<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:45.8pt;vertical-align:baseline"><b><font face="georgia, serif">People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than
People in the United States. Here’s Why.</font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:29.3pt;vertical-align:baseline"><i><font face="georgia, serif">When
governments provide benefits and services that allow its citizens to
thrive, everyone wins.<span></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><i><span style="color:rgb(163,158,152)"><font face="georgia, serif">By <a href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/the-nation/"><span style="color:rgb(163,158,152);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">The Nation</span></a><a href="https://twitter.com/@thenation"><span style="color:rgb(163,158,152);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Twitter</span></a><span></span></font></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3.75pt 0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(204,14,14);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">July 17, 2017<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:3.75pt 0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><span><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">Text by Joshua Holland. Graphics and animation by Rob Pybus. This
work was supported by the <a href="http://economichardship.org/"><b><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17)">Economic Hardship Reporting Project</span></b></a> and
its Puffin Story Innovation Fund.</span></i><span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"> <span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">L</span></b>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.<span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase">CHILD BENEFIT</span><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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!<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">PUBLIC SCHOOLS<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">Some American schools
are world class, but others, often serving students from low-income families,
can rank down there with those in developing countries.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">FREE COLLEGE<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase">VACATION</span><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">Fresh out of school,
the young women enter the workforce. And again, they’ll have very different
experiences.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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!<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">LEISURE TIME<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">When Rachel loses her
job she’ll qualify for unemployment benefits that cover about half of her
income, usually up to half a year.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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!<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">EMPLOYMENT<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">HEALTH CARE<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase">PARENTAL LEAVE AND GENDER PAY DISPARITY</span><br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">This is one reason
why the gender pay gap is around three times bigger in the United States than it
is in Denmark.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">RETIREMENT<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">Emma and Rachel will
watch their kids grow up, and then they’ll look to enjoy their golden years.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<br></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:23.45pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="color:rgb(17,17,17);text-transform:uppercase"><font face="georgia, serif">THE RESULT?<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif">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.<span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><font face="georgia, serif">-- <br></font><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="height:auto;width:auto"> <div> <div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><div><font face="georgia, serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br><br>--Greek proverb</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br>
“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.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br></font><br></div></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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