-
Fortune article quotes a major Norwegian fund manager’s opinion that today’s Norwegians are Not as competitive or ‘hard working’ as today’s Americans.
Clearly he was Not referring to my parents who arrived by themselves as teenagers in 1930, just in time for the great depression, and on their own became successful through hard honest work and ‘true grit’.
-
It’s not clear how well today's US workers compare to those of the WW2 greatest generation. Perhaps we can thank our social welfare systems for a dependency on ‘the government’ and Not on personal perseverance.
-
Perhaps today’s Norwegian’s are more ‘laid back’ because they have a very socialist government that is highly benevolent with the Billions of dollars of their natural gas and oil resources that is generously shared with their people.
-
Conversely they ‘claw-back’ considerable funds with well over 50+% taxes that help them ‘cap’ their wealthy-class many of whom are moving to more tax-friendly countries.
Wealthy Norwegians flee to Switzerland to evade high wealth taxes, with their bankers following | Fortune Europe
-
All this is in stark contrast to the Norwegian immigrants of the 1850’s to 1930’s coming in the ‘cargo-hold of sailing freighter-ships’ to work as basic hands-on-labor in agriculture and business on each coast and on the prairies in the heartland. Their work-ethic was well known and eventually rewarded.
Nordic Heritage Museum Seattle WA Ballard
National Nordic Museum - Wikipedia
-
-
‘Americans just work harder’ than Europeans, says CEO of Norway’s $1.6 trillion oil fund, because they have a higher ‘general level of ambition’
Americans ‘just work harder’ than Europeans, says wealth chief (yahoo.com)
-
Europeans are “less hard-working” than Americans, the head of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has said.
-
Nicolai Tangen, who manages Norway’s $1.6 trillion (£1.3 trillion) wealth fund, said people in Europe are less ambitious and more risk-averse than their US peers.
In comments first reported by the Financial Times, Mr Tangen said: “We are not very ambitious.
“I should be careful about talking about work-life balance but the Americans just work harder.
“There’s a mindset issue in terms of acceptance of mistakes and risks. You go bust in America, you get another chance. In Europe, you’re dead.”
Norway’s wealth fund, which invests surplus revenues from oil and gas, owns around 1.5pc of all globally listed shares and has stakes in more than 9,200 firms.
-
Mr Tangen’s comments come amid growing concern in the UK and Europe about the struggle to keep up with America’s booming stock markets.
The London Stock Exchange has already fallen victim to this trend as a string of high-profile firms have ditched the Square Mile in favour of New York.
The malaise gripping European equities has been underlined by the shift in Norway’s investment priorities.
Half of its wealth is now invested in US stocks, up from a third in 2013.
-