Apesar de ser o terceiro maior exportador do mundo, a Noruega conseguiu evitar a chamada maldição do petróleo que atinge os países produtores. A maioria gasta mal as receitas provenientes dessa herança natural e desenvolve uma economia ineificiente, com frequência comandada por um governo autocrático. Dos 20 maiores exportadores de petróleo, 16 são ditaduras.
A Noruega, ao contrário, é democrática e próspera. Foi espartana na administração dessa riqueza inesperada, mantendo superávits nas contas públicas, que a permitiram suavizar o impacto da crise financeira e crescer quase 3% em 2008. No ranking mundial, é o segundo país em IDH e PIB per capita, com 52 mil dólares por ano.
Unlike Dublin or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where work has stopped on half-built skyscrapers and stilled cranes dot the skylines, Oslo retains a feeling of modesty reminiscent of a fishing village rather than a Western capital, with the recently opened $800 million Opera House one of the few signs of opulence.
Em compensação, continuou a manter talvez o mais gordo programa europeu de welfare.
“This is an oil-for-leisure program,” said Knut Anton Mork, an economist at Handelsbanken in Oslo. A recent study, he pointed out, found that Norwegians work the fewest hours of the citizens of any industrial democracy.
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Just around the corner from Norway’s central bank, for instance, Paul Bruum takes a needle full of amphetamines and jabs it into his muscular arm. His scabs and sores betray many years as a heroin addict. He says that the $1,500 he gets from the government each month is enough to keep him well-fed and supplied with drugs.
Mr. Bruum, 32, says he has never had a job, and he admits he is no position to find one. “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “The Norwegian government has provided for me the best they can.”
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