Ureddplassen, Gildeskål
Ersfjordstranda, Senja
Lille Sandbukta, County Road 889
Ersfjordstranda, Senja
Aurlandsvegen, Aurland
Ersfjordstranda, SenjaFine. We are a shithouse country. We budgeted NOK 20.5 million, about $2.2 million, for one rest stop with a toilet on it.
Norway can afford to hire architects for its roadside toilets, so it does. Along 18 National Tourist Routes, the roads agency commissions rest stops, viewpoints and toilets as works of architecture, and twelve such projects finished in 2020 cost NOK 160 million together. On an ordinary stretch of the E6, it paid NOK 8 million (about $860,000) per toilet and defended the price in public: bright buildings help keep drivers from falling asleep at the wheel. Meanwhile South Dakota closed four rest areas rather than pay about $8.5 million in repairs, Ohio went from 294 rest areas in 1961 to 89, and federal law bans selling anything at Interstate rest areas, so states carry the full cost. Source: Norwegian Scenic Routes, Teknisk Ukeblad (NOK 160 million), Teknisk Ukeblad (NOK 20.5 million rest stop), Statens vegvesen (E6), Transport Topics / Stateline, 23 U.S.C. 111
Our Nobel committee cannot be bribed, bullied or flattered. Very disrespectful.
The five members are elected by parliament. Government ministers have been barred from the committee since 1936, and sitting MPs since 1977. Source: Norwegian Nobel Institute
We live about four years longer than Americans. Four more years of this shithouse.
Life expectancy at birth in 2024: 83.2 years in Norway, 78.9 in the United States (World Bank). The CDC puts the US figure at 79.0. Source: World Bank, CDC
We spend over $5,000 less per person on health care, and we still live longer. Cheap, frankly.
Health spending per person in 2023: $8,296 in Norway, $13,473 in the United States (World Bank, from WHO data, current US dollars). Source: World Bank
Get seriously ill here and you pay at most about $350 a year in fees. We have no idea what medical debt feels like.
Norway caps yearly out-of-pocket fees for public health services at NOK 3,278 in 2026 (dental care not included). In the United States, 41% of adults had debt from medical or dental bills in 2022 (KFF), and Americans owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Source: Helsenorge, KFF, Peterson-KFF
Get sick and we keep paying your full salary, from day one, for up to a year. No wonder the place is falling apart.
Norwegian sick pay covers 100% of income up to NOK 819,294 a year, for up to 52 weeks. US federal law does not require paid sick leave, and about 1 in 5 private-sector workers have none (81% have access, BLS, March 2026). Source: NAV, US Department of Labor, BLS
Our fathers are made to stay home with their babies for 15 weeks on full pay. Many never fully recover.
Parents share 49 weeks of leave at full pay, or 61 weeks at 80%, with 15 weeks reserved for each parent. US federal law guarantees 12 weeks, unpaid, and only for eligible workers. Source: NAV, US Department of Labor
By law we must be given five weeks off every year. Turn 60 and it is six. Nobody can stop us.
The Holidays Act gives 25 working days a year (Saturdays count), plus 6 extra days from age 60. US federal law requires no paid vacation at all. Source: Lovdata, Holidays Act, US Department of Labor
We work roughly 400 fewer hours a year than Americans. That is about eleven weeks. We spend them in the shithouse.
Average hours actually worked per worker in 2025: about 1,386 in Norway and 1,800 in the United States (OECD). The OECD says these figures are best for trends, not exact country comparisons, so take the gap as rough. Source: OECD
Our public universities charge no tuition. Our students graduate with nothing to complain about.
Public universities are free for Norwegian and EU/EEA students, apart from a semester fee of about NOK 600. Students from outside Europe have paid fees since autumn 2023. Average in-state tuition and fees at a US public four-year college: $11,950 in 2025-26 (College Board). Source: European Commission, College Board
Every Norwegian, newborns included, owns about $419,000 of oil fund. Every American owes about $118,000 of federal debt. Communism, basically.
The oil fund was worth NOK 22,014 billion on 30 September 2026. Divided by 5,636,904 Norwegians at 9.317 NOK per dollar, that is about $419,000 each. US total public debt was $40.46 trillion on 23 October 2026; divided by 343 million Americans, about $118,000 each (debt held by the public alone: about $95,000). The divisions are ours, and an asset is not a debt, but still. Source: NBIM, Statistics Norway, Norges Bank, US Treasury, US Census Bureau
We pump oil for a living, yet almost nobody here buys a petrol car anymore. Make of that what you will.
97.9% of new passenger cars registered in Norway so far in 2026 were fully electric. In the United States, EVs were about 6.4% of new-vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2026 (Cox Automotive, all new vehicles). Source: OFV via NTB, Cox Automotive
Our journalists are the freest in the world, ten years running. It is exhausting.
Norway is 1st of 180 countries in the RSF World Press Freedom Index 2026, for the tenth year in a row. The United States fell seven places to 64th. Source: Reporters Without Borders
We lock up one tenth as many people as America does. Our prisons are practically empty. Rude, honestly.
Prisoners per 100,000 people: 54 in Norway (September 2026) and 542 in the United States (2023, the latest figure). Same source and method for both. Source: World Prison Brief (Norway), World Prison Brief (USA)
You are about eight times less likely to be murdered here. Nothing ever happens. It is a dump.
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people in 2023: 0.72 in Norway, 5.76 in the United States (UNODC via the World Bank). Source: World Bank / UNODC
Giving birth here is so boring that almost no mothers die from it. We should be ashamed.
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023: 1 in Norway, 17 in the United States (WHO-led UN estimates). Norway has so few cases that its figure moves from year to year; the CDC puts the US rate at 17.9 for 2024. Source: World Bank / WHO, CDC
Our babies keep surviving their first year. Every single shithouse winter.
Infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024: 2 in Norway, 5.5 in the United States (UN estimates via the World Bank; the CDC reports the same 5.5). Source: World Bank, CDC
The UN ranks us only second in the world for human development. Iceland beat us. We are not okay.
UN Human Development Index: Iceland 0.972, Norway 0.970 (tied with Switzerland). The United States is 17th. Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2025
Only the sixth happiest country on Earth. Behind Costa Rica. A shithouse, frankly.
World Happiness Report 2026: Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica and Sweden come first. The United States is 23rd of 147. Source: Afar, on the World Happiness Report 2026