Posted: 3/29/2004 8:41:15 AM EDT
www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/03/25/257.html
When the latest figures were announced Tuesday, Finn Bergesen Jr., of the National Association of Business and Industry, said Norwegians have never had it better or complained more, drawing angry reactions from labor unions.
"We are becoming a sort of nation of whiners, even though we are so well off," Bergesen told state radio network NRK. "We've never been so healthy but felt so bad." For the second straight year, Norway was deemed the best place in the world to live based on the UN's human development index for 2003.
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"Even though things are so good, we focus on the negative, which is not good for the individual, work organizations or the nation," Bergesen said.
His comment drew immediate criticism from labor unions, despite the fact that they concede the sick leave rate is too high.
"That argument does not hold water. It goes totally against an agreement on an inclusive working life on what can be done to improve conditions on the job," said Per Gunnar Olsen, of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, the country's biggest labor organization.
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Working without such a social safety net in this barbaric country has its motivational effects. I go back to work every weekday morning, and work overtime on the weekends. I have a fondness for keeping food in my stomach, and nobody else is going to do it for me.
But I'm too adolescent to appreciate such nuances as the national benefits of social programs that ensure people never fail.
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