Matt Yglesias on Vox.com has an excellent analysis of conditions in Denmark that should be required reading for all of you who want to feel the Bern. I would like to add a few items to explain why the US will never, and probably should never, have the same sort of welfare state as the Danes:
- Religion is not an issue in Denmark. There is a clear correlation in this country between evangelical Christians and hostility to the welfare state (consider Ben Carson’s recent remarks on charity, for example). That kind of ideology is unimportant in Denmark.
- Rural voters have less clout in Denmark. Most of the population lives in or around Copenhagen; by all accounts, the rural population is dwindling pretty rapidly. As a result, there is much less of a red/blue political and cultural divide than we have here.
- The population is more ethnically homogeneous in Denmark. I think Yglesias is wrong to soft-pedal the racist element of opposition to the welfare state in the US.
- There is more small government DNA in our system. Like it or not, our country was built by people who were fleeing government oppression elsewhere, not by people demanding “free stuff.”
- The US is more dynamic than Denmark. How many Danish artists, intellectuals, and political figures can you name? Didn’t think so. Our dynamism is partly the result of inequality that is limited by a large welfare state.
I’ve been to Denmark. It is a beautiful country, and it has excellent public facilities. It also costs $100.00 for two people to eat out there unless you go to a fast food restaurant. That’s the tradeoff.
I wouldn’t mind it at all if we lived more like the Danes than we do now, but I think it is both wise and inevitable for us to accept a bit more inequality in exchange for a more vibrant society than they do.