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Posted on 02/24/2005 8:30:37 AM PST by franksolich
Welfare cheats on the rise
More than 300 persons were charged with cheating Norway's welfare system last year. Officials are trying to crack down on a rising trend.
"Welfare fraud is a crime," says Arild Sundberg, director of the Norwegian social security system known as Rikstrygdeverket. "We're reacting swiftly to swindlers and have little tolerance."
The 308 persons charged in 2004 are alleged to have cheated the system to the tune of NOK 46 million (about USD 7.5 million).
Most of the abuse came in the form of accepting sick pay while continuing to work on the side.
Norway has circa 4,500,000 people, not including Poles trying to outwit wary Norwegian border guards, of which about 300 is a minuscule number.
Nebraska has about a third the number of people Norway does, and one can find much more than 300 cheats in any of the moderate or larger counties within the state.
Despite that such numbers are "on the rise," one gets the impression of Norwegians, our allies in the war against terror, as being, on the whole, utterly honest.
One doubts, for example, he will find a Norwegian trying to outwit Danish border guards; to a Norwegian, it is just not worth the trouble and the risks, to cheat.
$7.5 million divided by 308 is $24,350 per person - not bad!
"Ping" for the Norway ping list.
There are many fine photographs of the champion, and not-so-champion, Norway skiing teams in the newspaper this morning
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/
Who'da thought?
This is just the number they caught. They think because they've been catching more of the cheats, that must mean the cheating is going up.
Oil has spoiled the Norwegians, who can finally afford the welfare state theyv'e envied the Danes and Swedes for over the years.
Young people in Norway to day are very like young Western Europeans, the same problems with drugs and sex, and a lack of motivation. Biggest difference is probably that young Norwegians are still more athletic, in a nice amateur sort of way, on the whole, and more of the girls are blond and blue eyed (except in Western Norway) than on the Continent.
The reports I get from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, living the good life in Oslo 2 (in a big house near Frogner Park), are not encouraging. Kids don't seem motivated the way the parents generation was, and there is a huge, affluent bratpack who party hearty with drugs, sex, rock and roll, reminiscent of the Eurotrash in New York in the '80s.
The country that sat out WWII and got rich trading with the Nazis: Sweden, well the Swedes have an even bigger problem: they've got muslims coming out the woodwork.
See this weeks Weekly Standard for such things as: Sweden, 'moral superpower'; 'if Sweden were to become our 51st state, as a matter of economics, (the great state of) Mississipi would no longer be our celler-dweller.'
They'll quit partying soon, sir, and revert back to the valiant stalwarts of old, as the problem of terrorism gets worse, and they realize their survival is at stake.
I anticipate Norway will come it its senses long before anybody else in Europe.
Been there, done that, seen that.
Who remembers the generation of British, growing up during the 1930s, so wedded to this idea of "fun, fun, fun" that it seemed Britain was going down the tubes.....but then a few short years later, abruptly came to their senses?
One thing about American welfare cheats they sure arent working on the side, LOL or anywhere else either.
You got that right, sir.
I see them all the time around here--strangely, for a solidly-red state, Nebraska at times resembles DUmmieland, but fortunately those sorts of people are too lazy to go out and vote too.
I just did a Google search--just out of curiosity; killing time until I have to head over the vast prairies to get the money for doing income-taxes last night--and came up with the following (ostensible number of web-sites):
"French criminals," 780,000 web-sites
"German criminals," 762,000 websites
"Russian criminals," 565,000 web-sites
"Dutch criminals," 330,000 web-sites
"Swedish criminals," 215,000 web-sites
"Polish criminals," 185,000 web-sites
"Finnish criminals," 128,000 web-sites
"Danish criminals," 87,100 web-sites
"Norwegian criminals," 81,800 web-sites
"Faeroese criminals," 198 web-sites
It appears to me, sir, that Norwegians are generally good people to hang around, despite their temporary slipping into "spoiled-brattedness."
Ski Jumping flop... LOL.
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