Norway has hired an academic philosopher, Henrik Syse, and given him a staff of four to deal with the moral issues surrounding the $190 billion fund generated by oil wealth.
That is meat for me. Morals and money.
Morals are independent of commerce. I am among the rare people (Georg Simmel is the only other person I know of) who have thought and written about this subject. My thoughts are in my book Commerce and on my blogsite Commerce, a book.
Norway starts out with no moral authority … none.
Norway starts out with no moral authority … none. Norway is an
arbitrary nation-state and the people in that region have no more moral
right to the oil wealth than any other group of people. Lets start
with the moral rights of the Swedes who were part of a larger state
that included Norway a century ago, and then add in the moral rights of
the Danes who controlled both Norway and Sweden several centuries ago.
Then lets look at the Norwegian language group, that includes German,
Dutch and English. There is one reasonable conclusion: there is no
moral boundary called Norway.
Starting with no moral base, we can ask the following question: “is there a sound reason to apply Norwegian morals to funds that have fortuitously befallen the Norwegian people.?” I don’t see any. The answer is “no.”
Therefore I suggest an alternative approach to this issue: look at human precedent. What have humans done for many millennia when good fortune befell them?
If we treat this as an accidental gift of the gods, then historically such a fortunate people would wish to honor the “gods” who gave them the good fortune. By “honoring the gods” we would be following in the long line of human gratitude towards the gods, such actions may have no moral standing but they do respect the standing of precedent. Respecting precedent is itself a moral value to all of us, and has been throughout human history.
What form would such an expression of gratitude take? That question I can answer.
The “gods” have given Norwegians a gift that has meaning only in the
context of commerce. Oil is being extracted from the bottom of the
North Sea solely because it is valued in the world of commerce. Oil
had insignificant value before the rise of modern industrialism. Industrial commerce is what makes the gift of oil a gift.
“Gratitude to the gods” historically means an offering of part of the gift back. A good harvest means making some of the harvest produce into god-food and leaving it on the god’s alter.
Can the Norwegians be propitious with their oil bounty? Can they find a
way to respect commerce and be consistent with their existing moral
world? The answer is yes. I understand the Norwegian desire to act
morally. The Norwegians can act propitiously towards the gods of
commerce and stay within the bounds of their own morality.
Commerce has six values that I discuss in Commerce. These are values
in a strange sense of the word value. These are human behaviors that
encourage successful commerce; I call them the values of commerce. I
think that supporting these values would be propitious. The values
that encourage success in commerce are: openness, meritocracy,
diversity, market orientation, technological affinity and
decentralization.
These values can be used to guide the Norwegian investment portfolio and the application of these values will enhance commerce in a way that everyone in the world will benefit. Not a big Mac for the starving … more jobs and income for everyone.
I offer some examples of using commercial values to guide the Norwegian $190 billion portfolio: Use the individual portfolio stocks to demand openness in the accounting and public information access for each stock held in the portfolio. Support meritocracy by demanding strong anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-nepotism employment guidelines in all investments. Invest only in companies that have diverse ethnic and religious work forces and diverse management.
Those are examples of portfolio policies where Norwegian morality will parallel values that enhance commerce. The match of values and morality works and could be readily expanded in many directions.
I encourage Norway to move on this path. My suggestion is that Norwegians chose a propitious path that benefits commerce and the people of the world and is consistent with Norwegian morals.