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Allow me to compare to the USA.The USA is a right wing country by policy. In a head to head match-up, here is how the USA compares to more liberal, center-left Norway.How are they center-left? Stronger unions, collective bargaining, laws protecting unions and workers who wish to unionize, single payer universal healthcare, tuition-free college education paid by taxes when you get a career in your educated field, state pensions, paid medical leave, paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, stronger welfare system, greater care given to convicts, et cetera.All stuff the USA doesn’t do or doesn’t do as much of. Point is they’re center left. Not socialist, quite capitalist, but to the left of US Democrats.Now compare with the USA which is on the center right and trending rightward due to Republican control of government.Many of these charts come from Tradingeconomics.com, but they are just the folks who assembled the chart. The data comes from the sources noted at the lower right hand side of the chart, for example, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Organization. You can see the source of the data on each chart.These are the Official government numbers, cited and sourced properly.EconomicsTotal unemployed persons.Norway Unemployed Persons | 1983-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Total unemployed persons is not a particularly useful number, however you will notice that even though the population of the country has been increasing during the life of the chart, the trend from the early 1990s onward is a significant decrease in the number of unemployed persons, showing that the current economic trends are not a fluke, but a result of policy.United States Unemployed Persons | 1950-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to the USA, with its massive spike in unemployment due to the Great Recession. The current low US unemployment rate is the only point in recent history when it could even be compared with Norway. Otherwise it was significantly worse.Unemployment rate2018-09-26 (A Norwegian source, showing the numbers are accurate according to local sources)Norway Unemployment Rate | 1997-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.This is the maximum length of the chart. It only goes this far back. Notice how 5 percent is the peak. It ranges between 2.5 percent and 5 percent, with a current rate of 4 and an average below 4 percent.United States Unemployment Rate | 1948-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to the US data from the same time period. From about 1996 onward, how often is the unemployment rate above 4 percent? The answer is, almost the entire time. Usually significantly higher. Keep in mind Norway is a rural, mountainous country with a very spread apart land mass. It is much more difficult for laborers to get to their jobs or to change jobs here. The unemployment rate should be higher, not lower, than the USA. And the Great Recession was not the only time when the USA had spikes in unemployment. It also happened under Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Notice how the numbers under Clinton and Obama caused steadily falling unemployment rates, with no unemployment spikes.Workforce Participation RateNorway Labor Force Participation Rate | 1972-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Steadily above 70 percent for over 2 decades. Above 66 percent for almost 4 decades, showing the longevity of the Norwegian economy.United States Labor Force Participation Rate | 1950-2018 | Data | ChartFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Never hit 70 percent, ever. Highest workforce participation rate was during the 1990s under Bill Clinton.Wages, AverageNorway Average Monthly Earnings | 1997-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Note this is Monthly Earnings. 8 Norwegian Kroner is worth about 1 US dollar. Divide 45000 per month by 8 to convert to US dollars and you get 5,625 dollars per month average. Round numbers, that’s 4 weeks of pay and 40 hours a week, it works out to 35.15 USD rounded down over 160 hours.United States Average Hourly Wages | 1964-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to approximately 23 USD per hour in the USA.Minimum WagesMinimum wage in Norway per industry. Link is source data for all but the ‘other industries’ numbers.Unlike the USA, the minimum wages are set by unions as opposed to the government. Adults over 18 get the following hourly minimums, plus significant compensation increases for overtime, overnight, and holidays.Keep in mind these are unskilled positions with little or no experience necessary.Construction, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 177.80 NOK per hour.Maritime construction, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 154.49 NOK per hour, plus significant pay bonuses.Harvesting, 18+ years old, unskilled, 6 months experience 135.05 NOK per hour.Cleaning workers, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 177.63 NOK per hour.Fish processing workers, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 176.70 NOK per hour.Electricians 183.06 NOK per hourFreight transport workers 167.65 NOK per hourOther industries do not have a standard minimum, but unions determine pay with management. A standard unskilled fast food job, outside of the scope of the above industries, starts at over 170 NOK per hour. It’s