Norway Was Never So Poor!

Provision of public services is generally associated with a prosperous society. Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, renowned for its social provision. Paradoxically, though, as Edward Robbins, Christian Hermansen Cordua and Barbara E Ascher highlight in this article, the general perception that Norway has never been so poor is misguided, as is the government's current justification for withdrawing investment due to a lack of funds. For the period of greatest support for social housing corresponded to a period of austerity and slow recovery, immediately after the war, rather than that of greatest prosperity after the discovery of North Sea oil in Norwegian waters in the late 1960s.