When Norway’s national anthem starts with the words “Ja vi elsker dette landet” (yes we love this country) most people probably think of the landscape.  It is not all that bad either.  But I love the Internet here too.

17. May is Norway’s Constitution Day. While some countries celebrate their independence day as a national holiday, our National Day is celebrating our constitution. (The third in the world, if I remember correctly.) Our actual independence came almost a century later, but at that point it was just a formality.  Norwegians had implemented our constitution piece by piece during over 90 years of union with Sweden, until there was nothing left but a shared king. Since the king has no actual political power, it was a pretty painless change. Kids today barely know what our Independence Day is (June 5) but everyone is sure to remember 17. May 1814.

The Swedes may be less happy about our independence now, since we have quite a bit more money per head than they.  This is fairly new, however. When I was a kid, the Swedes were still richer.  They probably did not much mind that their poor cousins had to fend for themselves.  But then oil and gas were discovered in the North Sea, and soon the money came flowing in. And like most other countries with such an unexpected windfall, we spent it all and then some.  And then the crisis hit.

After the previous boom, a generation ago, there came a crash which left oil almost worthless.  The price we got for it was less than it cost to pump it up. Suddenly Norway wasn’t so rich anymore.  Widespread unemployment, plummeting property prices, the usual.  But luckily we had only been rich for a decade or so.  We still remembered how to live without that extra money. So we pulled back and pulled together.  Tax money from those who still had jobs was used to buy the banks that failed, and extend the loans for those who had lost their job.  Eventually the crisis blew over, as they tend to do.  When the oil price rose again, it was decided to put most of the income in a fund and only use a little each year.

Because of the fund, we know there won’t be a sudden money crisis. Even if there is a global recession, like now, we simply use some of the savings and continue living like normal. And because this is so, people and businesses can plan far ahead and don’t need to make bad decisions in a spate of panic.  This has the unexpected side effect that society simply works more efficiently. Norwegian productivity is very high.

An unexpected side effect of high productivity and small differences in income is that everyone wants fast, clean Internet.  OK, not everyone, but most.  And where there is a demand, there is a supply.  And no, it is not even state-owned. But we have better Internet than the country that invented it.  I know this because I played City of Heroes again today, an online role playing game. And while American players whined about lag and crashes, it ran just fine here, even though the servers are actually in America.  However, some of them are on the East Coast, which means they don’t have to go through much of America to get here.  Otherwise they would probably be slow here too.  Because in America, the Internet is in bad shape.  Kind of like the roads, and the schools, and… well, those who live there probably know it much better than I do.  But I bet you wish you had used your Golden Age to build up some funds too.