Bernie Sanders thinks the American dream leaves too many people behind. He wants America to look more like Denmark, with a far more robust welfare state, higher taxes, and a tiny army.
Denmark is a nice country; it always scores highly on indices of national happiness. So why isn’t the dream resonating here? The one word answer is fear, of the following:
- That the government simply isn’t capable of managing such a large segment of the economy competently;
- On the part of the millions of Americans who are comfortable, but not billionaires, that the value of the new public services they receive will not justify their higher tax burden;
- That Xi, Putin, and other international bad guys can’t be kept under control by the Danish army;
- That the US would turn into a haven for illegal immigrants looking for welfare benefits paid for by American workers; and
- That an America that does not reward excellence will be less vibrant—the mediocre society.
With the possible exception of #4, these are all reasonable concerns. Hence the imminent demise of the Sanders campaign, which has done nothing to address any of them.