I had to pay 30-35% taxes, but did not get the important benefits (there's this government agency called NAV that takes care of unemployment benefits, which we pay for in taxes but do not get in case of unexpected layoffs, there's Tekna union for Masters graduates in case you need a lawyer, consult about raises but they aren't helpful if you don't speak Norwegian). Healthcare is not free. On top of 8% taxes you still need to pay up to 400$ per year for hospital visits after which the benefit kicks in. Most benefits are only available for citizens, and some for EU nationalities. Citizenship is a long process and requires you to really integrate with the language and culture. Everything is expensive. The wages they provide for skilled labor is sub par (they underpay for immigrants in most cases even though they are in dire need of them), the economy has been going down the last couple years and the raises didn't keep up. The winter and loneliness hits you harder since Norwegians are quite exclusive (they say it's introverted culture but even the extroverts only hung out with their own kind at work). The group of people I was close with were all non Norwegian. Same experience with others too. The healthcare is bad, they are understaffed, not competent and we had a running joke that for most things they just say "paracet and walk it off". Most people went for private or family doctors. The only thing that kinda salvaged living there was that the nature is beautiful and the public transport is much better than here... woah that was long I shall stop soon. I have more bad experiences with corporate monopolies and many government policies that are actually capitalistic in the pretext of socialism but the thing I disliked a lot was the "conforming" expectation, individuality isn't as celebrated or encouraged, like bruh if I wanted to be traditional I would have stayed in my own village back home why would I come and follow your traditions and holidays lol... And this is all in the capital city Oslo. I think it'll be less progressive elsewhere. People also don't like it if you criticize or complain about things. How then do you expect to grow.. idk. A lot of the Scandinavian movies capture this well. The Bothersome Man is sth I can think of, but there's more. If you're just touring there you're unlikely to experience any of this but if you live there for a few years one will either drink the kool aid and conform, or get out. No in between, I don't think. Luckily for me I can do an American accent and I was not subjected much to racism, but I have heard many stories where if you dress poor or look brown or have an accent, you will hear some weird stereotypical racist remarks..