A wave of bankruptcies is sweeping across the country, with an increasing number of long-established companies ending up in the insolvency courts. The crisis is particularly acute in the construction and civil engineering sectors and other energy-based industries. This is alarming, as the Norwegian business sector has always relied on cheap energy as its most important – and virtually its only – competitive advantage. The latest to go is Ulefos Ironworks, which is to close after 350 years.
Anyone who is surprised must have forgotten the last 40 years of globalism under the Labour Party and the Conservative Party: Ever since the 1980s, they have systematically dismantled Norwegian industry and cornerstone enterprises in favour of the «free movement» of people, goods and services from low-cost countries – and everyone else who wants free access to Norwegian resources. Now the elite have managed to destroy cheap energy as well, and here it is important to understand both the timeline and the connections.
“Never mind, we politicians will create new and better jobs”
The very foundation for the globalists’ dismantling of Norwegian industry and cornerstone enterprises since 1981 was the promise of a new and better future for Norwegian industrial workers. With the academic Gro at the helm, industry was seen as somewhat dirty and old-fashioned, and such matters could be left to poor, low-cost countries through the theory of comparative advantage. The world was to be improved through free movement! But there was no cause for concern:
Soon, the digital age and other modern developments were set to create hordes of new jobs for skilled, Western workers. But that never happened. Instead, the low-cost countries with no health and safety regulations took these jobs too, and Norway’s most important cornerstone businesses in the regions became the welfare sector and NAV. It is important to bear this in mind, for it is exactly the same thing that is happening now:
Even though people are losing their jobs, their life’s work and their peace of mind, and a local community is losing an entrepreneur who has been rock-solid for 50 years, or a cornerstone business that has been there for 350 years, it doesn’t bother the Oslo elite in the slightest. Never mind. New and better jobs will come with the green transition! Because we politicians are brilliant, and have decided that we shall make a living from saving the climate. But that isn’t going to happen either. It’s a figment of the imagination.
Politicians cannot, after all, legislate for the future or profitability. This type of planned economy has been tried in every socialist dictatorship and country, and it has failed completely. It doesn’t work, it isn’t profitable, it doesn’t survive, and it becomes dependent on corruption and subsidies to produce goods that are either utter nonsense or based on economic models that are nothing but dreams and visions. Then the economy grinds to a halt.
Leaders without leadership skills or a sense of responsibility
The Labour Party and Conservative Party leaderships never take responsibility for anything. They consistently blame everything and everyone else: Covid, Putin, war, global unrest, the currency market, the opposition, Trump, voodoo and far-right extremists lurking behind every bush. It’s pathetic, because if you voluntarily take on the role of leader, that also means taking responsibility for what goes wrong. The job of a leader involves having the ability to spot crises before they arise and mitigate their damaging effects. What else are leaders for?
Political leaders in Norway and Europe do the exact opposite. They whinge when they’re criticised for all the mistakes they make, and take sick leave when they’re caught with their hand in the biscuit tin. But the lack of responsible adults isn’t the biggest problem: the biggest problem is that the elite regard themselves as superior in terms of IQ, insight and morality, and possess a hubris that was otherwise reserved for the ‘Sun Kings’ of the 17th century. Complete with a court of sycophants surrounding them, and a balcony from which they can look down on their subjects and wonder why there are so many clenched fists, torches and pitchforks in the sea of people.
Mediocrities with the hubris to decide the future
This spectacular combination of a five-year-old’s lack of accountability, the hubris of a ‘Sun King’ and a circle of associates purged of critics and expertise creates a political environment not seen since the heyday of communism in the 1960s: Leaders who decide what the future will look like, and dictate what the business community should do and live with in the future.
Støre’s famous statement “we shall make a living from saving the climate” should have scared the wits out of the NHO and all business leaders. Støre has absolutely no basis for being able to determine what the business sector of the future will find profitable, and worse still: by doing so, he has effectively declared that today’s industries and sectors can be phased out, as if it were a matter of course. Everything old must go, and the brilliant new ideas in his head are bound to be a success. How does one become so arrogant? By removing all critics and analysts, and surrounding oneself only with yes-men.
Ever since the mid-1980s, globalist politicians have been assuring concerned workers that the relocation of jobs to low-cost countries is a good thing, and moreover, inevitable. The fact that a cornerstone company goes bust under ‘free movement’ is actually a good thing. ‘Change is healthy!’ Or ‘This could be a fresh start!’ and that sort of empty rhetoric. The workers at Ulefos will also be fed the same lie they’ve been told for the past 40 years: “These jobs will be replaced by new, better and more modern ones”.
But that will never happen. Nav is next.
