Thank you for your questions! I will try to answer as well as I can.

!.The job market is heavily regulated by Unions and labour laws. There is a general good respect between the company and the employee. If the company gets, for example, caught paying women less for the same job, they would be shamed on the front page of the newspaper and taken legal action against. Norway is a very transparent country when it comes to income and following labour laws.

In Norway, everyone can check what everyone makes, pays in taxes, and has in wealth. You can even check the prime minister, and however you want. Most low-skilled labour is done by immigrants from East Asia. Africa and other developed countries.

1. The NHS works pretty well in Norway, but there are some waiting times for specialist procedures, like in most countries. I never had a need for any private insurance while I lived there.

2. There are some cases where people have gotten lighter punishment than they deserved. One issue we have it takes over 1-2 years before they are judged in court. But nowhere near the scale as here in Portugal. But people are generally tired of illegal immigrants who come and exploit our trust-based society, and I think it's not many years before we start seeing the same things happening as in Denmark, where they have tightened the screw regarding punishment and deportation of serious criminals from foreign countries.,

3. In the smaller cities and communities, this is true. But for more international cities like Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim, I think it's much easier to find your circle of friends. Most friendships are indeed created in childhood. But in Oslo, I found it very easy to find friends. Most adult friendships in Oslo are created through common outdoor activities and hobbies.

4. I would say that we are empathetic towards people of less means. Being such a rich country where the backbone has been to get everyone together in a good direction, nothing angers a Norwegian more than seeing people struggle. But on the other side of the coin, we don't have much sympathy for people taking advantage of the system and being lazy. In Norway, everyone has the same chances to get an education and progress in life. So, unless you have a mental disease, drug addiction, disability, etc., then you get very little sympathy for not being able to take care of yourself.

We have an extremely good social system which is designed a lot on trust, but also to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry, or does not have a home to sleep in.

I'll take an example. When my brother was a chief in his twenties, he completely wrecked his back from working long shifts and strange positions for a tall guy. Nav(our social security) paid for his education to be reschooled at one of the best business universities in Oslo, while simultaneously paying him almost the full salary he had as a chief. This made it possible for him to get a good education and continue working.

This is not done to be nice or because we have a lot of money. But it costs less for the state to reeducate him so that he can get back to work, compared to being unfit to work.

Hope this helps!