Why are Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden so wealthy?
For different reasons, but a lot of them have to do with sensible use of each nation’s natural resources—i.e. keeping them for the public rather than letting private enterprise collect all that money into private hands—and having a fairly small population to spread their wealth among.Norway has a massive sovereign wealth fund that it has built up through the sale of its North Sea oil. The Norwegian oil company Statoil is 67% owned by the Norwegian government.Iceland only has 334,000 people, yet it is one of the biggest fishers of cod in the world. As it also sits on several volcanoes, it makes use of nearly free geothermal energy to refine ore. Some countries ship their raw ore all the way to Iceland, where it’s refined and shipped back. This is actually less expensive than doing it in the country of origin.Sweden is a big exporter of arms, wood products, and heavy equipment. They make Volvo cars, trucks, construction equipment, and marine engines. Saab-Scania makes Scania trucks. As Sweden is neutral, it can sell arms to anyone. They’ve also gone into high technology in a big way. And they weren’t hammered by World War II, because they weren’t in it.Finland is also very into high technology and wood products. They’re the home of Nokia, the mobile phone manufacturer. They also do a lot of shipbuilding, and make huge ship engines that are used by ships all over the world. Here’s one. The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons.Denmark is home to the world’s largest shipping company, Maersk, which also does other kinds of transport and logistics. Denmark is also a net exporter of food (especially pork), energy, and medicines. Denmark has one of the lowest levels of wealth inequality in the world.All these nations are pretty heavily unionized, which ensures that profits go to the workers and not just to the owners.
Does it make sense to migrate from Denmark to an Island?
Depends on what you want out of life. Your career choices will generally be better in Denmark, unless you have a skill in demand in Iceland (say, you are a veterinarian).Rent is on Copenhagen/Århus level in Greater Reykjavík, and rural Iceland has a higher rent level than rural/small town Denmark.The climate is harsher and it’s more windy. Winters get very dark. If you are prone to depression when there isn’t enough sunlight Iceland is a bad choice.Traveling to anywhere outside of Iceland (apart from Eastern Greenland..) is more expensive from Iceland than from Copenhagen. If you live outside of the SW internal travel costs to get to Keflavík can be substantial. You don’t have the easy and cheap access to the continent you do from Denmark. The collapse of WoW Air will increase this difference.But if you are a nature lower Iceland offers so much more in the way of scenery and outdoor opportunities. If you love horses it’s obviously also superior.Iceland has a flat 20% tax on capital gains, so if most of your income comes from capital gains you will be better off. Taxes on wages are lower as well, but that’s usually eaten up by higher living costs and lower wages (unless you get a well paying job).Icelanders are generally friendly and agreeable people, but perhaps not more so than Danes outside of Copenhagen.It’s a bit controversial to say, but Iceland doesn't have the same problems with poorly integrated immigrants and descendants (theirs are mostly from Eastern Europe and SE Asia + a few quota refugees from Africa). As a result there is no harassment in public transportation, no mugging of children (phones, cash etc.), no gangs wars, and no “domination” of the public space by groups of aggressive young men and boys. In that sense Reykjavík feels like pre-1990s Denmark.The crime level is overall lower. The worst housing estates in Reykjavík are safer and nicer than the worst housing estates in Denmark.Icelandic schools don’t have the same disciplinary problems as many Danish schools (or at least they are on a lower level).So if you like nature, isn’t overly ambitious (or have your own money to invest in a business or a skill in demand), want to live a quiet and peaceful family life, and don’t mind the darkness and the sometimes harsh weather then Iceland can be superior to Denmark.
Why are the Scandinavian countries so successful?
How did the Scandinavian countries get so rich? Depends partially on the country. Norway got rich because of oil and gas. Sweden got rich because of copper and steel. Denmark hasn’t got any great natural resources that I’m aware of apart from good farmland.The OP seems to include Finland in Scandinavia (it’s not part of it, but Scandinavia and the Nordic countries are easy to mix up), so I’ll include Finland as well. Finland got rich because of the war reparations to Soviet Union. It seems counter intuitive to become rich because you have to pay hundreds of millions to another country, but that actually happened. You see, Soviet Union wanted the reparations paid in industrial products (trains, ships, cables etc.). We didn’t actually have the heavy industry to produce them, so we were forced to industrialize (with the latest tech at the time I might add) really quickly. So then we toiled really hard to first build up the industry and then build all the stuff necessary to be able to pay up and when that was done we were left with a large and modern industrial base useful for making money.However, the biggest reason these countries are doing so well is not natural resources. It’s the social contract: the government, unions and business working together for the greater good. This ensures the kind of stability where business thrives best even if they have to pay for the stability with higher wages and taxes. Unfortunately in the past couple of decades the political right and the businesses have started to forget the importance of this stability (you can’t measure it in a quarterly earnings report after all).EDIT:Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, certainly has potentially great natural resources, but they have not been that accessible for long enough to make a difference when it comes to this question.
You have a billion dollars to create your own nation from non-occupied land, how do you do it?
Non-occupied land? No problem.Bir Tawil is the only habitable land not claimed by any nation. Why? Its a long story, but you can read it here: Bir Tawil - WikipediaStep 1: Claim the land.Step 2: Spend that money on “dollar diplomacy”, like what mainland China and Taiwan does. I would pay some nations to be recognized as a sovereign nation.Step 3: As an recognized nation, I’ll have a seat in the UN, but its not enough. I have oil so I’ll also need a military to defend myself since America likes invading or secretly overthrowing nations with oil, and from terrorism. Or at least deter them both.I would also need private bodyguards since the CIA is good at assassinations, but I wouldn’t run my bodyguards like this.^ (No, that’s not actually Gaddafi and his guards.)Step 4: Invite oil companies now that my land and oil is secure. Money will starting flowing my way.Step 5: With petro-dollars, I’ll build a nice capital city and attract even more people and tourists, making even more money. And no, I won’t use slave labor.Step 6: My nice city will attract successful bankers. We’ll build a bank and use it as a tax haven, which is what many small, rich nations do. I’ll be even more loyal to my clients than the Swiss banks are, even if they’re Jews (especially if they’re Jews since Jews are rich). By now, I should have a healthy economy based on oil, tourism, and bank secrecy.Step 7: Rule with an iron fist!Okay, just kidding on Step 7. The rich bankers and I will probably have a lot of bunga bunga though.Oops, my plan probably offended about a dozen nations. Should I stop saying silly things, or should I stay politically incorrect (which is okay in my nation) and have Putin save me? Just to be safe, I’m gonna need Step 8…Step 8: You can be politically incorrect, except when criticizing Islam. Its just unsafe for my little nation in a dangerous neighborhood where Saudi-funded extremist groups are everywhere.But losing some free speech is okay! I prefer bunga bunga anyways. (Another tourist attraction?)