unheard of for an adult to work for much less than that, or any of the above numbers, because those other industries pay that amount for unskilled workers with no experience. This is the only number I will give you that is based on my personal experience and asking Norwegian workers what the minimums here are.160 Norwegian Kroner per hour is worth approximately 20 US dollars per hour. That’s your ‘minimum wage’ in Norway. I make more than that at an entry level position at a US fast food franchise here in Norway. In the USA I would be earning 8 dollars an hour for the same position. That’s an unskilled position, flipping burgers. I earn about 21 dollars an hour. I didn’t earn half that amount as a manager with 15 years experience in the USA at a pizza restaurant. In short, and I cannot emphasize this point enough, US workers get shafted on wages and you don’t even have lower unemployment, a steadier economy, or higher workforce participation rates to show for it.This isn’t even unusual. Wages are higher in Australia and the UK and Canada as well. At US-owned corporations. They don’t shut down or cause massive unemployment when they are forced to pay higher wages. Because everyone gets higher wages, they can all easily afford to eat at that restaurant. Higher wages means higher demand.Wouldn’t you rather be earning 21 dollars an hour?Stock MarketOslo Stock ExchangeNorway Stock Market (OSEAX) | 1983-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Global markets shuddered due to the 2008–2010 Great Recession, triggered in the USA and caused by the USA.However, you can see, the Oslo exchange has been trending up significantly since 2000.Here is the US DJIA.Dow Jones Industrial Average | 1912-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Notice how there’s a boom in the 1990s under Bill Clinton, sputtering and then a massive crash from 2000–2008 under George W. Bush and the conservative economic ideas of lower taxes and less regulations, and a vast economic recovery around the time Barack Obama became President and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. (2008–2010) And since then, the economy has been growing.Trump gets credit for this? Not if you’re intellectually honest.Here is a better graph, because there’s no time scale between 10 year and maximum on that website.Or just Google ‘DJIA’ and look at this interactive chart. You can see where the DJIA was on any given date by hovering your mouse over it.Notice the date I highlighted here. Hmmm, it’s right at the start of the Obama administration. How interesting how the graph just goes up and up and up after that. Trump didn’t get in office until 2017, when almost all of the growth had already occurred.I talk about how much credit Trump deserves for the current US economy here:How much of the present US economy can Mr. Trump take credit for?National DebtNorway Government Budget | 1995-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastNorway’s government budget has a SURPLUS, as a percentage of the GDP of the country. Note how at no point did they run a budget deficit.For this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.See also Norway’s 1 trillion dollar sovereign investment fund, which is what they use the surplus for. Their budget won’t suddenly collapse one day because of an economic downturn.Government Pension Fund of Norway - WikipediaThat money, by the way, earns money for Norwegians. Yay, capitalism done correctly, by liberals.Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund raked in a $131 billion return last year — here’s why1 trillion dollars for a country of 5.2 million people is a lot of money saved up.That’s almost 200,000 US dollars per person, saved up by the government.Meanwhile, in the USA, the national debt?National debt of the United States - Wikipedia21.4 Trillion dollars, working out to a debt per person of 65,704.63 US dollars.United States Government Debt | 1950-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.United States Gross Federal Debt to GDP | 1940-2018 | Data | ChartFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.See how the debt to GDP dropped or stalled under Bill Clinton, and it stalled under Obama, after rising sharply due to the Great Recession and related spending?https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/15739-cbo-2018-long-term-budget-outlook-at-a-glance-finds-federal-debt-held-by-the-public-would-approach-100-percent-of-gross-domestic-product-gdp-by-the-end-of-the-next-decadeSeptember 21, 2018 - In June, CBO released The 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook, the latest installment of an annual report describing the agency’s projections of federal spending, revenues, deficits, and debt over the next 30 years. This week, CBO is publishing two blog posts to share key excerpts from the report. Today’s post presents some of the report’s key takeaways. (CBO has also posted a series of slides about those long-term projections.)See chart.Total debt to GDP.This is the most recent chart from the Congressional Budget Office, Sept 2018.Trump’s tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, folks. Neither did the Bush Tax Cuts. This is not a sustainable course.United States federal budget - WikipediaYearly Deficit to GDP.The above numbers are not as recent as the previous chart.Note how the budget deficit as a portion of the GDP shrank under Obama, by much more than half.Note also how the budget