The Soapbox

Joined: 06/18/2008 Posts: 1383
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As long as we're comparing our society to the Danes

we should really stop picking and choosing how we do it.

- Denmark taxes the poor at 30%. Try that here.

- Denmark only has two income brackets. Practically a flat tax.

- Denmark's taxes are immensely high overall, once you add their 8% gross tax, municipal income taxes, but Denmark also caps one's personal tax contribution.

- Denmark is a rayciss state that voraciously punts foreigners out of the country so as to keep a homogenous, non-diverse society and not have to extend their generous benefits to refugees. They arrest little old ladies for human smuggling if they give a Syrian refugee a ride anywhere. Try that here.

- Denmark has no minimum wage, no rules requiring overtime pay, and it's very easy to hire and fire workers. Labor unions are very, very strong there, but the labor unions also play a role in paying unemployment to their members, which ours do not do and would scream bloody murder if forced to.

Personally I find it preposterous to compare a country with 5.7 million people to a country with 320 million and expect to make the same systems work just as well, and further I find it morally repugnant to give more than half of what you earn to the government. But if we're going to follow Bernie down the path of Danish utopia, it's naive to fail to recognize that all these aspects of Danish society contribute to their delighted happiness, and you can't just pick and choose the things you like. Many of Denmark's policies would be anathema to the American left.

(In response to this post by southdenverhoo)

Posted: 04/19/2016 at 09:11AM

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