This is based on a recent, bestselling book by a guy named Martin Bech Holte, who was a partner and regional office head at McKinsey for 12 years. It's being pushed by the usual finance bro right-wingers who want to use its so-called revelations as an excuse to dismantle the Norwegian welfare state, and he's already been called out on numerous inaccuracies in the statistics he claims supports his point of view.

The "people take too many sick days" thing in particular has become a political hot potato in the campaigns for the upcoming parliamentary elections, and apparently it's inconceivable to these people that it's actually good that people can stay home when they're sick, and not go to work, get even sicker, and infect others.

You'll notice all the people interviewed in this story are finance assholes, with finance asshole opinions, which I guess is par for the course for Bloomberg, but should be a warning sign to anyone who's tempted to take this seriously.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:13 AM on August 14 [139 favorites]

What possible answer would they say if the answer could be ¡°yes¡±? McKinsey-run guillotines?
posted by The River Ivel at 12:23 AM on August 14 [7 favorites]

Reads like laying the groundwork for dismantlers to harvest public capital for themselves.

Experts cite multiple factors: institutional complacency, a growing share of foreign-born students, rising mental health challenges and widening skills gaps driven by socioeconomic inequality.

and

[Holte] tried to write in a way that would make people angry, for better or worse,¡± he said at a conference in April.

I saw no effort to present any counter to what was described as vibes and feelings based on distortions. Lazy article.

Add to this their thesis that Norway hasn¡¯t tried to put forward waves of bullshit rent seeking venture capital pitches as some sort of problem.

All of this it makes me feel like this is evidence that Thiel like puppetmasters are just behind this curtain, priming the few who are pissed off about the one muslim guy they saw taking paternity leave and giving them something to stay mad. Good job good effort.
posted by drowsy at 12:57 AM on August 14 [19 favorites]

Danes are probably behind this.
posted by kickingtheground at 1:30 AM on August 14 [9 favorites]

Their problem doesn't even seem to be that the country being too rich, just that that wealth is being shared by the entire populace. If they were really concerned about the country having too much money, they probably wouldn't be asking for the government to limit their withdrawals and spend less so that the fund could grow even more (and growth for what purpose??).

This is one of those things where it's like, take a step back and ask what the purpose of a society is, and i feel if the comfort and health of people isn't the main concern then what are we even doing here? Money and work should be a means to that end, not means in themselves, so seeing people do things like take more sick days it reads less as a sign of decay or whatever and more a victory for people.
posted by tealNoise at 1:31 AM on August 14 [48 favorites]

¡°I tried to write in a way that would make people angry, for better or worse,¡± he said at a conference in April. The solutions his book advocates include sharply reducing both taxation and government spending, and implementing stricter rules around how much the government can withdraw from the sovereign wealth fund.

In the meantime, the former consultant has compared the country¡¯s economy to a kind of inheritance. ¡°We¡¯ve become heirs, been given six times our annual salary in the bank and that means we can take the easy way out,¡± he said in April. ¡°We are squandering the biggest opportunity a Western country has had in modern times.¡±

So what's the problem? Norwegians have too much money to spend on infrastructure and health (?) and they have enough money left over for everyone to have a secure retirement fund?

The lack of wealth mismanagement must give people nightmares.
posted by UN at 2:47 AM on August 14 [26 favorites]

Looters. The people that attack social wealth finds ar called looters.
posted by eustatic at 3:10 AM on August 14 [28 favorites]

If a society shares its collective wealth relatively equitably, that's bad, but if the same amount of money was instead just a few guys having most of it--and many millions therefore having much less, or even nothing, that's better? Wish I was smart enough to understand.
posted by maxwelton at 3:12 AM on August 14 [16 favorites]

So when people have everything they need/want, the economy stops growing.

Doesn't sound like a problem to me¡­
posted by demi-octopus at 3:35 AM on August 14 [18 favorites]

Yanno, one of the justifications for colonialism was that the native peoples weren't properly developing the land and its resources. Which God has clearly told people to do, so of course it was not just fine but righteous to march in, take everything and slaughter or enslave the people there.

This reads like a modern approach to the same mindset (never mind that we are still all but stealing resources in many places) - our ruling class just cannot abide a populace that isn't kept in desperation by one means or another. And if they can't go and invade a country full of white people, cause white supremacy, well, they'll do their best to foment the change from within.

I'm sorry, Norway.
posted by Vigilant at 3:58 AM on August 14 [22 favorites]

The increasing popularity of a mindset among the rich that can only be described as "I don't think they'll really guillotine us next time" is bizarre.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:29 AM on August 14 [11 favorites]

What possible answer would they say if the answer could be ¡°yes¡±? McKinsey-run guillotines?

You know that part in Midsommar with the cliff and the big hammers?

Of course, I also have an idea about what to do with McKinsey consultants. It involves a bear.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:50 AM on August 14 [7 favorites]

From the article: The solutions his book advocates include sharply reducing both taxation and government spending, and implementing stricter rules around how much the government can withdraw from the sovereign wealth fund.

If he was really only concerned about wasting the wealth that Norway has amassed rather than making it last, he wouldn't be talking about reducing taxation, only spending. Sounds like his main concern is that all of Norway's wealth is being spent by the wrong people: the Norwegian people as a whole.

Surely he should be concerned about Norway's rich people becoming even richer as a result of paying less tax and ending up bloated, unproductive and unhealthy?
posted by rory at 5:09 AM on August 14 [12 favorites]

Betteridge's law of headlines never fails.
posted by signal at 5:42 AM on August 14 [7 favorites]

> Of course, I also have an idea about what to do with McKinsey consultants. It involves a bear.