was fixed under Bill Clinton. The budget got blown up by the Bush Tax Cuts, the Bush Wars, and the Bush Great Recession.If the Bush Tax Cuts had been allowed to expire, the budget debt would have been eliminated under Obama, due to most of the other debts being cut under his watch. Republicans refused to allow those tax cuts to expire on schedule.Bush tax cuts - Wikipedia‘A report published by staff at conservative public policy think tank The Heritage Foundation claimed that the 2001 cuts alone would result in the complete elimination of the U.S. national debt by fiscal year 2010.’And how wrong they were. Very, very, very wrong. Actual conservative policy in action has been to give trillions of dollars to billionaires, and then they keep it. Wages remain flat, budget deficits explode out of control, especially with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.Trump’s tax cuts make things exponentially worse.Monthly Jobs Net ChangeBureau of Labor Statistics DataBureau of Labor Statistics source data.Put in this spiffy chart form.Which matches the numbers used by Maddow Blog, which uses the same data, which I frequently cite, in this chart.U.S. job market bounces back in a big way in OctoberRed is Bush, then Trump. Blue is the Obama administration. I do not see a spike or difference between Trump’s current numbers and Obama’s. Point it out for me.Remember for comparison, this is Norway’s employed persons chart.Norway Employed Persons | 1989-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastThere was no significant loss of jobs during the Great Recession. Norway endured the global economic meltdown well.GDP per capitaNorway GDP per capita | 1960-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastUnited States GDP per capita | 1960-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarNorway has a much higher GDP per person.By a lot.Comparing tax rates:Norway tax rate Norway Personal Income Tax Rate | 1995-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarSource: Norwegian Tax Administration.US tax rate United States Personal Income Tax Rate | 2004-2018 | Data | Chart(Does not include state and local taxes, which Norway's figures do)Norway’s system does not require massively higher taxes, and keep in mind how much higher wages are here. A little bit of extra sales tax is easily affordable, for obvious reasons. 21 dollars an hour gives you a lot to play with.Obviously, Norway’s wage and tax structure is just better. The economic numbers show it. And their economy has fewer spikes in unemployment, no major spikes like the US has, and they have consistently outperformed the USA in terms of steady growth and not having recessions at all. Wages and jobs numbers outperform the USA, and the government doesn’t have budget issues, on the contrary, they have a lot of money saved up per person.And comparing Democrats versus Republicans, wages grow under Democrats, and budget deficits shrink. Deficits grow under Republicans, and economic crashes happen due to deregulation and poor stewardship of the economy under Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. We haven’t had the Trump recession yet, but historical trends indicate that will occur by the time he is leaving office. And even if he doesn’t have a recession, he’s massively ballooned the federal deficit and the debt, in order to sustain Obama’s numbers which were done without raising the deficit, and lowering it by quite a bit.Edit: It is now midway through 2020. Welcome to the Trump recession, due to brushing off the coronavirus pandemic as something he could ignore and downplay for months while golfing. This is the result of his lack of professionalism.

I am just going to quote one of my previous answers here.Quote:Allow me to compare to the USA.The USA is a right wing country by policy. In a head to head match-up, here is how the USA compares to more liberal, center-left Norway.How are they center-left? Stronger unions, collective bargaining, laws protecting unions and workers who wish to unionize, single payer universal healthcare, tuition-free college education paid by taxes when you get a career in your educated field, state pensions, paid medical leave, paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, stronger welfare system, greater care given to convicts, et cetera.All stuff the USA doesn’t do or doesn’t do as much of. Point is they’re center left. Not socialist, quite capitalist, but to the left of US Democrats.Now compare with the USA which is on the center right and trending rightward due to Republican control of government.Many of these charts come from Trading Economics dot com, but they are just the folks who assembled the chart. The data comes from the sources noted at the lower right hand side of the chart, for example, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Organization. You can see the source of the data on each chart.These are the Official government numbers, cited and sourced properly.EconomicsTotal unemployed persons.Norway Unemployed Persons | 1983-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Total unemployed persons is not a particularly useful number, however you will notice that even though the population of the country has been increasing during the life of the chart, the trend from the early 1990s onward is a significant decrease in the number of unemployed persons, showing that the current economic trends are not a fluke, but a result of