Debate post: Trygve Svensson, head of the think tank Agenda
First, Hegnar seems a little confused. He has not quite decided whether he thinks things are going well or badly in Norway. For the record: I think things are going well in Norway, given the conditions. We are equipped to withstand troubled times internationally, and business is doing better than ever. But the growing inequality between people is very serious in the long term.
But when I point out that inequality, also in wealth, is like poison for a society, he thinks it’s “fresh from Svensson”.
Hegnar doesn’t have to take my word for it. Absolutely all serious research on inequality shows that it is bad for a society on absolutely every parameter. So does all experience.
We are getting sick of great inequality. We trust each other less because of great inequality. As sociologist Magne Flemman has said: “Inequality is something that gets under your skin. It affects the way you think, live and the way you relate to other people.”
There will be more crime due to great inequality. And business does worse when there is great inequality. As my colleague Tiril Halvorsen has written: “Inequality is bad for business”.
Moreover, it is about democracy. “When the richest get richer, economic power is concentrated. That power can become political”, as my other colleague Hannah Gitmark has written.
It is interesting that Hegnar believes that “Wealth inequality is an exciting and important topic, but not necessarily linked to wealth tax”. Because wealth tax is precisely about this: equalizing the biggest differences. Or as one of the world’s foremost experts on inequality, Keith Payne, says: “Inequality is created as much by the wealth of the rich as by the poverty of the poor.”
Hegnar emphasizes that “property taxation has risen sharply.” But there is cherry picking in the tax debate. If we look at the total tax on capital stock, Norway is still far from the average in the OECD.
The tax level is approximately NOK 46 billion lower than in 2001. It is a sad legacy from the Bondevik II government, which ruled until 2005 with the Conservative Party at the helm
The real story about taxes in Norway since the turn of the millennium is that they have been cut, not increased. If we deduct the temporary employer’s tax and the high price subsidy for power, which came as a result of an extraordinary international energy crisis, the tax level in Norway is still around NOK 8 billion lower than during the previous red-green period between 2005 and 2013.
What’s more: The tax level is approximately NOK 46 billion lower than in 2001. It is a sad legacy from the Bondevik II government, which ruled until 2005 with the Conservative Party at the helm.
Tags: Trygve Hegnar inequality poison
