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Denmark is one of the countries with the highest QOL, highest standards, and one of the happiest people in the world. It's one of the best countries to be an employee and one of the worst to be an employer. Taxes are 50% but all of your needs are truly taken care of. It's the closest thing to real socialism I have read about.
Taxes are high (including the real reason for their expensive gas), but more of it goes back to the people instead of into foreign adventures and corporate welfare. Schools, for one thing. The middle and upper classes in Denmark have not had to essentially write off public education, so paying their kids' tuition isn't an issue for them, at least not to the extent it is here.
Yeah but the argument is circular. Most of Europes defenses pretty much were the USA. Remember Denmark isn't that far from where germany was divided. Any country can provide for more social services when their defense is provided for free!
Some of these arguments are odd. If you argue that they have more people with degrees that's fine but that lowers their value. If you argue they have longevity well...they don't it is pretty close to the USA. Personally I have a friend that goes to Denmark time to time for work and gets so bored he drives into Germany for something to do!
Supporting jobs that are dead end is frankly not going to improve them. In many respects we cannot support a job if technology is going to outright replace it. Did we bail out companies that made flash bulbs? How about kids hawking newspapers on street corners?
There are plenty of jobs that might be considered low skill or low paying but these are not lifetime jobs. I'll admit I worked a dead end retail job at minimum wage when I was much younger. It was part time while I earned my associates. I found something better and left and they made no real attempt to keep me or anyone. If people know it is minimum wage then what incentive can an employer do specifically to keep that person? The government is involved with health insurance so...what then.
Years later I worked for another retailer full time. The pay was higher but in the end the job was dead end after awhile. So I saved and planned and went back to school finishing a few degrees and now have a much better job and career path. It wasn't easy but it can be done.
So to suggest that someone should make $15 or $21 doing fast food I'm sorry but that's going to limit these people even if those wages are paid.
Let's suppose someone makes $21/hr doing fast food. Ok where's the career? Where's the job options? Even if the job paid well it is still a dead end job and people would still complain for it being so.
You see, I work for McDonald’s in Denmark, where an agreement between our union and the company guarantees that workers older than 18 are paid at least $21 an hour. Employees younger than 18 make at least $15 — meaning teenagers working at McDonald’s in Denmark make more than two times what many adults in America earn working at the Golden Arches.
And does Denmark border on a region like Mexico and Central America where the birth rates are sky high and millions of desperately impoverished and uneducated people cross over freely to grab up jobs at any pay?
You need to compare our wages with those of the nations south of the border who can easily come on over to take jobs and drive down wages.
If an American doesn't want that $7.35 an hour job with no benefits -- there are millions of Central Americans who would be very happy to take it.
We'll tally that as a vote for "Poverty is OK", then.
It certainly is with our open-border politicians --- the USA is importing most of it's poverty. With no immigration laws, there is no stopping the most impoverished of the world from coming here --- and the reason the politicans keep the borders open and laws unenforced is because the employers want the ultra cheap labor --- our politicans are not working for the American people. And the voters really don't expect them to do so.
Denmark's money is funded with state oil. Individuals do not own the mineral rights to the oil on their land. It belongs to the government.
Since they have a small population and lots of oil, they are a net exporter. If their oil production were to drop in half, the tax dollars would not be enough to support those socialist benefits.
So at $7.25/hour an McDonald's worker in the states has to work nearly 3/4 of an hour for a burger and a Dane can buy one after roughly 1/4 of an hour of labor. The Dane also has health insurance, access to affordable child-care, and a good public eduation. Things that make you go hmmm?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA
Well, what better use for the Big Mac Index? The Economist published new figures in January:
That's nice... But in the real world, most people working in fast food aren't going to get a better job.
Not only that, but an entry level job isn't a poverty wage job. Minimum wage is not entry level...
Many people got their start in fast food. People all over the spectrum from typical professional jobs to multi-billionaires.
Many of my HS classmates worked fast food. Not one person stayed in fast food. They have moved on to bigger and better things.
Last edited by move4ward; 05-28-2014 at 09:34 PM..
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