| SamuelRSmith said: He stated that free education (I assume he's referring to higher education, ie, university) is one of the primary reasons, but didn't provide causation, only correlation. He also excluded what he called "tax havens". Switzerland and Hong Kong. Which I find to be amusing, these countries aren't "tax havens" they're "free market economies". Moreso than the United States. Hong Kong has the freest market in the world. The fact that they have lower taxes is part of what MAKES them free market economies. I don't know about Switzerland, but in Hong Kong (where I'm currently living) all banks have to be fully compliant with CRS and FATCA, so coming here to "avoid" your own country's tax would be a mistake. Hong Kong also happens to have the highest concentration of millionaires in the world. It should also be noted that many free-market economists would say that it is easier to get "richer" in big Government countries than small Government countries. At least by the measure of having $30m+ usd. Simply because Government regulations make it harder for small businesses to compete with larger businesses, thus you end up with the larger companies making even more money than they otherwise would. Take an example he used in this very presentation, the checkout machine. You know how much they cost? $35,000 each, plus additional fees that take the total over $40,000 (and that's before tax) A marginal cost for a large supermarket chain, or enough to put a small shop out of business. |
You shouldn't just dismiss stats because they can only prove correlation, not causation. Proving causation in a case like this is pretty much impossible.
He explained why he didn't include tax havens. They have an inflated number of rich people due to expats, which move *after* they've gotten rich in whichever country they originally came from. I can't speak for Hong Kong or Switzerland, but this is obviously true for places like Singapore, Monaco and Luxembourg (and I wouldn't find it hard to believe that the same is true for Hong Kong 
) Also I'm pretty sure Singapore has the highest concentration of millionaires in the world (unless we are gonna include Monaco, which is in a different league).
Start ups in Norway get government support and backing to help you off the ground in the first few years of starting up a new business, when you are specially vulnerable. This increases your odds of ending up with a healthy business that can compete in the grand scheme of things.
Not sure why you use the checkout machine as an example of a result of government regulation. We don't have a minimum wage in Norway, so that's not why the wages are high. It's because workers unions have such a strong foundation in the country that their bargaining power is high. This just forces businesses to operate more efficiently, which = $$$
It'd have to be a really tiny shop if a one time investment of 35000$ is enough to drive the shop out of business. (Especially considering that either way, they'd still have to hire someone to do that work, so it's not like it's 35000$ vs 0$.)
