[Vision2020] This is Why Danes are Happier

[Nicholas Gier]

*People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than People in the United States.
Here’s Why.*

*When governments provide benefits and services that allow its citizens to
thrive, everyone wins.*

*By The Nation <https://www.thenation.com/authors/the-nation/>Twitter
<https://twitter.com/@thenation>*

July 17, 2017



*Text by Joshua Holland. Graphics and animation by Rob Pybus. This work was
supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project
<http://economichardship.org/> and its Puffin Story Innovation Fund.*



*L*ast week, in Denmark, Malthe and Lærke Knudson had a baby girl they
named Emma. That same day, the Robinsons—Dale and Beth—had a little baby in
the United States. They called her Rachel.


Right now, they’re just two little babies keeping their parents awake at
night. But Emma and Rachel were born in countries that have very different
priorities, and that’s going to lead to pretty different futures.

It all boils down to this: Though Danes pay a lot more than Americans in
taxes and government fees, they get a whole lot more back in social
services.

As a result, Americans end up spending twice as much out-of-pocket for
those social goods and services. Let’s see how that plays out over their
two lives.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

In six months, Emma will probably enroll in preschool. By law, every
6-month-old Danish baby is guaranteed high-quality preschool, and parents
can’t be charged more than a quarter of the cost of those services. Parents
who can’t afford it? They don’t have to pay.

In the United States, kids from low-income families are often eligible for
full-time Head Start programs. Even then, the program only has enough
funding for a half-million slots nationwide. But the Robinsons make too
much to qualify, so they’ll either have to park little Rachel with Dale’s
mom, or one of them will have to get a second job to help cover the cost of
daycare. That little luxury could set the Robinsons back as much as $22,000
a year.

CHILD BENEFIT

It costs a lot to raise kids these days no matter where you live, but the
Knudsons will enjoy a child benefit which starts at $225 a month. When Emma
hits age seven, they’ll get $140 a month until she’s 17. That’s not a
benefit just for poor people; everyone gets it!

Rachel, on the other hand, will have to start learning some cool tricks
ASAP in order to get into a decent elementary school and prepare herself
for a high school that will help her get into a good college.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Some American schools are world class, but others, often serving students
from low-income families, can rank down there with those in developing
countries.

That means the Robinsons may soon be shopping for a house in another school
district—a notion that would never even occur to the Knudsons, because all
of the public schools in Denmark are really good.

FREE COLLEGE

Emma and Rachel are both good students, and they’ll both go to college when
they get older. In Denmark, almost every college student attends public
colleges and universities, which don’t charge tuition.

Rachel will navigate a very different educational system. She’ll probably
end up with a good deal of debt—in the US, 71 percent of the class of 2015
graduated with student-loan debt averaging around $35,000.

VACATION

Fresh out of school, the young women enter the workforce. And again,
they’ll have very different experiences.

If Rachel is lucky, she’ll get two weeks a year of paid vacation, but maybe
not—the US is the only industrialized nation that does not require any
amount of paid vacation. Emma, like most full-time workers in Denmark, is
guaranteed five weeks of paid vacation time a year.

That doesn’t include the nine public holidays, which most employees get.
And many Danes enjoy a sixth week of paid vacation during the holidays. And
that’s how you relax like a Viking!

LEISURE TIME

Danes and Americans have similar incomes, but Americans work a whopping 24
percent more hours per year. That means that Danes get to spend about an
hour and a half more each day on leisure activities than Americans.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

When Rachel loses her job she’ll qualify for unemployment benefits that
cover about half of her income, usually up to half a year.

Emma will face a similar situation—hey, it happens to the best of us—but
she’ll get up to 90 percent of what she was making, and she can collect
that for up to two years and sometimes more!

EMPLOYMENT

Now, some people say those generous benefits create a culture of dependency
and discourage people from looking for a job, but 73 percent of working-age
Danes have a paid job, compared with 60 percent of Americans.

HEALTH CARE

And Emma will always have access to an excellent public health-care system.
In Denmark, everyone’s covered. Americans, on the other hand, spend two and
a half times as much per person on health care as the Danes, but around one
in eight are still uninsured.

PARENTAL LEAVE AND GENDER PAY DISPARITY

Some day, Emma and Rachel will meet the right partner and have babies
themselves. Emma won’t pay anything for delivering her baby, but Rachel
will pay around $5,000 out-of-pocket for a normal delivery.

Rachel also lives in the only advanced economy that doesn’t mandate paid
family leave. She can take some unpaid time, but for most women, there’s no
guarantee that her job will be waiting for her.

One in four American women quit or are laid off when they have a baby, so
they lose seniority and end up with an uneven work history. According to
one study, each child lowers an American woman’s earnings by 6-8 percent.

Emma and her partner, on the other hand, will be able to divide a full year
of paid parental leave between them. Many Danes work under union contracts
that give them up to 100 percent of their salaries during that time, but if
they don’t, the government will give them $630 per week while they’re on
leave.

This is one reason why the gender pay gap is around three times bigger in
the United States than it is in Denmark.

RETIREMENT

Emma and Rachel will watch their kids grow up, and then they’ll look to
enjoy their golden years.

As an average American, Rachel will work two years longer than Emma. Emma’s
pension will cover two-thirds of her pre-retirement income, while Rachel’s
Social Security benefits will cover less than half of what she had earned.

THE RESULT?

Emma will have lived her life under the crushing burden of democratic
socialism. That combination of state-funded education, health care,
parental leave, and plenty of other benefits has made the citizens of
Denmark the second happiest in the world. And Americans? Number 15.



-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

--Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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