What happens in China when more and more manufacturing is automated by robots?
The number #1 occupation in the US is truck drivers.What happens when self driving vehicles hit the road in 10-15 years? Plus taxi drivers, driving instructors etc will also be gone.The few with jobs will be the lucky ones.

Somebody has to ride with the auto-piolted vehicle for refueling, this would pay less, but it's still a job -- or they have to role out nuclear powerered vehicles.

Links are US media they are mostly filled with propaganda because venezuela doesnt agree with uncle sams policies, look at the real numbers venezuela is richer than other countries in that region. I can also show various articles showing bad things about mexico a nafter country which is supposed to be economicly strong yet it isnt.

Not ride with it, the jobs would be created in mobile repair garages and increased employment at diesel stations (many diesel stations these days are unmanned because the trucks themselves are. If that reverses, then you have, at least temporarily before the stations upgrade to automatic, a need to have a few people there to pump gas). Mobile repairmen would be needed to take calls from automatic trucks when they break down: the truck would pull over and put out a call, and the nearest associated repairman would then rush over to the scene to patch it up, like with busted tires or something.

As far as I know Norway has government debt. We do have more than enough money to pay it down, but we have it even so. 

Furthermore most of the norwegian kommunes (districts, cities) has quite a bit of debt. In 2012 this debt was equal to 45% of the incomes on average, steadily increasing. 

For those with norwegian knowledge, this is the source: http://www.nrk.no/trondelag/rekordhoyt-gjeldsniva-i-kommunene-1.10990473

Norway is in a pretty good situation at the moment, and the billions we have in reserve are going to come in quite handy up ahead. But at the moment this money isn't used in a good way. Norway has started to see a bit of our economys state down the road, after the oil price went down. Thousands have lost their jobs, positions like engineers that previously used to be "safe" have been laid off by the hundreds. It just goes to show that we need a more diverse economy, but  instead everything of value is sold to chinese investors.

<anti-american mode engage>

A bit offtopic to the discussion, but only a bit since geopolitical situation is always a part of the big picture. This is quality propagandistic video, a bit straightforward to my likes but that's how it supposed to be :D

View on YouTube

Carthage must be destroyed EU must be f**ked Nuland

 </anti-american mode disengage>

Just checked and Norways Govt debt/GDP is 29.5%.Still extremely low.

Japan is over 400% now.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Align the debt and GDP numbers for the countries you're comparing , there're different debts and different GDPs.

Here's the "bankrupts club" more or less...

Hong Kong is an interesting one. The country/city is basically at full employment right now, so it has that going for it, on top of that the Government now has enough money in the kitty to fund the next 25 months of spending, even if tax revenues dropped to 0 tomorrow, and the Gov't couldn't sell any bonds.

But it's not all rosy, the property market is in a huge bubble which is preventing young people from moving out of their parents home, it is a large cause of animosity amongst the youths.

To qualify: I live in a dinky little apartment, there's no lift, the building is extremely old and is starting to fall apart. In fact, the building is scheduled to be pulled down in the next two years.

My rent? Over $20k usd per year. I'm not even anywhere close to the central districts.

A colleague recently bought his apartment up in the New Territories. The NT is by far the cheapest area of HK, as it's nowhere near as developed as the rest of HK. His apartment is 600 square-foot, it cost around $700k USD.

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I'm not sure if this property bubble will make it out of this year, to be honest. If the USD surges, like it is predicted this year, then China and HK may end up breaking peg, or at least adjusting the peg. Such moves will be a negative for the property market, and a positive for my wallet (but disastrous for many retired HKers who use rental incomes as their pensions).

I'd avoid using motor vehicle sales in the US as a measure of economic activity. Only because a very large percentage of these sales will be going to Government agencies, on top of that, defaults are escalating in the private market. People may be buying cars, but they sure as hell can't afford them.

It's like using the real estate market as a measure of economic performance in 2005.