Andreas, lives in Norway:

Norway is in no way a utopia. However, it is a really easy place to live a decent life. Let me try to explain.

We’re paying a quite high rate of tax. In return, we don’t have to worry about the cost of getting sick, getting an education, being temporarily unemployed, becoming unable to work due to illness or injury, etc.
Those of us who have “good jobs” have comparatively lower purchasing power than elsewhere. In return, those who are lower on the “food chain” have comparatively better purchasing power. This makes for a more egalitarian society, with a lower
level of conflict.
We don’t like show-offs. Success is good, but flashing it makes Norwegians distance themselves from the person with success. The most popular successful people are those who show a high work ethic, and who maintain a close personal connection to
their less prominent background. One iconic example is when, during the 70s oil crisis, King Olav, who wanted to go skiing, took the tram, wearing regular skiing clothes, and paid for his own ticket like any normal person. By the way, the monarchy is
fairly popular, because many see the value of having someone apolitical that represents the nation. Even those of us who think that a monarchy is wrong quite like the way it works.
There is a high level of trust. Most of us implicitly trust other people until proven wrong. This makes business and life in general much easier. If you have a worker fixing something in your house, you just give him a key and leave. This strong
social contract makes us more efficient, and more relaxed. We also tend to trust the government, which makes us naïve when it comes to the failings of the system. Norwegians are shocked every time someone with power is proven corrupt, which is kind of
amusing for anyone who has lived elsewhere.
We have long vacations, long maternal and paternal leaves, subsidised kindergarten, free schools, (mostly) free higher education, etc. This helps reducing the differences in society, and makes for higher social mobility.
Culturally, we’re less concerned with family bonds than most other places. This is helped by the state taking most of the financial burden for kids as well as the elderly. This gives more personal freedom, but can also lead to loneliness.
Norway is a sparsely populated country with lots of wild nature. For outdoorsy people, few places have easier access to nice experiences. However, one should be aware that we as a people accept that there is a risk involved, and expect people to be
able to handle nature’s moods. This leads to quite a few tourists dying or having really bad experiences because they’re let out in conditions they couldn’t handle.
Norwegian work ethics are often made fun of. However, we have a very high degree of honour when it comes to delivering what we promise. This comes back to how trust works, if you break someone’s trust it is very hard to come back. So expect your
colleagues to leave at two on a Friday because they want to beat traffic, but they will still have that report ready as promised on Monday morning.
Politeness in Norway means not being a nuisance. Norwegian doesn’t have a word for “please”, you ask politely by being indirect. Assuming that someone wants to talk to you is an absolute faux-pas. On public transport, people will sit as far
apart as possible. This reduces the number of accidental conversations. Remember, this is done to be polite and not disturb others. Only in some rare occasions is it seen as normal to break into other people’s spheres, typically in nature, on certain
holidays where everyone is celebrating the same thing, and during the famous “dugnad”.
There are strong cultural expectations that may not be obvious. Not contributing to your local society when given the opportunity (like through a “dugnad”) may be social suicide. Most things are expected to be done in a certain way, and make no
mistake, the Norwegian way is always the superior. We honestly don’t understand why this is not obvious, from the way we organise society to the way we teach our kids to ski. For many foreigners, this makes integrating into Norwegian society an
extremely hard and frustrating process.
The weather is BAD. Most days are not nice, so Norwegians feel obligated to use the nice days to their full potential. That said, few things are as nice as the mild July nights that last forever, or the crispness of a clear September morning.



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Profile photo for Håkon Jacobsen, Multimedia producer at Municipality of Oslo (2018-present):

It depends on what you think is good.
Generally, yes. Norway is a great country. It’s peaceful, we have an awesome nature and the country is rich in both resources, manpower and money. The country, like the other Scandinavian ones, are famous for their “Nordic way”, were we have built
large welfare states that takes care of everybody. Education, healthcare and lots of other stuff is free and paid for by all - through taxes.
But things have slowly been changing the last 30–40 years. Our welfare system is gradually being dismantled. Our labour market is being brutalized. That has led to around 600.000 people standing on the outside of the job market and are living on
welfare (that is increasingly hard to get - and keeps you on the poverty line at best).



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Anonymous European:

For me this place in a longtime now has been a place of discrimination, bad weather, non interested people, income which is not as near according to my knowledge and capabilites, huge prices, bad infrastructure. Sadly i am saying this as an European

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