You don't have student loans in norway but it's evened out by high taxes and the fact that no one goes for the high paying professions that require lots of education because of the opportunity cost of time... and well taxes.

This is just funny. You think that there are no one going for high paying professions? Doctors, realtors, engineers, economists, management, etc can all make 100-300k USD here, and they pay a whooping 45% tax on every krone past a certain point, but they're still left with more than enough, becuase they have no other expenses other than living and food. Norwegians have some of the highest home owenership rates, with many people owning more than one property because they have nothing else keeping them from saving money. No expensive medical bills, no expensive schools/daycare, no insane rent. Norwegians are actually criticized by Sweden/Denmark/Finland for their high spending and travelling habits. I wish I could say Norwegians didn't have money to throw around, but the middle/upper class is 85% of the country, and live comfortably even if they pay more in tax.

You have a very American pov on taxes as well. Why do you think Norwegians have been comfortable paying so much tax for so many decades? It's because it's a well functioning societal contract where we get the HIGHEST standard of living in the world. From health to education to economic mobility to happiness to workers rights, Norway has been no 1 or top 3 for the past decade or more. So even rich people here don't mind having a bit less spending power compared to a rich American, because they and their children benefit and enjoy a happy, well-functioning society, without the class divide, poverty, health-care disaster, pollution, corruption, reckless spending, greed, competitiveness, crime, and vacation-less stressful job enviroment that Americans seem to struggle with.

I know I can't really know how living there is, but I can read statistics, and the US aren't doing great (24th inequality adjusted HDI). Median income is a pretty shallow and shit way of comparing two countries.