This is from Occupy Democrats: "Dear Trump: this is why Norwegians don't immigrate to America."
The World Happiness Rank for the United States, we're number 19 - Norway, number one.
The World Human Freedom Rank: we are number 23, Norway, number 13.
The World Peace Rank: we are number 114, way down there in terms of who promotes, sustains, and participates in peace. Norway is number 14.
The World Murder Rate: we have the 9th highest murder rate in the world and there are countries that are having wars, there are countries that have been taken over by drug lords. there's al-Qaeda. We're number 9 in the world in terms of murders. Norway is number 76.
The World Gender Equality Rank: we are 45th. Keep in mind there are only 34 countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). These are the developed countries in the world and we are number 45 in the world. So not only do we miss all of the developed countries, we're in the developing country region when it comes to gender equality. Norway is second in the world. In fact, Norway requires all corporations to have 40% of their Board of Directors women minimum - it's a law.
These are just very simply the reasons why when Donald Trump says rather than having Haitians come to America, we'd like to have Norwegians come to America, the Norwegians are saying, no thanks. And it's not just Donald Trump that the Norwegians are rejecting, it's all this stuff.
GDP per Capita in the United States. This is Gross Domestic Product, this is all economic activity in the United States. This includes all the billionaires, all the big corporations, and everything. The GDP per capita in the United States is $57,500. It's not income, it's just a reflection of basically how wealthy a country is on a per capita basis. We are $57,500, Norway is at $70,800. In other words, Norway on a per person basis is wealthier than the United States.
The World Primary Education Rank: we are 53rd in the world. Again, only 34 countries in the OECD. Again, we're in the developing country status when it comes to education: primary education: K through 12. Norway's number 21.
Guaranteed Full Health Care? In the United States, no. In Norway, yes.
National Unemployment Rate: both countries 4.1%. But we calculate ours differently than Norway does. We don't count did "discouraged" workers. So if you live in an area - say in Appalachia or in many of the inner cities in this country where there just simply aren't any jobs - and you've been out of work for more than a year, we don't even count you any more as unemployed. If we did our actual unemployment, right now it would be between eight and nine percent. Norway it's 4.1%.
National Annual Gun Deaths: in the United States it's around 16,000 a year people die from guns. In Norway, 10 or so.
The National Poverty Rate: in the United States 16%, in Norway it's 10%.
And our life expectancy is 78.7 years, in Norway it's 82.1 years.
This might give you some clue as to why Norwegians aren't coming to the United States.
There's a great article over at slate.com by Liza Mundy: Why Don't Norwegians Immigrate to the U.S.? And they say "Just look at life for working parents."
Norway now...
"has higher life expectancy at birth than the U.S., lower rates of infant mortality, low unemployment, and access to the European Union's labor market. It also ranks first in prosperity and political and press freedom—much higher than the United States."
Norway has one of the world's most generous paid leave plans for new parents, who, together, are entitled to roughly a year of paid leave after the birth of a child.
That's mom and dad, or mom and mom, or dad and dad, are entitled to roughly a year of paid leave after the birth of a child.
"Norway requires that a certain percentage of leave be taken by father if a family wants to qualify for the full leave period. This "daddy days" approach is backed by social science showing that men who take paternity leave are more likely to share parenting and housework, not only at birth but going forward."
"Norway also provides subsidized child care..."
Do we here in the United States? No.
"and encourages a corporate culture where afternoon meetings are scheduled with pickup times in mind."
For your kids getting out of school.
"The country has a female prime minister..."
She was just at the White House last week.
"... and a commitment to gender parity: There is a quota system in which public companies must have 40 percent board representation from both genders"
"Norway has one of the world’s highest labor participation rates for women."
In fact Norway has one of the world's highest labor participation rates for women, and it's not like in the United States where it's, "oh, I've got to do this because my husband can't make enough money to support the family". No, it's people finding fulfillment in the workplace doing what they love - becoming doctors and engineers and scientists.
A couple of months ago Louise and I were in Norway in Svalbard where the Norwegian have an Institute that measures methane gas. We're working on a documentary on global climate change and we were interviewing all these scientists. I would say at least half and maybe even two-thirds of the scientists that we interviewed, these are real hardcore scientists, people who were experts on biology, the ones who were studying methantrophic and methanogenic bacteria, geologists who are studying formations that are hostile or friendly to the formation of methane, all these kind of things. I would say more than half of them were women. That's Norway.
The United States on the other hand offers no universal child care, no universal early education, no universal right to health care. By the way, do you know the main countries that provide no paid leave to parents? Suriname and Papua New Guinea. In the United States we are literally the only wealthy country in the world that does not offer that that simple human benefit of paid leave for workers who become parents of children.
And is it any wonder, then, that people are waiting until their 30s to have kids?
And then this headline from Agence France Presse published in The Guardian, just the headline kind of says it all: Norway aims for all short-haul flights to be 100% electric by 2040. Now, we're talking about aircraft. 100% electric. Norway already has more electric cars than any other country in the world and is building electric ships. Mr. Dag Falk-Petersen, who is the chief executive of Avinor, the public operator of Norwegian airports - he runs all the airports in Norway, he said:
"When we will have reached our goal, air travel will no longer be a problem for the climate, it will be a solution...
Electric air travel will also at least halve noise levels and the operating cost of aircraft"
And by the way, both Boeing and Airbus are working on developing all-electric large transport planes.
And then it's not just Norway. Berlin, for example. We're struggling, New York City is having horrible problems with their metro rail system, Washington DC having problems with their metro rail system.
In Berlin they just cut a deal with Adidas I believe it is and to release a new line yeah adidas you can buy a pair of shoes now from the Berlin government and those shoes have a chip built into them which is your pass for the full year for the entire mass transit system in the city of Berlin. All you do is walk on the train because it detects your shoes.
And we can't even keep damn trains from derailing?
Because, you know, Republicans: we can't spend money on infrastructure, no way!
