The unfailing belief that the future of our local communities is to collect as much as possible for the Ministry of Finance, and then distribute it as support or various forms of alms, threatens the Norwegian local community model. You cannot have traveled much in Norway, if you believe that it is government retail management that has created good communities on Frøya, Lovund, Kvarøy, on Tysnes or in Eikelandsosen. A greedy state cannot build the country alone. Strong districts are not built on government subsidies. History shows that we have built the country so much thanks to skilled people in local politics and keen value creators who want to create both jobs and good societies. This interaction has worked very well. Even those who are not “rich” in these societies join forces to defend their place against a state that has an increasing appetite to get involved in everything possible that it has no idea about. The state is rarely the best at operating. It is not only formed as a move to Switzerland, which creates less to spend on the common good. Government overspending, such as ideological remunicipalization and poorer operation of health centers and care, battery factories or electrification, is also money that disappears from the welfare fund. In the small well-to-do communities along the coast, where the “rich” now brought in their capital to the Ministry of Finance, they are in the process of destroying this fine balance between good local politicians and local petty capitalists. Fredd Wilsgård runs aquaculture in Torsken on Senja. He has 140 employees. 19 of them are in tourism. Not because he wants to enter the tourism industry, but because he understands that people have to be comfortable in order to want to work and live in Torsken. Wilsgård runs a restaurant, pub, fitness center and has plans for a small hotel. The municipality is on the team and supports the initiative. This responsibility now fell to the Minister of Finance. Will they send money up to the football team? Renovate the old shop into a co-working space? Renovate the campsite? Take over the store? Aquaculture is perhaps the best district policy I have had in an area with few jobs and little investment capital. We need government tax dollars for our major joint tasks. The taxation of all value creators must be equal and fair, but dogmatic politicians have rarely been the best at creating good societies with their detailed management. I am concerned about the strong polarization in which value creators are pitted against the welfare state. It is devoid of history and threatens the future of viable local communities. In Norway, we are used to good settlements, not sudden changes to framework conditions, whether it is interim employer taxes, urgent proposals for ground rent on aquaculture or taxes that allow foreign owners to escape. We have a responsible business community, which we all need. Throughout our country, we have succeeded in creating great local communities, which it will be completely impossible to control remotely with the ideological blinders of the Ministry of Finance. It is very bad district policy. One would think that a government with a finance minister from a party that is firm on the idea of the free farmer who must manage his own farm would have understood that. The writer has been appointed to the Seafood Council and Mowi, but currently has no office or position in the seafood industry or in politics. See the Debate: Salmon billionaires meet the prime minister and the finance minister.
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The state is not the best at district politics – Statement
