Thank you, SV!

SV (The Socialist Left Party in Norway) is one of the parties in the Government Coalition in Norway for the next four years. The good thing is that I'll be away from Norway in one of them. The bad thing is that I will be in Norway when the effect of their politics (or lack of ANY effect, due to the fact that the government parties hardly agree on anything...) occur. And as you might have guessed, the headline is PURELY sarcastic. In Norway we have a limit on how much you can import to Norway (such as internet-shopping) without having to pay a tax on it. This limit is today 200 NOK, or about €25, £18 or $30. Actually, this limit hasn't been adjusted for changes in the consumer price index since 1975. Using the internet pages for Statistics Norway, a huge statistical database on mostly Norwegian data, I found a calculator here and I checked how much 200 NOK in 1975 would be today, price index adjusted. The answer was 865.67 NOK... or €108, £76 or $130. But Norwegian merchants selling items above this rate are thrilled! Mainly because this makes them "competitive". Sure. Great. I am truly impressed on how they try to keep their puny protection barriers... What REALLY happens is that if you buy a couple of CDs from US or UK, they usually ship them to you in separate packages. The reason why I'm pretty much annoyed at SV is that they turned around and decided to vote AGAINST the increase of the toll-free level to 1000 NOK. Hello, stupid!
The worst blow to the WTO negotiations is that Norwegian farmers, along with farmers from other developed countries such as France, US and UK, lobby like hell to keep the toll barriers and even get subsidized within them. That means that the poor countries cannot export their goods, which often are produced much cheaper than in the developed countries, subsidies aside. The result? Basically, they tend to stay poor. And by that requiring more financial aid. THAT is why the poor countries scream out for TRADE, not AID.
I've spent 20-30 minutes now to read some of the dreams SV have in building a better society. And I must admit. It sounds nice, some of it. But the problems are amongst others:

1) I see a lot of proposed projects, but read little about how on earth these projects could be financed. Example: Maximum 15 pupils per teacher. Sure. So what's the plan? Half the wages?

2) Read this extract about maritime transportation: SV will work through international forums to abolish the international competition on tax levels. Tax havens should not be considered legal registration for airplanes or ships that arrive in Norway. SV will also work for this principle to be adopted internationally. Right... Don't let those bad persons get their dirty ships/airplanes NEAR Norway. I'm sure the size and significance of Norway will have this matter sorted out in a year or so. In short, it's bollocks!

3) VERY strong governmental ownership, strict conditions to prevent all the evil "factory owners" to exploit the poor Norwegian population. Sure, that will do the trick for future investments in Norway. Face it, we're not that bad off with "international conditions"...

4) In fact Audun Lysbakken, one of the top men in the party, have decleared that he wants to abolish the Norwegian Stock Exchange and the concept of private property. Riiight...

No, I have to stop now. I have an exam in 8 hours, got to get some sleep.