Why would you want to poison a bear? That sounds cruel.
posted by at by at 6:43 AM on August 14 [7 favorites]

Norwegians are taking much more sick leave than a decade ago

Gee, what's happened in between now and then that has made people both experience more illness and also made everyone aware that illnesses can spread in congregate settings like workplaces....
posted by warriorqueen at 6:54 AM on August 14 [30 favorites]

Forgot to say thanks OP for bringing this here. I am in Norway right now which is wild timing - I will look for evidence!
posted by drowsy at 7:25 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

> I am in Norway right now which is wild timing - I will look for evidence!

Take some sick days off and investigate.
posted by NotAYakk at 7:36 AM on August 14 [16 favorites]

"The elephant in the room is the long-term fate of the country¡¯s oil wells. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate, the country¡¯s oil and gas authority, expects producers to continue pumping oil beyond 2050. But managing the transition to a period when hydrocarbons are less dominant in the economy is likely to be tricky. More than 200,000 people ¡ª 10% of the private-sector workforce ¡ª are employed in oil, gas and adjacent industries. Those jobs, and the flow of money into the sovereign wealth fund, are at risk as revenues start to dry up."

Is this even remotely accurate at all? I thought that Norway's fund takes the surplus profits generated from the nationalized oil reserves and state-owned oil companies and then invests them into stocks, bonds, ownership of other state-owned enterprises and real estate globally. So I was under the impression the fund's income is generated from global investments and not directly from the ongoing pumping of oil. One would think Norway is highly aware that oil profits are not going to live forever in an increasingly diversifying energy future, I thought that was the whole point of converting it into a fund - oil won't be profitable forever, but stocks and bonds are.

Even if oil production ceased entirely tomorrow, the fund should continue to generate income into perpetuity, no?
posted by windbox at 7:41 AM on August 14 [10 favorites]

I think it actually involves a bear carcass, a big dose of sedatives, a needle, strong thread, and fire.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:54 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

This feels like a psy-op to prepare populations for hard times ahead.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:23 AM on August 14 [8 favorites]

tealNoise: "This is one of those things where it's like, take a step back and ask what the purpose of a society is, and i feel if the comfort and health of people isn't the main concern then what are we even doing here?"

Reminds me of a Twitter thread I saw recently where an economist was giving all this information about the astonishing growth of China's national high-speed rail system over the last two decades, and this guy in the replies kept trying to argue that the system was actually worthless because it wasn't profitable.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:29 AM on August 14 [9 favorites]

Can a corporation be too rich? Alphabet/Amazon/Apple/Microsoft is finding out.

Can an individual be too rich? Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk is finding out.

"recently, cracks have been starting to show."
posted by misteraitch at 8:31 AM on August 14 [16 favorites]

Danes are probably behind this.

No aebleskiver for you, buddy. Save your ire for the Swedes.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 8:42 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

> Can an individual be too rich? Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk is finding out.

Bloomberg takes issue with a nation whose national investment pool (its FDI stock) is roughly $430 billion dollars for 5 million people, but not have a problem with two people whose combined net worth is $650 billion dollars.
posted by at by at 9:13 AM on August 14 [39 favorites]

More than 200,000 people ¡ª 10% of the private-sector workforce ¡ª are employed in oil, gas and adjacent industries. Those jobs, and the flow of money into the sovereign wealth fund, are at risk as revenues start to dry up.

This is and isn't an issue. Norway's renewable energy profile (mainly from hydroelectric) is a growing export good. The roughneck jobs might dwindle over time, but the same engineers who made Norway a market leader in oil extraction should be able to pivot nicely.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 10:10 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

I have a solution: Wolves.
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 10:24 AM on August 14 [13 favorites]

Most of Norway's remaining hydro sites have some sort of nature protection and development will mean plenty of local damage.

Once hydropower facilities are built the number of operational jobs are very low.
posted by biffa at 10:49 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

Can taxes be too high? Arthur Laffer is finding out.
posted by klanawa at 12:19 PM on August 14 [2 favorites]

Why would you want to poison a bear? That sounds cruel.

Oh, not a real bear. Just a couple of consultants in a bear costume.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:12 PM on August 14 [2 favorites]

Yeah, fuck off rich people. You can't convince us that poverty is really good for us.
posted by sotonohito at 5:49 PM on August 14 [5 favorites]

Relatedly?

Norway wealth fund divests from several Israeli companies due to Gaza war

The world¡¯s largest fund has divested its stakes in 11 Israeli companies and is reviewing more.
posted by nikoniko at 6:51 PM on August 14 [7 favorites]

There's a long tradition within the Capitalist class that's ideologically (and often times violently) at odds with any nation/enterprise that uses its profits for the social good. Sometimes their arguments are worth exploring because they do contain valid critiques, but oftentimes it's just poisonous ideology masquerading as truth. This guy sounds like the latter.

I recently watched "The Mattei Affair" about Enrico Mattei, who for decades was the controversial head of Italy's state owned Oil company Agip, later called Eni. Good movie!

Mattei was no saint, nevertheless, part of what made him controversial and resulted in his "mysterious" death, was that he made sure the profits generated by the state owned enterprise benefited Italian society. Moreover, he struck deals with many of the poorest Arab Nations, as well as with many Eastern Bloc countries, offering them better terms than the so called "seven sisters" ever did, which infuriated them. He did this because he claimed to want the Oil producing countries to benefit from their oil wealth.
posted by nikoniko at 7:27 PM on August 14 [6 favorites]