The tendency is towards increased inequality

NHO's chief economist Øystein DørumNHO's chief economist Øystein Dørum.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

Norwegian Business Organization says ‘the tendency is towards increasing inequality’

A recent report from the Norwegian Business Organization (NHO) shows that in line with the rest of the world, inequality is increasing in Norway.

 

‘There is a tendency for increasing inequality in Norway, yes,’ said NHO’s chief economist, Øystein Dørum, to Klassekampen newspaper.

The report utilizes many means of measuring inequality. Norway is among countries in the world with the least inequality, but it is also increasing here, both among workers, and the unemployed.

The groups with high incomes are exempt from the rest, according to the report.

‘For a long time, households with the lowest income maintained an even relationship to the medium income. In recent years, income growth for households with the lowest income has been somewhat less than in the rest of the population, which contributes to greater inequality. The distribution of value creation is one of the most politically fraught issues we face.

From an economist’s point view, what is the ‘right distribution’ is not agreed upon, but I think it is correct to say that Nordic societies, with smaller differences, and mixed economies, are among the most well-functioning societies in the world,’ Dørum said to Klassekampen’s question about whether there is reason to feel uneasy.

Not yet 1984

Today, there is a massive trend for non-mainstream, and some mainstream, reports, books, internet sites, and videos, to provide information that the so-called ‘New World Order’ will consist of a reduced world population of extremely poor people living separately, and in far inferior conditions, to an ‘elite’, who will represent less than 1% of the total world population.
Much day to day production, military power, law enforcement, and even management, will be automated and digitalized, and cultural, sex/gender, religious, and national differences will be quashed. 
The middle class will disappear.
It is certainly a nightmare scenario that exceeds anything imagined in Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ or George Orwell’s ‘1984, but is certainly possible. 
 
Whether it will happen or not is still open to debate.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today