Hundreds of jews were denied asylum by Iceland before WW2. The chief of Police in 1939 was a Nazi who later founded a secret police that kept tabs on communists. We benefited from the Marshall plan even though the war hardly touched us, actually given the state of our infrastructure we might as well have been. We were the poorest country in Europe before WW2.
There was a kind of balance between social democracy and pure capitalism. Until the 90's when the neolibs took over. We made a fishing quota system that made fishing rights a commodity to be bought and sold, you can guess how that went. We had our own Reagan except he's still alive and is the editor of the oldest newspaper in the country, bankrolled by quota barons.
There was a market crash in 2008, like you've probably heard about, a government of socdems and left greens took over and promptly took an IMF loan. Next elections the right parties made a promise to give homeowners money because houses started costing less.
Every town was built up after the automobile, so you can imagine the sprawl. We sell our "green" energy on the cheap to multinationals to make aluminium. We are a third world country that acts like a first world country.
comes from being an insignificant backwater for most of our history, in a geopolitical sense. For instance the only reason we are in NATO is so that the US can have an airbase in the country.
On a positive note the labour movement came before industrialization so it's pretty strong in numbers but has been in a coma since the 90's. It's waking up again with more radical union leaders being elected in some of the bigger unions.
Neoliberalism - The country
Hundreds of jews were denied asylum by Iceland before WW2. The chief of Police in 1939 was a Nazi who later founded a secret police that kept tabs on communists. We benefited from the Marshall plan even though the war hardly touched us, actually given the state of our infrastructure we might as well have been. We were the poorest country in Europe before WW2.
There was a kind of balance between social democracy and pure capitalism. Until the 90's when the neolibs took over. We made a fishing quota system that made fishing rights a commodity to be bought and sold, you can guess how that went. We had our own Reagan except he's still alive and is the editor of the oldest newspaper in the country, bankrolled by quota barons.
There was a market crash in 2008, like you've probably heard about, a government of socdems and left greens took over and promptly took an IMF loan. Next elections the right parties made a promise to give homeowners money because houses started costing less.
Every town was built up after the automobile, so you can imagine the sprawl. We sell our "green" energy on the cheap to multinationals to make aluminium. We are a third world country that acts like a first world country.
If thats the worst of Iceland then its better than everywhere else.
comes from being an insignificant backwater for most of our history, in a geopolitical sense. For instance the only reason we are in NATO is so that the US can have an airbase in the country.
On a positive note the labour movement came before industrialization so it's pretty strong in numbers but has been in a coma since the 90's. It's waking up again with more radical union leaders being elected in some of the bigger unions.