[ExI] Leveraging temporary income

[Anders Sandberg]

On 04/10/2012 01:55, David Lubkin wrote:
> Anders wrote:
>
>> Check out Norway. They are investing most of the money in big funds. 
>> Some of the surplus is used for infrastructure - the country has some 
>> of the most impressive bridges and tunnels imaginable (although the 
>> muncipalities - who often lack money - skimp on lights in the lesser 
>> used tunnels).
>
> That doesn't surprise me. I was very impressed with the good sense
> and practicality of the people when I was there twenty years ago.

You know us Scandinavians. We plan our freedom very carefully and 
technocratically.

Of course, as a Swede I should probably make some joking/snide remark 
about the stupidity of Norwegians, it is the done thing on both sides 
since the 1905 secession. But since I live in the UK and more identify 
as a European I don't think I will bother. :-)


Saving money for a rainy day is not always the optimal solution. There 
is a difference between stocks and flows, and usually it is better to 
increase the flow of money than the stock (if you have no reason to 
suspect the flow to be unstable). Investing in education (or good 
investments) is a bit like investing in a better future flow. But the 
more uncertain the future looks, the more important it is to diversity 
the investments - it could simply be that Norway will make much more 
from its Arctic and large-scale engineering expertise than from the oil 
stock once stuff really gets going above the polar circle. And as Robin 
Hanson suggested, the first upload hypercities/datacenters might reside 
in Canada or Scandinavia. Conversely, a global financial crash might 
make the Norwegian funds useless paper overnight (actually, they have of 
course invested in a lot of other things too).

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University