Elon Musk calls out Norway for destroying its own future!

Summary

In a compelling video by Midnight's Edge, Elon Musk is shocked by Norway's stance on innovation and free enterprise, amid a detailed exploration of the country's controversial tax regime. The video delves into Norway's high taxes and fortune tax system, which allegedly drives entrepreneurs and investors away, as well as the political dynamics that fuel such policies. With examples from Norwegian gaming and personal stories of entrepreneurs, the video paints a picture of a highly taxed nation prioritizing welfare over enterprise. Furthermore, it discusses how Norway's political landscape reacts to such policies and the potential impact on future economic growth.

Highlights

• Elon Musk criticized Norway's socialist policies after a viral tweet 🌐
• Norwegian tax policies are harsh on successful individuals and businesses 📉
• Entrepreneurs reportedly leave Norway due to excessive taxation 🏃‍♂️
• Public opinion in Norway seems to favor a shift towards more business-friendly policies 🏛️
• The video encourages viewers to protect personal data with the sponsor, Incog 🔒

Key Takeaways

• Elon Musk is surprised by Norway's high taxes and anti-business stance 🚨
• Norway's tax regime is reportedly driving away entrepreneurs and investors 🚀
• The country is seen as focusing more on welfare than promoting enterprise 💸
• There are public criticisms of Norway's economic strategy and governance 🗣️
• Many Norwegians feel dissatisfied with the current government policies 🇳🇴

Overview

The video kicks off with Elon Musk echoing concerns about Norway's tax policies, which some claim have become detrimental to business and innovation. The Norwegian government is said to impose high tax rates that have shocked even seasoned entrepreneurs. This reportedly drives out some of the country's most successful businessmen, like the founder of the app Dune, who are seeking friendlier tax regimes.

As the video unfolds, it paints a vivid picture of an ongoing debate in Norway about the balance between welfare and enterprise. Critiques of the current government suggest that the tax policies not only limit business growth but also seem to unfairly target successful entrepreneurs, reducing their income significantly. The discussion includes the stifling 'exit tax' and how it affects those wanting to leave the country.

Wrapping up, the video touches upon the implications of such policies for Norway's future economic prosperity. With upcoming elections and growing dissatisfaction among the populace, there's a mounting call for change. The narrative includes mentions of Norway's socialist party's celebration of individuals leaving due to tax burdens, creating a divide in public perception of rich and poor.

