By Kyle Smith
January 11, 2015 | 6:00am
Want proof that the liberal social-democratic society works?
Look to Denmark, the country that routinely leads the world in happiness surveys. It’s also notable for having the highest taxes on Earth, plus a comfy social safety net: Child care is mostly free, as is public school and even private school, and you can stay on unemployment benefits for a long time. Everyone is on an equal footing, both income-wise and socially: Go to a party and you wouldn’t be surprised to see a TV star talking to a roofer.
The combination of massive taxes and benefits for the unsuccessful means top and bottom get shaved off: Pretty much everyone is proudly middle class. Danes belong to more civic associations and clubs than anyone else; they love performing in large groups. At Christmas they do wacky things like hold hands and run around the house together, singing festive songs. They’re a real-life Whoville.
In the American liberal compass, the needle is always pointing to places like Denmark. Everything they most fervently hope for here has already happened there.
So: Why does no one seem particularly interested in visiting Denmark? (“Honey, on our European trip, I want to see Tuscany, Paris, Berlin and . . . Jutland!”) Visitors say Danes are joyless to be around. Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world. (Its fellow Nordics the Icelanders are in front by a wide margin.) Some 5 percent of Danish men have had sex with an animal. Denmark’s productivity is in decline, its workers put in only 28 hours a week, and everybody you meet seems to have a government job. Oh, and as The Telegraph put it, it’s “the cancer capital of the world.”
So how happy can these drunk, depressed, lazy, tumor-ridden, pig-bonking bureaucrats really be?
https://nypost.com/2015/01/11/sorry-liberals-scandinavian-countries-arent-utopias/
The Scandinavian countries WERE utopia. Socialism actually worked quite well for them. The reason socialism was a success was because the vast majority of the populations were made up of pure Scandinavians. It was a case of social honesty, hard work, and in those rare cases of people being down on their luck, they were genuine in their need. With these ideal conditions, socialism works remarkably well. What we’ve seen in recent years is a heavy flow of immigrants from cultures who devour the free stuff, and view lying to get that free stuff as what they do best. Add to that the problems of unwillingness to integrate, and you have lost what was once a great place to live. Canada isn’t far behind.
Do they have unnecessarily large parking garages?
4:19
A perfect analysis.