The Staggering Irony of Donald Trump's Fascination with Norway @alternet:
"When it comes to health care, overall working conditions, education, life expectancy and upward mobility, Norway’s democratic socialism puts U.S. governance to shame. Even with the gains and reforms of the Affordable Care Act, 28.1 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2017 (down from 48.6 million in 2010). Like much of the developed world, Norway enjoys universal health care; its coverage ranked third best in Europe in 2015 by the Euro Health Consumer Index and the 11th best in the world by the World Health Organization in 2000. Medical bankruptcy, common in the U.S., is unheard of in Norway. According to WHO, life expectancy in the U.S. was 79.3 in 2015; in Norway, it was 81.8. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita—707 for every 100,000 people, compared to only 75 per 100,000 in Norway. And thanks to strong government-operated rehabilitation programs in the Norwegian prison system, Norway has a recidivism rate of 20 percent against 76.6 percent in the U.S., where mass incarceration and the failed war on drugs have only encouraged the growth of prison gangs. Republicans detest labor unions, but in Norway, 52 percent of workers were unionized in 2016 compared to 10 percent in the U.S. That 10 percent includes government jobs; among private-sector workers, unionization was only 6.4 percent last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Norway, a university education is tuition-free, assuming one has the grades to be accepted. In the U.S., students graduate from college with crippling student loan debt. The reality is that for most Norwegians, the U.S.—with its medical bankruptcies, mass incarceration, prison-industrial complex, rampant homelessness, student debt and lower life expectancy—represents a major step down."