Elon Musk calls out Norway for destroying its own future! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 forget the badass Viking history current year Norway isn't just the country that Unleashed dustborne possibly the wokest game ever made upon the world it is also so hostile to Innovation business and free enterprise that Elon Musk himself is shocked by it since I just so happen to be Norwegian and I already exposed the dysfunction of the Norwegian gaming scene and how something like dustborne could ever get funded at taxpayer expense I've been flooded with requests to comment on and do deep dive into this
• 00:30 - 01:00 has Norway really become that bad to which I say no it is much worse let's Dive In To The Madness of the current anti-business anti suuccess and all in all anti- win Norwegian tax model [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 this video is sponsored by incog some have created an impression of Norway as a socialist Utopia with free health care high standards of living Public Safety and all sorts of other goodies this however is not entirely indicative of reality in a nation that is so politically mismanaged that it has shut down the bulk of its Industries ruined its own power Market seen the
• 01:30 - 02:00 value of its currency plummet opened its doors to mass welfare immigration that has resulted in crime sexual assaults and such flagrant anti-Semitism that a large portion of the country's already very small Jewish population has already left and they're not the only ones since 2022 in particular responding to a new tax regime from the current Coalition governments between labor this would be the sister party of the Democrats in the US and labor in the UK and the interest
• 02:00 - 02:30 party the most wealthy industry owners the most established entrepreneurs as well as the most promising innovators have left the country as well usually in favor of Switzerland fleeing a tax model aimed at redistribution of wealth but which in practice punishes both success and innovation in some cases by not just taking all revenue in tax but even more than that then when the very individuals they targeted with these tax changes started fleeing they urgently implemented an exit tax aimed at
• 02:30 - 03:00 fleecing anyone intent on leaving rich or poor we're about to get into that and everything else Elon Musk refer to as crazy but before we do that have you noticed how so many of the online ads you come across seem oddly personal to you well there's a reason for that and it doesn't stop with ads because that's where these spam emails and maybe even automated robocalls begin and it only gets worse from there if you ever signed up for a newsletter a website or some other service then chances are your data
• 03:00 - 03:30 was resold without you ever agreeing to it there's a shadow industry of data Brokers aggregating buying and reselling personal data like your full name email address phone number home address SSN shopping habits online Alias employment history financial information and much much more and as valuable as that information may be for those trading in it all you get out of it of course is Spam and even that is a best case SC
• 03:30 - 04:00 Ario in the US in particular your data may end up in public search sites and health insurance companies are known to use some of that data as determinant of Health meaning your documented online activity may actually increase your rates there is also the risk that your data sooner or later will be leaked in a data breach where it's made freely available for outright criminals putting you at additional risk for more targeted scams and even identity theft where loans may be taken out in your name the
• 04:00 - 04:30 good news though is that no matter how they obtained it you have the right to request that these data Brokers delete the information they have about you the bad news is that there are hundreds of them and each and every one of them will try every trick to weasel out of deleting your data and where still even if they do there's nothing preventing them from collecting it again the really good news then is that incog this video sponsored can take care of this for you incog helps you protect protect your
• 04:30 - 05:00 privacy and take your personal data off the market by reaching out to data Brokers on your behalf demand your personal data be removed and plow through their objections as they come and better still they'll send repeat removal requests in case they should get a hold of your data again and best of all the whole process is automated all you have to do is create an account Grant incog the right to work on your behalf and kick back and relax while they do the work for you keeping you up to date with the progress every step of
• 05:00 - 05:30 the way since this video is sponsored by incog we naturally have a deal for you use our code Midnight at the link in the description and you'll get 60% off an annual incognit plan so head down to the description and get your data protected now with that let's move on to Elon Musk and The Madness of Norway let's begin with how many would first have been exposed to this namely
• 05:30 - 06:00 by Elon Musk on November 16th retweeting a story with the caption wow this is crazy in reference to a tweet from Alex San which read here's how insane things have gotten in Norway the Socialist Party has a Wall of Shame in their office with rich people who have left Norway due to the outrageous taxes they're now being charged who do you find on that wall startup Founders like Frederick haa The Man Behind the cryp app Dune who was forced to leave the
• 06:00 - 06:30 country because he was paying all of his income in taxes when the Soviet Union is becoming the role model of your country time to GTFO there's a lot to unpack here so let's start with this socialist Wall of Shame a story which is from the financial section of dog BL the most left leaning of all of Norway's major newspapers all of which are left leaning the only thing that separates them are how left leaning they are
• 06:30 - 07:00 this story then features an interview with kishy bster the leader of the political party socialist left yes that is the actual name of the party the Socialist left I kid you not they are not in government at the moment but a party that the ruling labor and Centrist parties rely on for parliamentary backing which in turn gives them influence on her office wall she has clippings of Rich Norwegians that have left the past couple of years and the
