £1=$2)

£4 is probably the average price, so about $6 - $7 at the current exchange rate.

I just bought a pint from Safeway (grocery store). It's about $7-$10 per bottle (1 pint in volume). Some of the clubs here have even more expensive shit. I was drinking $45 per shot whiskey the other night that frankly couldn't be distinguished from jose cuervo.

[precious007]

$80,000 in CA is shit

move to Romania and open up a business, there's still plenty of space.

80K a year here, you can afford a luxury lifestyle :-)

[justintempler]

One could argue that in a truly capitalist state, the money would have been kept in the pockets of the rich and not redistributed in the form of social programs.

You can argue that if you like but if we look at history, we used to have a mostly capitalistic state before the 1930's and the philanthropists churches and the charities provided the social programs.

[precious007]

Exactly, small track homes start at $600,000 where I live. I pay $2,800 to rent the house i'm in now and it has no land, no backyard etc. Condos start at $500k for god's sake. CONDOS. And I don't live in San Francisco proper where a 4 bedroom house in a non-ghetto area can run you $1 million +.

$3000 is ****ing insane to pay for a rent.

[Roo]

I just bought a pint from Safeway (grocery store). It's about $7-$10 per bottle (1 pint in volume). Some of the clubs here have even more expensive shit. I was drinking $45 per shot whiskey the other night that frankly couldn't be distinguished from jose cuervo.

Right but I'm talking average price of a standard pale ale or ipa at a bar, or say a pint of Heineken to even the playing field. You didn't have to pay $7 for 1 beer, but trust me, I do it too sometimes for the good shit.

Muddy, come to think of it it was when the rate was 2 to 1, and I suppose the place was somewhat swanky, and it was in central London. That was before I used snus and I remember the cost of cigarettes being damn-near the "priced-out" threshold we're discussing in another thread.

And sgreger, if your whiskey (at any price) can't be distinguished from Jose Cuervo you're doing it wrong lol.