Response to "No Job? Get Lost" by Andrew Higgins

     "No Job? Get Lost!" By Andrew Higgins describes the city of Svalbard, Norway's northernmost territory, and how unemployment is illegal there. Svalbard has a police force of only six officers and one jail cell but, the author says, even that is overkill. Homelessness and unemployment are all prohibited in the city and even retirees are sent away unless they can prove that they can support themselves. The author clearly believes that there is a link between unemployment and lawlessness and Svalbard functions well because of these anti-unemployment laws. Although Governer Odd Olsen Inegro does not recomend the Svalbard approach as a solution to crime elsewhere, author Andrew Higgins seems to believe that banning unemployment is a smart idea. 

 

     To strengthen his arguement, Higgins uses narrative and the perspectives of both residents and the Governer, failing to include the opinions of those that have been deported as a result of unemployment. Mark Sabbatini, an American resident of Svalbard says that he used to live in LA, but he didn't enjoy that much. Sabbatini also says that the largest troublemakers in Svalbard are Polar Bears, which he never worries about. Higgins also says that taxes in Svalbard are the lowest of anywhere in Norway and states that Svalbard was the site of the James Bond movie: "Die Another Day" strengthening the arguement that it is a nice place to live.

     My opinions of Svalbard are mixed. A prosperous place with little crime and low taxes sounds like a fantastic place to live, however I strongly believe that this approach should not be used elsewhere. I can't imagine being uprooted from my home simply because I have retired. I find it very interesting that the only real troublemakers in Svalbard are Polar Bears and I wonder if this is actually the case. I also disagree with Svalbard's deviation from Nowrway's "welfare state". I don't believe that anyone should be excluded from a place of living and, although it might be a nice place to live, I disagree with a lot of the policies in place there.