Why do Nordic countries have such high standars of living?

Question

Why do Nordic countries have such high standars of living?

Answer 1

No jigaboos

Answer 2

population is purer. very few immigrants.

Answer 3

The whiter people are, the higher the standards of living are.

Am I the only one that ever noticed this?

Answer 4

Standard of living is measured by poverty rates and inequality rates.

The Scandanavian econmies are not anything special and GDP is indeed low when compared to countries such as America, however they have high taxes and redistribute more money within society via the most comprehensive welfare systems in Europe.

Nordic countries therefore have less poverty and inequality rather than econmic growth.

All in all it depends how you measure standards of living, whether you just use GDP or you include poverty and levels of inequality between the richest and poorest in society.

Many succesful Scandanavians have traditionally left the Nordic countries due to the high taxes and there has been a significant brain drain over the years.

In 2007 the Swedish Government announced it was to do away with the wealth taxes in order to encourage more succesful Swedes to stay in Sweden rather than move abroad to escape the high taxes or to try to get around taxes by setting up overseas foundations.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d6f77584-dd4a-...

Answer 5

North Sea oil