[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

That's what bugs me about the Norway comparison. Yes, less frivolous spending probably contributes to their massive sovereign wealth fund, but by and large it has more to do with having a tax rate between 40%-48% over the last couple decades (it's been decreasing).

But are Albertans, or other Canadians, ready for the sort of reforms that would turn Alberta into the new Norway?

In socialist-leaning Norway, oil profits — including from state-run Statoil — are taxed up to a whopping 78 per cent, and that’s where the seed money for the fund comes from.

Alberta, meanwhile, never even had a provincial sales tax. Albertans pay far, far lower taxes than Norwegians, and if conventional economic theory is right, this should give Alberta the advantage.

But does it?

The average total income in Alberta is around $53,000, well below the province's (stunning) economic output of $80,000 per person. Norway's economic output is actually much lower than Alberta's, at $65,000 per person, but its average income is about the same, at $58,000. Norwegians take home a much larger chunk of the economy's wealth than Albertans do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01...n_4576887.html