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Why do you care only about cancer? Average life expectancy is higher in Denmark than in the US. In fact it looks like all the developed countries score higher than the US.
Health care doesn't replace healthy living and obesity. The greatest fallacy for those who argue for "Free" health care in America.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rruff
And those "views" are shaped by a lot of nonsense and scare mongering.
Can you define "earn"? What does that mean exactly?
What you seem to be failing to realize is that the amount of $$$ someone is able to make in the system that exists has little to do with their contribution to society, or even their ability. Increasingly in the US it seems that the most is being skimmed off by those who actually *harm* society. Who contributes more, the person cleaning toilets, or the guys who collapsed our financial system?
If all our service workers were unionized, they'd make good money. Would that be ok? Every licensed profession limits access and regulates like crazy to boost salaries and reduce competition. Is that fair?
Your views are shaped by a lot of nonsense and scare mongering too. You're confusing contribution of effort with value of a person's skills and abilities, and the impact they'll have on the business. No one forces you to clean toilets, but you do have the opportunities to go to school, get training, start or buy a business to try to get ahead.The hyperbole of some rich people on Wall Street, which is a system that is broken and not real world capitalism at all, represents all of the high earners is tiresome. Sitting around and demanding other people who earn more pay more for your goodies and freebies is not my idea of a great government. I want less government in my life, not more. Never mind we can't afford the government we have now or can't even afford today's government in 10 and 20 years. The harsh financial reality for the US government (and many other countries) and its citizens over time will be higher taxes for everyone and a lot less benefits and services to go around.
Why would they make good money just because they unionized? What if employees don't want to be part of an union? Do you infringe on their rights? What if the company decides that the can do more with less, or replace your position with technology because the unskilled positions are going that way?
What say the rationed services socialists to the fact that the USA has the highest average survival rate (using the 5 year standard) at 73% and the great Denmark is near the bottom in survival rates of OECD countries at just over a 50% survival rate?
The difference is that Denmark is a socialist republic and the USA is an oligarchy. In a socialist style of government, the working class influence the direction of government, the power is far more within the hands of the people. In the US, we have lost our grip on government by being apathetic, and the oligarchs have filled the void. One reaps what one sews. Thomas Jefferson once said:
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves."
How you define that depends on where you live, this article gives you an idea of what that is in Denmark: business.financialpost.com/news/economy/how-denmarks-welfare-program-has-narrowed-its-wealth-gap-to-one-of-the-smallest-in-the-world
You are looking at this very backwards. The poor aren't paying taxes in Denmark, rather they don't have the poor to begin with.
For instance: "The average minimum wage for all private and public sector collective bargaining agreements is approximately DKK 110 ($20) per hour, exclusive of pension benefits."
Also per the article they get huge unemployment benefits as well. Virtually everyone is making a good salary and therefore can afford to pay income taxes.
First off 110 DKK is not the minimum wage in Denmark, many people earn less, especially the ones who can't speak danish. Sure, there are jobs that has a wage floor due to unions, but those jobs are harder to get.
Secondly 110 DKK is not $20, it is $16. And $16 in Denmark is more like $10 in the US, because everything cost more. Forget about Denmark being some utopia. It is a nice country, and one of the best countries in the EU, but it is not perfect in any way.
Like everywhere else, people with low wages in Denmark cannot afford high taxes. Luckily, Denmark has quite low taxes (15%) for low income earners, so it is not that bad. In other EU countries such as France and Sweden, low income earners have to pay at least 35% in taxes, which probably could explain why Sweden and France has a lot more poverty compared to Denmark.
There's another factor: Denmark is not diverse. Everyone is an ethnic Dane. They have no Irish, Poles, Germans, Italians. Let alone Africans or Asians.
Abilities are uniform, relatively. There are no cultures. Only one culture and everyone is a participant in it.
This makes for less discord than in place like the US or Russia. No aggrieved minorities because there are no minorities.
Everyone can see that all are treated the same because all are the same.
Happiness can be thought of as joy minus resentment. In Denmark a great source of resentment is absent.
Abilities are uniform, relatively. There are no cultures. Only one culture and everyone is a participant in it.
"However, in recent centuries the country has been transformed from a nation of net emigration, ending after World War I, to a nation of net immigration, from World War II onwards. Immigration to Denmark consists particularly of asylum seekers and persons who arrive as family dependants.[141] In addition, Denmark annually receives a number of citizens from western countries, notably Nordic countries, the EU, and North America, who seek residency to work or study for a definite period of time. Recently, substantial numbers of workers—several tens of thousands—from the new EU accession countries, especially Poland and the Baltic nations, have arrived to perform menial labour in construction, agriculture, consumer industries, and cleaning.[141] Overall, the net migration rate is 2.2 migrants per capita.[47]
There are no official statistics on ethnic groups, but according to 2015 figures from Statistics Denmark, approximately 88% of Denmark's population of 5,678,348 was of Danish descent, defined as having at least one parent who was born in Denmark and has Danish citizenship.[138][N 6] Much of the remaining 12% were of a foreign background, defined as immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. With the same definition, the most common countries of origin were Poland, Turkey, Germany, Iraq, Romania, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia and its successor states.[138]"
Serious question. What culture do you belong to? Most in the US are descended from English and German immigrants, but any ties to the old country died long ago. I don't identify as anything but a US citizen, and I believe that is typical.
Furthermore, the founders of this country recognized the tendency towards factional differences, and so founded the country on the principal of human equality and higher values. If we still instilled those values instead of fostering and supporting petty differences we'd be a lot better off.
What if employees don't want to be part of an union? Do you infringe on their rights? What if the company decides that the can do more with less, or replace your position with technology because the unskilled positions are going that way?
??? A union is completely powerless if employers have a choice in the matter.
Replacing workers with technology is a wonderful thing. We'd still be in the stone age without it. In the consumer capitalist model the increased productivity gets cycled back into the economy and results in new jobs with higher wages. The problem only arises when you start playing games with finance, globalization, and trade to allow the oligarchs to pocket all the gains.
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