Two days ago, our cruise ship, the Viking Mars pulled into Lofoten, Norway, where fishing for Arctic Cod has been a mainstay for over 1000 years. The cod spawn there each January and men from all over Norway would go there to fish. They would hang the fish to dry and because it doesn’t quite freeze and the winds blow all the time, the fish didn’t need to be salted to be dried. They call their product “stock fish”. That and meager farming provided subsistence for centuries.
Just for reference, Norway is about 80% the size of California and has 5.1 million people compared to 39 million in California. Only 3% of Norway is farmable, so life was bitter and harsh until the 1970’s when Norway started pulling oil out of the north sea. This has made Norway one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
With the new wealth which has gone into a sovereign fund, more social services have been provided by the government – health benefits, education, and infrastructure, Opportunity has opened up and the number of men who had to fish to survive dropped. By the 70’s and 80’s the cost of a fishing license had dropped to $1500/boat. Today a fisherman makes about $150,000 and a license costs $300,000. How the value of things can change. Abandoned farms all over Norway are further testimonial to how things change.
If you have furniture, or china or linens that came from your grandparents and your children don’t want them, it is much the same thing. We don’t even want a 5 year old computer.
Taxes are quite high in Norway, and there are very few homeless. They say that is due to great social services. Also, their schools tend to have multiple grades in a classroom with the older students helping teach the younger ones. They learn early to take care of one another. Harsh conditions can teach important lessons.
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