• 07:00 - 07:30 Socialist Party leader takes a gleeful Delight in entrepreneurs and other successful business owners complaining about the high tax level and them leaving the country telling the publication that this gives her drive inspiration and at times a good laugh she says over time ever more extreme statements from rich men has been allowed to take up more space in the public discourse this only goes to show how powerful their Lobby is and that they live in an Al alterate reality
• 07:30 - 08:00 that's some great a gaslighting right there because having a powerful Lobby also implies having some level of influence but if they did they wouldn't have left their home country and its taxation regime in the first place as for living in an Ultimate Reality keep that in mind as we move forward here this socialist is accusing entrepreneurs of living in an alternate reality let me know in the comments if you agree with that assessment as we move on here she continues I don't go to work for these
• 08:00 - 08:30 people these rich people I go to work for regular people the wealth Gap is increasing and the wealthiest have increased their Fortune by 63% while everyone else are worse off since the lockdowns you wouldn't think so with how these people are whining and moaning she says note that she doesn't say one word about why the wealth Gap has increased which in no small part is due to the mass welfare immigration as well as the extreme economic mismanagement by the
• 08:30 - 09:00 government and the Norwegian Central Bank nor does she say anything about what they're going to do for the regular working people who are worse off because the economy is shall we say not all it could be instead the focus appears to be to punish anyone who on paper appears to be successful even if most of those who appear successful haven't increased their wealth by 63% and many do not have the means needed to pay the extortionate taxes fees that are suddenly demanded of
• 09:00 - 09:30 them disposable or freely available because to put it in simple terms they are at times taxed real money for assets and income that only exists on paper the taxation system is complex and a multi video series would be required to go through it all so for brevity let's look at some concrete examples in response to Elon Musk calling out the leader of the Socialist left and her
• 09:30 - 10:00 Wall of Shame as crazy one of the more Centrist Norwegian Publications net D published a piece stating Elon Musk is right taking Delight in Rich business owners fleeing the country is indeed crazy while other countries go to Great Lengths to attract investors and entrepreneurs the leader of the Socialist left brings impulses from some of the least successful politicians in history somewhat ironically she acts like a mix of the Venezuelan socialist
• 10:00 - 10:30 politician Hugo Chavez and the East German head of state Eric honer honer is renowned for fencing in the population and refusing them to leave the country Hugo Chavez is known for having wasted the oil fortune and scaring Away commercial Enterprise let's look at what the current Norwegian government is doing in order to achieve this and begin with the ordinary income tax which for most people in 9 to5 jobs or 8 to4 as is the case in Norway pay around 30 some something per of their gross earnings in
• 10:30 - 11:00 income tax if you're a business owner that live from the proceeds of your business though you'll be worse off because your income will be taxed several times over as of now and I emphasize that for a reason because it may be about the change but as of now a company can move its proceeds from various Investments its unrealized capital gains from one investment to the other without being taxed for it the moment the Investments are realized though tax is due several times over the
• 11:00 - 11:30 aforementioned brings forth an example of a company that has profited 100 million Norwegian Kona roughly $10 million so just remove a zero for a quick Dollar conversion from that 100 million the company has to pay 22 million in company Tax which leaves a net company profit of 78 million but these are still in the company if the owner wants to extract this money from the company to spend on non-company expenses like his living expenses then
• 11:30 - 12:00 37.8% of that will be deducted after which the company owner gets to keep 48.5 million after tax in other words more than half of the company's profits is Stripped Away in taxes before the owner gets to keep any of it the central premise of this regime isn't unique to Norway but the high rates means any business owners already in Norway has good reason to look for other places to set up shop instead while foreign companies have good reason to stay away
• 12:00 - 12:30 it gets worse though because Norway has something most other countries don't namely attacks on Fortune which is completely unrelated to income the Norwegian Fortune tax is calculated based on the value of your house your car your bank deposits and every other asset in your name minus your debt if that number is more than 1.7 million Kona or $170,000 to keep the
• 12:30 - 13:00 conversion simple you have to pay a minimum of 1% in Fortune tax in addition to all other taxes what sets this tax apart is that what will drive it up is the tax value of your real estate plus the paper values of any Holdings you might have that I will get back to in a little bit so for the moment let's focus on real estate if you're a regular worker and you've mostly paid off your house mortgage this rare translates to more
• 13:00 - 13:30 than a few hundred per year but that's still real money you have to pay on the paper value of your house if the housing market suddenly collapses and you end up selling your house at a much lower price than the tax value you've been taxed at for years already you ain't getting that money back that's one thing if you're an individual but if you're in a business that involves more real estate this becomes an issue the real problem isn't real estate though but if you own or invest in a new company so even if
• 13:30 - 14:00 you're not rich if you're just a regular schmuck that has an idea for a killer company there's no need to feel left out the current nor Regan government have you in their crosshairs as well the initial quote tweet from Elon Musk that we started with referenced Fredick haa the founder of the crypto app Dune who left Norway because he was paying all of his income in taxes not a third not one half all how can that be
• 14:00 - 14:30 you wonder well let's see in an opinion piece titled the taxes that are killing our future published in the newspaper V Norwegian artist turned entrepreneur an wrote many have bought into the claims that the fortune and exit taxes and I'll get back to that one only affect the wealthiest of the wealthy I bought into this as well until I started my own company referencing the comments from the leader of the Socialist left that she doesn't go to work for these
