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This is a comment. It is the attitude of the writer that is expressed.
“Norway has returned to the inequality that we had at the end of the 19th century,” Kari Elisabeth Kaski of SV told Dagbladet on September 24, 2020.
And then it fell silent, with the exception of a slightly funny sequel on Faktisk.no.
This is exactly how polarization is created. First comes a politician with obvious fake news. Since no one wants or can bear to put the person in their place, the news is left to simmer. Therefore, it spreads so that sensible people believe the news is true, and continues with new “true” examples pointing in the same direction.
Also read: The shocking inequality figures generate debate: – It generates more questions than it answers
One of Klassekampen’s top columnists, Sandra Lillebø, wrote the following on Saturday October 24: Norway has “the same level of inequality as at the end of the 19th century.”
Error
Encouraged by the reasoning, Lillebø continued as follows: “We need politicians who instinctively know that in Norway today it is possible to work full time, but still earn less than it costs to rent an apartment in one of the cities.”
Contrary to the news that 2020 is as bad as the 19th century, the claim about the rental market may be falsified. I spent less than an hour finding out that Lillebø’s claim about renting in cities for the underpaid is incorrect.
When one of SV’s top politicians can say something like that and get away with it, Norway is in the same hat as Donald Trump in the American election campaign.
The average after-tax pay in the ten lowest paid professions in Norway is NOK 21,000. This is for a full-time job, as Lillebø assumes.
The only place in Norway where a wooden room costs 21,000 crowns is at Frogner in Oslo.
If you have a low salary and work in Frogner you don’t really need to live there, there is excellent public transport coverage. In Stovner, still in Oslo, a wooden room costs between 13,000 and 17,000 crowns.
In a moderately expensive residential city like Larvik, you can rent a complete single-family house for 14,000 crowns, and there are no houses in Larvik for more than 16,000 crowns as of October 24, 2020 (all figures taken from Finn.no) .
However, Lillebø believes that politicians must “instinctively” know that the monthly rent is higher than the net monthly salary. Ergo, she wants politicians with life-threatening instincts, based on gross factual errors.
Also read: – The government does not know the costs or the effect of its own climate policy
Lost numbers
But what about the claim that inequality in Norway 2020 is as bad as inequality at the end of the 19th century? Of course, it is completely insane, but in fact it is more difficult to disprove than the most innocent rental claim. Why? Because we simply lack figures from the 19th century.
Here you can read more posts by Elin Ørjasæter.
Faktisk.no has reviewed Kaski’s claims that “they are as great as in the late 19th century” and concludes that it is not certain that inequality in Norway is as great as in the 19th century.
The claim that Norway is as bad now as it was at the end of the 19th century is nonsense and disrespectful.
Therefore, your claim is neither right nor wrong, according to Faktisk.no. It is probably so brave that the left wing Faktisk dares to stand against an SV politician. Your own database clearly points in the “really completely wrong” direction.
It’s difficult to compare the 19th century to 2020, because there are hardly any 19th century figures that make sense in an income comparison to 2020. In other words, any conclusion is “uncertain.” It would have been nice if Faktisk. Were not as benevolent towards people on the right as they were towards SV members when fact-checking.
Also read: You can get an incredible amount for 36 billion. Or a government neighborhood
– Danger in motion
But here are the reasons why Kaski’s (and Lillebø) claim about the 19th century is probably a tearful, shaky, and deafening mistake:
At the end of the 19th century, a large part of the active population worked as fishermen or housewives, where the economy was totally or partially informal and, therefore, little documented.
But we know a lot about public health and welfare plans at the time, as an indicator of poverty: TB devastated flocks of children, and pneumonia was a deadly disease in all age groups.
The welfare state, with its virtually free health services, was not even planned.
Permanent employment, as we know it today, did not exist as a form of agreement. Nor were there social assistance in the current sense, disability benefits, or old-age pensions. About 80 babies for every 1,000 live births died, while the corresponding figure today is less than four.
The claim that Norway is as bad now as it was at the end of the 19th century is nonsense and disrespectful.
Also read: Fuck Thursday is not MeToo, but corruption
But the claim works.
When one of SV’s top politicians can say something like that and get away with it, Norway is in the same hat as Donald Trump in the American election campaign.
The facts are not interesting, what is interesting is what lies can arouse the right feelings in people. When a brave writer and intellectual like Sandra Lillebø takes the bait of Kari Elisabeth Kaski, there is danger. Danger to democracy, no less.
I fear the election year 2021.
So people should vote on the basis of what they believe to be facts, but which is deeply irresponsible, but nevertheless carefully planned.
You are also dangerous if people believe it to be true.
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