Well, here's a couple of tip-offs. Norway recently announced its goal of making all of the country's short haul airplane flights on all-electric non-greenhouse gas polluting aircraft by 2040. Air travel is one of the largest such polluters. Norway is one of the world's leaders in addressing the climate crisis with such transportation technologies.
So naturally, Norwegians would regard a country that officially doubts the reality of the climate crisis as perhaps a primitive place to visit, but why would you want to live there. Or even stay very long.
Though inspired by the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Norway's democracy and justice system are acknowledged to be superior. It pays particular attention to preventing and prosecuting corruption.
Norway is in first place on the UN Human Development Index, for superior levels of education, health and standard of living. The US is tenth. Norway has one of the highest levels of productivity in the world, and low unemployment. It has a superior banking system and bounced back from the global Great Recession faster than anyone else. It welcomes immigration.
The government pension fund is the largest such fund in the world, and bans investments for ethical reasons, such as nuclear weapons. Norway is the first country to ban cutting of trees to preserve its remaining forests.
Healthcare is free. Public education is virtually free. Among the Nordic countries, Norway's people have the most confidence in "their country's pension system, equal availability of welfare services for everyone, public health care, and unemployment support."
"It surged from fourth place in last year’s UN assessment all the way to the top spot, according to the World Happiness Report 2017. Other top countries on the list included Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland, as well as nearby Switzerland.
“All of the top four countries rank highly on all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance,” the summary explained.
Rounding out the top 10 were Finland, in fifth place, the Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8), and Australia and Sweden tied for 9th.
The UN report noted: The USA is a story of reduced happiness. In 2007 the USA ranked 3rd among the OECD countries; in 2016 it came 19th. The reasons are declining social support and increased corruption (see Chapter 7) and it is these same factors that explain why the Nordic countries do so much better."
Okay, forget Norway--what about neighboring Denmark, with all their pale faces?
Probably not. Denmark also "is not far behind or tied in most categories" in citizen confidence in their social system. The BBC finds that "Denmark inches out its neighbours (and blows away the rest of the world) with near-perfect scores on the ‘Basic Human Needs’ ranking in the 2017 Social Progress Index, which includes meeting the nutritional and medical needs of its citizens and giving access to basic knowledge and communication."
"These benefits are offered to more than just native-born residents. 'The general health and social system is well-developed and accessible to anyone living in Denmark, and as a student you can get financial assistance and free language classes.'"
Levels of satisfaction suggest that citizens accept that high taxes support a well-run government and a better society. So yeah, maybe the weather isn't to everybody's liking, and there are problems to deal with, but why leave a pretty sweet society for this trainwreck of a country?
Answer: Mostly they don't.
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