Monday 4 December 2000

Pic of the day: Black and white Sims get along just fine, as long as you don't accidentally refer to the black Sims as "African-Simians"... (Screenshot from the game The Sims.)

Negro shopping

Back when I grew up, the preferred word was "neger". Not that we were likely to ever see any of them here in Norway, but I saw them regularly in my grandmother's magazines. My grandmother was an eager supporter of the missionaries, who among countless other things went to Africa and taught the negroes about Jesus. The negroes, once properly informed, set a good example for the rather relaxed christians up north here, was my impression. They were also generally quite good looking.

I think there were already some who referred to dark-skinned people as blacks, but it was hardly the best thing to say. Firstly, most of them were actually various shades of brown. And second, the term was somewhat negatively loaded. It was associated with the Dark Side, and people of my generation at least in the countryside will probably still recognize "Svarte!" (Black! or Blacks!) as a curse word. Besides, it could easily be construed to mean dirty, which was one of the more common usages of it when talking about people. By and large, the neutral designation "neger" (negro) was the way to go.

Until the people actually showed up here. Much to our surprise, they were quite offended by the designation. I guess to the untrained ear it may sound like "nigger", which is an acknowledged insult. In fact, it is even used here in Norway sporadically, and not necessarily about blacks.

Be that as it may, there is now no good way to speak about these people. We could call them Africans, I guess, except you can't say on sight whether they come from Africa or America. I've met both. And not least, Africa is populated by lots of people, not all of them black or brown. Much of North Africa for instance is populated by Berbers and Arabians, and descendants of the Romans and even the later invaders, some of which came from northern Europe. (The Vandals come to mind - I think they ended their days when they, after sacking Rome and the environs, went over to plunder Africa.)

***

Whatever you call them, they know how to shop. I may have casually mentioned this before, but my key to inexpensive shopping is to rank the supermarket by the skin color of their customers. The darker the skin, the better the prices on the goods you actually buy on a regular basis. I felt a bit smug the other week when a national survey ranked the various supermarket chains - and verified what I had already found out by simply following the blacks. The blacker, the better.

I was reminded of this today again, as the radio news informed us that people of "non-western" origin earned on average 20% less than the average for their education. Strange, isn't it? Actually we don't have a black underclass here - there are simply too few for them to be a class even if they tried. And they don't try hard to segregate, either, at least not yet. Most of them are men, and they date Norwegian girls like mad, and often move in and have kids and stuff. I guess this may change when more black women come over. The few who have already shown up are generally quite good looking. They compare favorably with the local women, which frankly says a lot.

If the black women are as liberal regarding "race" as the men, they may be absorbed into the local population (which could use some color) pretty quickly. But in the meantime, they seem to have some problems getting the cream jobs. Then again, I'm not exactly affluent myself.

***

There's been some complaining lately about the taxes. Of course, it's either that or the weather. Even some Americans complain over taxes. Taxes here in Norway are pretty much on the average for OECD, or rather the median - there are about as many countries with higher taxes as with lower, among the rich nations. If we were to actually calculate averages, then the USA would probably drag the average quite a bit down, since they use insurance for some stuff that the rest of us include with the taxes in whole or in part. Health care and pensions make up quite a bit of the taxes in most European nations, including ours.

The factoid that set people a-grumbling this time was the discovery that people on average income pay "top tax", a special tax originally meant to target those who could afford a bit extra. The income limits for this tax has slid upwards, but not as fast as wages and salaries. So now the floor for top tax is a bit below kr 300 000 (ca $32000) while the average wage is a bit over that magic number. These people then pay somewhere around 5-10% of the income above the limit. I don't recall the number, as I remain confident that I shall never be close to earning that much in my life.

I certainly have enough for my rent, food and clothes, and a new cheap computer every other year. I'm not going to weep my eyes out over people on average wages, they certainly seem to have more than enough money. Most of them have a fairly new car and their own house and often a small cabin in the mountains or by the sea or in Spain. Frankly, the blacks and hispanics and I get by quite fine without.

I have a vague theory that the experience of income is logarithmic. Perhaps a base 10 logarithm, such that the difference from $10,000 to $20,000 feels approximately like the difference from $100,000 to $200,000, while $100,000 only feels twice as much as $10,000. That would explain why people who earn a lot are not just squealing with pleasure and rolling in their coins. It would also explain why the CEOs need to increase their pay each year by more than a worker on the floor earns that year. And it would explain how the blacks survive and even stay in our chilly country.