policy.United States Unemployed Persons | 1950-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to the USA, with its massive spike in unemployment due to the Great Recession. The current low US unemployment rate is the only point in recent history when it could even be compared with Norway. Otherwise it was significantly worse.Unemployment rate2018-09-26 (A Norwegian source, showing the numbers are accurate according to local sources)Norway Unemployment Rate | 1997-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.This is the maximum length of the chart. It only goes this far back. Notice how 5 percent is the peak. It ranges between 2.5 percent and 5 percent, with a current rate of 4 and an average below 4 percent.United States Unemployment Rate | 1948-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to the US data from the same time period. From about 1996 onward, how often is the unemployment rate above 4 percent? The answer is, almost the entire time. Usually significantly higher. Keep in mind Norway is a rural, mountainous country with a very spread apart land mass. It is much more difficult for laborers to get to their jobs or to change jobs here. The unemployment rate should be higher, not lower, than the USA. And the Great Recession was not the only time when the USA had spikes in unemployment. It also happened under Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Notice how the numbers under Clinton and Obama caused steadily falling unemployment rates, with no unemployment spikes.Workforce Participation RateNorway Labor Force Participation Rate | 1972-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Steadily above 70 percent for over 2 decades. Above 66 percent for almost 4 decades, showing the longevity of the Norwegian economy.United States Labor Force Participation Rate | 1950-2018 | Data | ChartFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Never hit 70 percent, ever. Highest workforce participation rate was during the 1990s under Bill Clinton.Wages, AverageNorway Average Monthly Earnings | 1997-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Note this is Monthly Earnings. 8 Norwegian Kroner is worth about 1 US dollar. Divide 45000 per month by 8 to convert to US dollars and you get 5,625 dollars per month average. Round numbers, that’s 4 weeks of pay and 40 hours a week, it works out to 35.15 USD rounded down over 160 hours.United States Average Hourly Wages | 1964-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Compare to approximately 23 USD per hour in the USA.Minimum WagesMinimum wage in Norway per industry. Link is source data for all but the ‘other industries’ numbers.Unlike the USA, the minimum wages are set by unions as opposed to the government. Adults over 18 get the following hourly minimums, plus significant compensation increases for overtime, overnight, and holidays.Keep in mind these are unskilled positions with little or no experience necessary.Construction, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 177.80 NOK per hour.Maritime construction, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 154.49 NOK per hour, plus significant pay bonuses.Harvesting, 18+ years old, unskilled, 6 months experience 135.05 NOK per hour.Cleaning workers, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 177.63 NOK per hour.Fish processing workers, 18+ years old, unskilled, no experience 176.70 NOK per hour.Electricians 183.06 NOK per hourFreight transport workers 167.65 NOK per hourOther industries do not have a standard minimum, but unions determine pay with management. A standard unskilled fast food job, outside of the scope of the above industries, starts at over 170 NOK per hour. It’s unheard of for an adult to work for much less than that, or any of the above numbers, because those other industries pay that amount for unskilled workers with no experience. This is the only number I will give you that is based on my personal experience and asking Norwegian workers what the minimums here are.160 Norwegian Kroner per hour is worth approximately 20 US dollars per hour. That’s your ‘minimum wage’ in Norway. I make more than that at an entry level position at a US fast food franchise here in Norway. In the USA I would be earning 8 dollars an hour for the same position. That’s an unskilled position, flipping burgers. I earn about 21 dollars an hour. I didn’t earn half that amount as a manager with 15 years experience in the USA at a pizza restaurant. In short, and I cannot emphasize this point enough, US workers get shafted on wages and you don’t even have lower unemployment, a steadier economy, or higher workforce participation rates to show for it.This isn’t even unusual. Wages are higher in Australia and the UK and Canada as well. At US-owned corporations. They don’t shut down or cause massive unemployment when they are forced to pay higher wages. Because everyone gets higher wages, they can all easily afford to eat at that restaurant. Higher wages means higher demand.Wouldn’t you rather be earning 21 dollars an hour?Stock MarketOslo Stock ExchangeNorway Stock Market (OSEAX) | 1983-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Global markets shuddered due to the 2008–2010 Great Recession, triggered in the USA and caused by the USA.However, you can see, the Oslo exchange has been trending up significantly since 2000.Here is the US DJIA.Dow Jones Industrial Average | 1912-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.Notice