Is food expensive in Norway?

That's an issue where opinions are divided, to say the least. It's what they call a hot topic of discussion. I'm not going to say all that much about it tonight ... believe me, this is something I can talk about for a looong time. I won't do that tonight. I just have to get something off my chest that is highly relevant to this debate.

It's also relevant to a lot of other issues that are similarly hotly debated in this country. Most of them, probably. This is because - I think - we as a society don't have any real problems, so we tend to bury ourselves in our non-problems. And then we get too caught up in details ... which is negative, because it distracts us from the real core of the issue.

In this case, as to whether food is expensive or not, but also in a lot of other debates, a lot of arguments tend to be brought up that aren't relevant, but because Norwegians are stupid (like everyone else), they are nevertheless perceived as relevant, so we talk about them and waste time on them and lose sight of the real issue. That's what I'm complaining about tonight. :-) All these non-arguments that people actually accept as having something to do with the problem. Or, OK, 'problem'.

I'll give you an example. A Eurostat report was published this week on how much wage earners across Europe are spending on food in terms of percentage of income, so that brought the debate to the boil again. And in one of these discussions someone said that it isn't true that food is cheap, it's expensive. And his example was that if you go to the store to buy your dinner, you have to pay probably 90 crowns for a Big One [frozen deep pan pizza] and then you need something to drink with it too, and a Coke will cost you another 20. So that's well over 100 crowns for just one dinner.

WTF???

This is the guy's argument. But how is it an argument? It has nothing to do with anything. What he's saying is that he's a stupid idiot who can't cook. OK, there's no law against that. But what the hell does that have to do with the food prices??! And how dumb do you have to be to think that there is a connection??

Rant over for now. I could go on about this all night. Don't get me started. But if you're starting from where that guy is coming from then there is NO FUCKING POINT in having this discussion. You're talking out of your ass. And your arguments are, predictably, shit.