Sometimes I find modern living perplexing. We work so we can afford things. We get better paid jobs so we can afford things easier and dare I say, afford more things. Then we get bills that appear to be created by a random number generator. I’ve received 11 bills in the last week, only two of which I will happily pay without question (Stavanger Kayak klub, & the World Wildlife Fund); the rest I question... which you can’t do in Norway. Norway has this ‘wonderful’ system called ‘inkasso’ (pronounced, “day light robbery”); whereby a company that you’ve never had dealings with before can send you a bill and if you don’t pay this (random) bill, they then give your details to a credit organisation that increases the bill and credit blacklists you, despite the fact that you have no connection with this company than they are trying to fleece money from you...
My mobile phone has been transferred from my last company’s account to mine. The subscription has no monthly fee... yet a receive a bill for 500 NOK... Now I’ve already rang them twice to confirm that there was no monthly fee and they came back with, that there wasn’t and I wouldn’t be charged... on ringing a third time, and asking why they had sent me a monthly fee, they told me that it was wrong, I need to pay it and then they would refund me... yeah right... I declined and asked for confirmation that the bill had been cancelled... which I am still waiting for... I can feel another round with Inkasso coming on... for something that is these Muppets fault (Muppets in this case is Telenor).
My electricity consumption has gone down this year, yet my bill has doubled... ‘obviously’ the existing hydroelectric power stations now cost twice as much to produce electricity... (Lyse, is this company that’s robbing me blind... the same company that cut the power off between Christmas and New Year for eight hours, when it was – 8 degrees C, for routine maintenance, and they didn’t actually tell us... although apparently they had put a notice in the paper. They asked me if I expected them to tell everyone individually... ummmm Yeah... it’s not like electricity is free!).
Stavanger brought in a congestion charge about six year ago in Stavanger... this was to operate between six in the morning and six in the evening, from 06-10, & 15-18 it was 10 kr, in between it was five kr. The money to set it up came out of the public purse. Now we sit in traffic jams with a big sign saying road ‘improvements’ are being paid for by your toll money (am I the only one who sees the irony in this); the charge is now 24 hrs a day, seven days a week, and the company that runs it double the price... Can you see a trend here... {Not to mention that the infrastructure was paid from public money but a private company takes 40% of the ‘earnings’ – in the olden days such folk were called “Highway men” and their dead bodies were hung by the side of the road as a warning to others...}
I struggle with this system where utility companies, can hike prices up to phenomenal increases and there is no form for redress! Try this in a work contract and there would be hell to play... why is it allowable in private life?!
Most communes take the eminently sensible approach to rubbish, that it should be processed correctly and there is either no charge or a minimum charge for taking it to the tip and responsibly disposing of it... Stavanger has realised that this is another method to ‘print money’ and now charges/cubic metre.
Now I have little mortgage on my house, my salary drops... more loan I have the more disposable income I have! HELLOOOOOOOOOO???
The result of all these wonderful schemes, is that you need more money to pay for things that you need and if you can increase your debit it leads to more money!
Norway has a population of ~ five million. Apparently 2.4 million work... of these 400 000 are on sick leave, & 900 000 work for the state... ‘Fortunately’ Norway has a protected economy, and the state keeps coming up with new ways to make money... which I’d love to say that they are investing wisely for a time when the oil dries up (energy conservation projects & renewable... Norway is a technology base, use this base to develop new industries that the world will need as oil becomes more scares), but no, there is not a whiff of this...
On a side note, driving from my house yesterday to take Kin to puppy class, I came across two folk of ‘advancing years’, trying to relocate a large stone that had fallen from a dry stone wall. It was but the work of two minutes to stop the car, assist them and get back in... they couldn’t have looked at me stranger if I had appeared in a cape with my underwear on the outside of my trousers and assisted them... Why is this behaviour so strange to people (especially in a ‘socialist’ country)?!
Bring back the batter system! Give money a tangible value again. Make people and companies accountable for their actions, and help those in need... Fairness, (and dare I mention it, happiness) have no monetary value... but they are priceless.
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