how there’s a boom in the 1990s under Bill Clinton, sputtering and then a massive crash from 2000–2008 under George W. Bush and the conservative economic ideas of lower taxes and less regulations, and a vast economic recovery around the time Barack Obama became President and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. (2008–2010) And since then, the economy has been growing.Trump gets credit for this? Not if you’re intellectually honest.Here is a better graph, because there’s no time scale between 10 year and maximum on that website.Or just Google ‘DJIA’ and look at this interactive chart. You can see where the DJIA was on any given date by hovering your mouse over it.Notice the date I highlighted here. Hmmm, it’s right at the start of the Obama administration. How interesting how the graph just goes up and up and up after that. Trump didn’t get in office until 2017, when almost all of the growth had already occurred.I talk about how much credit Trump deserves for the current US economy here:How much of the present US economy can Mr. Trump take credit for?National DebtNorway Government Budget | 1995-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastNorway’s government budget has a SURPLUS, as a percentage of the GDP of the country. Note how at no point did they run a budget deficit.For this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.See also Norway’s 1 trillion dollar sovereign investment fund, which is what they use the surplus for. Their budget won’t suddenly collapse one day because of an economic downturn.Government Pension Fund of Norway - WikipediaThat money, by the way, earns money for Norwegians. Yay, capitalism done correctly, by liberals.Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund raked in a $131 billion return last year — here’s why1 trillion dollars for a country of 5.2 million people is a lot of money saved up.That’s almost 200,000 US dollars per person, saved up by the government.Meanwhile, in the USA, the national debt?National debt of the United States - Wikipedia21.4 Trillion dollars, working out to a debt per person of 65,704.63 US dollars.United States Government Debt | 1950-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.United States Gross Federal Debt to GDP | 1940-2018 | Data | ChartFor this chart, I used the maximum available timeframe. You can select a smaller number by following the link and choosing 10y or 5y, etc.See how the debt to GDP dropped or stalled under Bill Clinton, and it stalled under Obama, after rising sharply due to the Great Recession and related spending?https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/15739-cbo-2018-long-term-budget-outlook-at-a-glance-finds-federal-debt-held-by-the-public-would-approach-100-percent-of-gross-domestic-product-gdp-by-the-end-of-the-next-decadeSeptember 21, 2018 - In June, CBO released The 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook, the latest installment of an annual report describing the agency’s projections of federal spending, revenues, deficits, and debt over the next 30 years. This week, CBO is publishing two blog posts to share key excerpts from the report. Today’s post presents some of the report’s key takeaways. (CBO has also posted a series of slides about those long-term projections.)See chart.Total debt to GDP.This is the most recent chart from the Congressional Budget Office, Sept 2018.Trump’s tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, folks. Neither did the Bush Tax Cuts. This is not a sustainable course.United States federal budget - WikipediaYearly Deficit to GDP.The above numbers are not as recent as the previous chart.Note how the budget deficit as a portion of the GDP shrank under Obama, by much more than half.Note also how the budget was fixed under Bill Clinton. The budget got blown up by the Bush Tax Cuts, the Bush Wars, and the Bush Great Recession.If the Bush Tax Cuts had been allowed to expire, the budget debt would have been eliminated under Obama, due to most of the other debts being cut under his watch. Republicans refused to allow those tax cuts to expire on schedule.Bush tax cuts - Wikipedia‘A report published by staff at conservative public policy think tank The Heritage Foundation claimed that the 2001 cuts alone would result in the complete elimination of the U.S. national debt by fiscal year 2010.’And how wrong they were. Very, very, very wrong. Actual conservative policy in action has been to give trillions of dollars to billionaires, and then they keep it. Wages remain flat, budget deficits explode out of control, especially with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.Trump’s tax cuts make things exponentially worse.Monthly Jobs Net ChangeBureau of Labor Statistics DataBureau of Labor Statistics source data.Put in this spiffy chart form.Which matches the numbers used by Maddow Blog, which uses the same data, which I frequently cite, in this chart.U.S. job market bounces back in a big way in OctoberRed is Bush, then Trump. Blue is the Obama administration. I do not see a spike or difference between Trump’s current numbers and Obama’s. Point it out for me.Remember for comparison, this is Norway’s employed persons chart.Norway Employed Persons | 1989-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastThere was no significant loss of jobs during the Great Recession. Norway endured the global economic meltdown well.GDP per capitaNorway GDP per capita | 1960-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | ForecastUnited States GDP per capita | 1960-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarNorway has a much higher GDP per person.By a lot.Comparing tax rates:Norway tax rate Norway Personal Income Tax Rate | 1995-2018 | Data | Chart | CalendarSource: Norwegian Tax Administration.US tax rate United States Personal Income Tax Rate | 2004-2018 | Data | Chart(Does not include state and local taxes, which Norway's figures do)Norway’s system does not require massively higher taxes, and keep in mind how much higher wages are here. A little bit of extra sales tax is easily affordable, for obvious reasons. 