Donald
Trump admires “winners” and his favoured immigrant group, the
Norwegians, are winning so much at the Winter Olympics that they are
probably getting tired of hauling around medals. If the president were
to take a closer look at the Scandinavian nation, however, there is
little else beyond athletic success he would personally find appealing.
Pyeongchang is exposing the world to fun-loving, toe-headed Norwegians killing it on snow and ice.
Mostly
hidden from public view is the state that helped nurture these
successful young athletes. The Kingdom of Norway is a rich country that
has long contradicted the American approach to social welfare.
Like
tripped-up skaters, its policies on Russia, guns, healthcare,
international aid, refugees, trade, education, the correctional system,
and fiscal responsibility are entirely out of sync with Trump.
They
don’t even agree on what defines a “cesspool” country. After Trump’s
infamous comments about Haiti, El Salvador and African countries,
Norwegians said they weren’t interested in emigrating to the USA,
suggesting American decline and Trump had turned the USA into a
“cesspool”.
In North Korea, Norway’s national team has schussed away
enough Winter Olympic medals to start a foundry. On the world stage,
too, Norway earns gold for its commitment to democratic values and
governance.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual “Democracy
Index” ranked Norway at number one. Norway scored perfect 10s on
electoral process and pluralism, political participation, and political
culture, with near perfect scores on civil liberties and government
functioning.
America, on the other hand, was downgraded in 2016,
going from being a “full democracy” to the humiliating “flawed
democracy” rating it currently maintains.
The index’s researchers
cite that “public confidence in government has slumped to historic lows
in the US” leading to a “corrosive effect on the quality of democracy.”
While
the USA (21st place) at least qualified for the democracy race,
tarnished silver is not exactly a symbol of pride or beacon of hope to
the world.
Defending democracy is set up to be a joint US-Norwegian
project via Nato, a collective defence organisation currently led by
former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Bordering Russia, Norway is an ardent Nato supporter and clear-eyed critic of an increasingly threatening Moscow.
Norway pays its fair share in Nato dues to defend against Vladimir Putin’s more assertive Russia.
Donald
Trump, on the other hand, arrived in the Oval Office both admiring
Putin and questioning the value of a free-riding Nato alliance. The
president has viewed Nato less as Europe’s protective shield and more as
an American protection racket.
Nato is not the only big ticket item
in Oslo’s budget. As a nation, Norwegians have committed to building and
bolstering international aid programmes with an annual fiscal spending
goal of 1% of annual GDP, far exceeding the United Nations target of
0.7% of national GDP. The United States gives the most total dollars in
global aid annually, but Trump wants to slash that aid cash
dramatically.
Norway, an oil producing country, may be considered a
profligate nation by US standards, but it has amassed a hard-working
trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund to cover future expenses and
protect the nation from over-reliance on the fluctuating global energy
markets. The Norwegians saved and invested. Trump’s America, by
contrast, is much more focused on instant gratification than deferred
and compounded reward, as the just passed and signed trillion dollar
deficit spending bill makes clear.
Republican deficit hawks should take note: Norway figured out a way to have both guns and butter.
Norway
remains open to refugees, responsibly builds infrastructure and invests
the nation’s profits not only to prevent deficits, but to enhance
citizen welfare, improve the correctional system, provide free
university, and build a better national healthcare service. America’s
debates today surround record debt, entitlement cuts, and moving away
from universal healthcare. Norway, the little country that earns Olympic
medals in its sleep is wildly outperforming a chest-thumping,
self-declaring nation of “winners.”
There are many things to admire
about Norway but there is one thing that Donald Trump would definitely
disdain €” Norway’s open documents rule that makes everyone’s tax return
public by putting them online. During my (free) university graduate
school days in 1980s Scandinavia, I was surprised to find that tax
filing was incredibly simple. It’s just as shocking to learn that
looking up any Norwegian’s annual earnings and total assets are as easy
as doing a Google search. A recent look at Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s
filings showed she earned around $200,000 with assets amounting to
$260,000.
Open tax returns may be part of the reason why the 2017
World Happiness report found Norway to be the happiest country on earth
(followed by Nordic fellow traveller states Denmark and Iceland).
Knowing how much your neighbour earns, seeing that there is less income
inequality, or maybe just beating a few Russians in the Olympics might
all contribute to the happy factor.
A decade ago, the USA was in the
top three on the global happiness scale. Now, due to “declining social
support and increased corruption,” America recently dropped to 19th
place. Happiness can be fleeting, but if Donald Trump released his tax
returns and turned the national discourse both kinder and gentler, he
could Make America Happy Again. - Tribune News Service
* Markos
Kounalakis, Ph.D. is a senior fellow at Central European University and
visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Contact him at
[email protected] or on Twitter @KounalakisM
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg with US President Donald Trump at the White House on January 11 this year.