• 14:30 - 15:00 abominable rich people but for regular working people anang argued that the people who actually create jobs for the regular working people aren't themselves regular working people so how is the country supposed to incentivize more Innovation and job creation when those who succeed at this are practically labeled as enemies of society by prominent politicians she writes we hear Norwegian politicians say we need more entrepreneurs especially female entrepreneurs but how is that supposed
• 15:00 - 15:30 to happen when instead of support we're met with unique Norwegian taxes that cut us off at the knce the fortune tax demands harms entrepreneurs by demanding tax payments on values that only exist on paper not in reality if you have Ambitions of building a company that will grow you need investors that will buy a stake in your company and if you as the founder are to retain a controlling share a value must be assigned the company and frequently a high value take the Swedish startup a where the
• 15:30 - 16:00 value was assigned as 1 billion after 1 year of operation and this evaluation was used to secure a 100 million in Investments by selling 10% of the company this cash influx facilitated a fast growth job creation gain market shares and build a success and here then comes the difference the Norwegian Fortune tax makes because unlike in Sweden where the 100 million would have gone wholesale to a is actually growing the company in Norway a chunk of that
• 16:00 - 16:30 investment would trigger Fortune tax for the owner and in taking the money needed to pay that fortune tax out of the company that would trigger an additional 37.8% capital gains tax which also would have to be removed from the company and again this is money that was meant to grow the company not pay the personal tax of the owner and if the invested amount is high enough it is indeed possible to be left with a tax Bill higher than what the owner has actually
• 16:30 - 17:00 earned in the original article stung provided a hypothetical example which stated that if her company had received even a tenth of the valuation and investment that this Swedish company did she would get a personal tax bill of nearly half a million this article went viral in Norway so much so that the Norwegian Treasury and finance department struck back and tried to quibble It Away by pointing out some errors in her calculation resulting from the
• 17:00 - 17:30 complexity of the system and other factors involved their main thesis however is that no she wouldn't have to pay anywhere near half a million in Fortune tax though in the fine print deeper into that response it was stated that if her company was listed as a publicly traded company rather than a limited liability company then her half million estimate would have been closer to reality kind of proving her point but just the main point which stands regardless of any attempted quibbling is
• 17:30 - 18:00 that Norwegian companies have a major disadvantage compared to pretty much any other compatible Nations and economies as the tax system massively disincentivizes any kind of Investments and Company growth that relies on investments in Norway because depending on a number of factors as the founder of the crypto app Dune found out you can quickly find yourself in a situation where all your earnings are eaten away in tax long term this is a disaster for Norway
• 18:00 - 18:30 for two reasons first because it impedes future job growth Nationwide and employment opportunities and second because as all our industries were shut down and shipped off to mostly China we were told that Norway was going to be a knowledge-based nation and sell that but how can we sell knowledge when we disincentivize innovation
• 18:30 - 19:00 NH an interest Organization for Norwegian Enterprises argues that the fortune tax has to be reduced and in the long run abolished completely pointing out that when this tax is added to the Revenue tax and other taxes because it's the overall combo that is the killer here then that means those who invest in Norwegian companies run the risk of paying more than what they earn in tax unless the Investments knock it out of the park but since you don't know in advance what will knock it out of the park this tax when coupled with the
• 19:00 - 19:30 Revenue tax and all the others decentivize any kind of investments into anything the current government obviously did all this to collect more tax revenue to fund the massive welfare immigration no one voted for on and offshore wind power that is doomed to fail and yes the development of games like dustborne the wokest game ever made see our separate expose for more on that link to in the description as well as other assorted waste and here and there
• 19:30 - 20:00 some good things however when the current government implemented their current tax regime in 2022 the wealthy started leaving and in order to prevent them from leaving and taking all that sweet sweet tax money with them the government responded with an urgent exit tax this states that upon leaving Norway you have to pay 37.8% of all values you have in Norway as per the date of moving you can pay all of this upfront in installments over
• 20:00 - 20:30 12 years or at the end of the 12 years but then with interest added to it if some investment of yours tanked after you moved but before you paid the bill doesn't matter you still owe the tax based on the valuation from the date of departure and on top of that you still have to pay tax to Norway your first 2 years abroad needless to say the exit tax has been massively criticized with many pointing out that the ones who will suffer the most from it are regular
• 20:30 - 21:00 people with regular real estate who for whatever reason wish to move country the government response to this blowback is finding ways to make the exit tax even more extreme so how are the average norion responding to all of this do they approve of their government's actions both in this matter and everything else not as such no recent polls indicate that if there were an election today the progress party which is the closest you will come to Maga Republicans of the
• 21:00 - 21:30 major Norwegian parties would win in a landslide the next election is still one year away though so Elon Musk has plenty more time to retweet posts and videos about the craziness of the current Norwegian governance maybe some of you could point out this video to him also do you like videos like these even if they're a little bit on the side of what we usually cover let me know in the comments and before you go remember to
• 21:30 - 22:00 protect your personal data with incog use our code Midnight at the link in the description and you'll get 60% off an annual incog plan