21 dollars an hour gives you a lot to play with.Obviously, Norway’s wage and tax structure is just better. The economic numbers show it. And their economy has fewer spikes in unemployment, no major spikes like the US has, and they have consistently outperformed the USA in terms of steady growth and not having recessions at all. Wages and jobs numbers outperform the USA, and the government doesn’t have budget issues, on the contrary, they have a lot of money saved up per person.And comparing Democrats versus Republicans, wages grow under Democrats, and budget deficits shrink. Deficits grow under Republicans, and economic crashes happen due to deregulation and poor stewardship of the economy under Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. We haven’t had the Trump recession yet, but historical trends indicate that will occur by the time he is leaving office. And even if he doesn’t have a recession, he’s massively ballooned the federal deficit and the debt, in order to sustain Obama’s numbers which were done without raising the deficit, and lowering it by quite a bit.End Quote.So, point out where Norway is a victim.Tell me how they’re suffering, using these numbers as indicators.Describe it for me.I live here, and as an American citizen, I am blown away by how well they govern and how well they rank internationally, kicking the ass of the country of my birth in virtually every category, despite US citizens being convinced their country is the best in the world.Best at what?You have the largest economy in terms of GDP in total, but not per capita. And you have the most dangerous military.What else?You’re not at the top in any other category I know of. Not any good ones.Percent of the population incarcerated?Executions per capita?Cost of healthcare per person?Mass shooting deaths per capita?Total mass shooting deaths during ‘peacetime’?Federal Debt?Norway is much closer to the top or is at the top of many, many categories. Good categories, not bad ones.You try to convince someone living in Norway that they’re a victim.I’d love to see you try. Comments are open, tell them how they’re a victim of socialism.I wanna see your argument. You got nothing.

The Islamic world has a basically lunar-based calendar that is used to determine religious feasts, and as far as I know in several Arab countries it enjoys official status parallel to or even preferable to the “Western” one. The Wikipedia entry contains this example of a Saudi airport stamp featuring the hijri date:The Hebrew calendar is likewise at least semi-official in Israel.We’ve all heard of the “Chinese New Year,” of course.As Jason Hendry's answer to Are there people who live by alternative calendars and clocks? noted, there are some number of alternate ways of counting years.In Japan, while the months and the days have been conformed to the Gregorian system, you will see references to years using the name of an “era” associated with the current emperor. Akihito’s reign is called Heisei (平成) and began in 1989, so this year is 平成 29 年 there for certain official acts, although you will often see 2017年 as well. The Japanese retain 1 January as the beginning of each year, though; so Heisei 1 was incomplete and 1989 began as Shōwa 64.The Orthodox Churches generally adhere to the “Julian” calendar for church feasts notwithstanding that Greece and Russia (the last holdouts) have adopted the Gregorian calendar for civil affairs. So Christmas in the Orthodox world falls on what we would call 7 January, 13 days displaced due to the cumulative effect of the leap year adjustment. The numbers of the years are the same (except for the 13-day displacement), though.I don’t know of anyone who uses an alternate clock for any official purpose.P.S. There are people who use fan-fiction calendars such as “Stardates”, with the understanding that it’s sheerly unofficial. And I, personally, invented my own at one point. I was a huge fan of Tolkien as a “tween” and teenager, and I had this whole sort of vaguely fan-fiction derivative world I’d invented for myself. I made a few modifications to the “Shire reckoning” (the beginning of the year got moved to autumn (I no longer remember quite why), and the “Yule” and “Midsummer” days were replaced with 31-day months), and for some years I sometimes designated dates with both our “real” date and the date in the adapted Númenorean calendar. Today, for instance, would be 30 Nénime 2769. Because it so happens that the beginning of a “month” in this calendar tends to coincide a little better than the “real world” calendar with when my bills are due, I still use it to designate budget months although I don’t remember specific dates much. (That reminds me, I should get off here and go back to closing the budget, new one should start tomorrow.)