Government Efficiency
Why is there no homelessness in Norway? Government efficiency or climate?
Clearly, the climate doesn’t encourage homelessness and the Sovereign wealth fund probably helps but Reddit seems to think the attitude of the people working in the system is more important.
from Reddit
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We also have agencies for everything that are decently interconnected.
Im an immigrant here, and my first week, my bf ordered a ‘registration’ app with the police online..
Once I got registered, the doors to the system opened:
I got a social security number and a bank card, which led to me getting told I had a doctor appointed to me , check website here to change doctors, make an appointment, or find current health information on this awesome website thats totally intuitive.
Then,rinse and repeat with NAV. ‘Hello, this is your friendly neighborhood gov telling you to go online, make a nav account - clocl link here - and see what support is available to find you a job and housing if need be. Your case worker is x - plz contact them through the website here (link) to discuss your options. We’ll help you with classes and possible internships, as well as a stipend if need be til you’re on your feet.
Next was «here are dome options to learn the language, provided for free. Oh, this one is for women specifically, to learn your rights in this country, as well as how the social security system works, learn norwegian and even english if you want - all organised by the Red Cross in Norway for free.»
All websites have a ton of legible, intuitive accessible data.
Is it perfect? Absolutely not - people still get frustrated, overworked, bottlenecked and so on.
But its a breeze compared to the system where Im from. And Im from a fellow euro country with a similar type system, supposedly 🤷♀️
Honestly…that’s what you need, imho.
A state supported, customer friendly, intuitive, trusted network of systems run by people who believe in it, so it cannot break down easily to guarantee its reliability to the people, which is geared to be as accessible, transparent and communicative as possible -> the biggest challenge with any bureaucracy.
Having independent charities or underfunded and overworked gov agencies who dont know if they’ll still be funded next year do it…well, that’s a recipe for disaster.
And while I recognise that Cali probably is the least likely to only rely on charities etc…I doubt the system is as sound as Norway’s, not to mention, theirs needs to be sounder if only due to the volume of ppl they need to process.
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That’s the thing, though. And that’s honestly what I dont get about your country’s philosophy.
It’s about nuance. They recognised Id just arrived and might need help.
But once I got help, that also meant having to show them the efforts I was making on my job hunt, didcussing what career paths I was interested in, actively showing me listings that are up my ally.
After my first job, I got dagpenger(unemployment pay, all arranged asap, into my bank account with no fuss), as I looked for a new one. Its about 60% of your previous pay (80 if you worked a low paying job).
But after 4 months, they start prodding you, requiring you to show evidence of effort, to get the cash. They’ll start suggesting resumebuilding courses, and those suggestions become mandatory if you go over a year. After a year, your dagpenger also get reduced gradually, as you get signed up for courses, which you can only miss with a doctors note or proof of a job interview.
Norway helps, supports, engages, provides you with every resource and when necessary, holds you accountable, and cajoles.
It’s kinda like parenting 🤷♀️
That balance is necessary if you want ppl to succeed, imho
And you ve seen what the alternative gets you, or I guess you wouldnt be here :)
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This isn't socialism. It's someone sitting down and thinking "how can we make the most efficient capitalist country possible?"
It's inefficient to have people not working, so the goal is s that everyone works, and this is how to achieve it. If people can't work, it is more efficient to give them money and shelter so that they can consume - the driver of the economy. It's way more efficient to make all these systems easy to use, than people not getting the help they need. Immigration is actually very good for the economy, and giving people the opportunity to learn the language for free is making them more productive faster. Our education is largely free, because a better educated population is a more productive one. Our healthcare is almost free, again because of the increased economic performance of the entire system.
There are elements of socialist thought in Norway, especially the unions and such. But the welfare system is entirely capitalistic. It's called "welfare capitalism" for a reason.
In the US, this has been branded as socialism by people that don't want welfare capitalism, because they believe they personally are better off with a less efficient system where they can more effectively dominate society. And socialism is obviously only a bad word because of "red scare" tactics ran by wealthy business owners.
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The social help in Norway actually has a rather capitalistic foundation; Make sure the recipient who needs help gets back to work, and can contribute back through paying taxes and helping the economy grow by consuming goods and services, as expediently as possible.
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Noone wants to spend money on defence/defense until…
From what I’ve heard, we (Norwegians) don’t even pay much more taxes than US citizens. The difference is that our taxes are more allocated to charity, safety nets for everyone, as opposed to funding military and weapon industries. It’s a value formed from unity, and thinking everyone benefits from having less poverty in the country.
The flaw of capitalism is that only a minority can be rich. If every citizen becomes rich, the rich minority’s money would be worth less. That’s why people of power work to keep their exclusivity and keep others in poverty, by making the working class blame each other, instead of revolting against the upper class.
My take on this might be over-simplified though.
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Even if you are heavily addicted, you still understand that you need help to survive -19 degrees Celsius. Which forces them to be in contact with healthcare, shelters or family.
Other important factor is that the police in Norway is approachable, so they know the homeless people and are actively involved in getting these people to a safe place
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California has “Medi-Cal” and Los Angeles has “L.A.Care”. This is 100% free healthcare that is comprehensive and very good for poor people and homeless people. Even illegal immigrants can qualify for free healthcare.
Much of Healthcare in California is on par with Scandinavia (such as our maternal mortality statistics). But this never gets mentioned bc shitty states like Mississippi and Texas bring the entire US down.
Homeless people live outside bc the weather is perfect and they can do drugs all day and no one cares.
They’re not allowed to do drugs in a homeless shelter or “tiny house” provided by the government— so of course they choose to be outside in the streets. We can’t force them to live elsewhere.
Can Norway force a person choosing to live outside into a home or shelter???
Yes, it’s problematic for us Californians but it’s a completely different situation and drug culture than Norway.
(Also, it does not help that every state sends their homeless and “undesirable” people to California bc they know we tolerate them and give them free healthcare)
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California’s perfect weather year round makes it SUPER EASY to live outside.
I work with homeless people for my job in Los Angeles and they would rather be outside than live in a homeless shelter.
It’s nice outside and they can do drugs all day and no one cares. They’re not allowed to do drugs in the homeless shelter.
We have social resources for homeless people and poor people such as (1) Medi-Cal and (2) L.A.CARE. These are 100% free healthcare for homeless and poor people in California and LA. It is very comprehensive and includes prescriptions.
We also have projects for “tiny houses” and paid-for-hotels for homeless people to live in (for free via taxes) but again, they choose not to bc it comes with caveats like they are not allowed to do drugs.
We cannot force people into shelters and tiny houses if they don’t want to live there! Being outside and doing drugs all day in great weather is better in their minds. They don’t care what tourists and locals think.
If Norway had California weather and drug culture, we might see the same thing with Norwegians.
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https://www.feantsaresearch.org/public/user/Observatory/2021/EJH_14-3_A7_v02.pdf
https://nordicwelfare.org/en/publikationer/hemloshet-i-norden-nationella-strategier-och-praktiska-losningar/ (unfortunately i only found it in Swedish, but it is a super good source for information)
I know this is not a popular opinion by the hard rules and punishment for using drugs is in my opinion a key factor.
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