Sean Hayden wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:59 am
It's not a logic fail. Even the prime minister of Norway credits the energy industry for the success of their welfare state, something they are attempting to correct now.
The windfall from the oil and gas well has undoubtedly added to social program funds, and there is an end to that money stream. Nobody denies that, and the end of the windfall will not come as a surprise. The necessary adjustments are being discussed for at least a decade now, but this is certain: Norway was a capitalist country with strong welfare programs decades before the oil and gas reserves were discovered, and they are not going to disappear after the oil and gas reserves are exhausted. Norway is by no means the only capitalist country with strong social programs. There is a number of others who have them too, and they've managed without oil wealth.
So, stop making excuses for the USA's incapacity, or more accurately it's unwillingness to institute and fund strong social welfare programs. It has the wealth, but you people prefer to hand it to individuals, particularly the already rich individuals, in the form of tax cuts, so they can piss it up the wall, buy yachts and jets with or whatever immediate fancy drives them.