Actually, Denmark is becoming more like us

CNN Money ^ | 10/23/2015 | By Tami Luhby

[SeekAndFind]

Income inequality is on the rise. The rich control more of the country's wealth. Union membership is falling. The ranks of the poor are growing.

Sounds like the United States? Actually, it's Denmark.

This tiny Scandinavian country has been in the spotlight in recent weeks. Bernie Sanders, who is running for president as a self-described social democrat, and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prize winning economist, have both pointed to Denmark as a model of equality and social welfare that the U.S. should follow.

To be sure, Denmark still has one of the lowest rates of inequality and highest rates of economic mobility among developed countries. Its citizens enjoy an expansive social safety net, which includes free college and health care, as well as subsidized child care. Denmark also ranks at or near the top in terms of global happiness.

To pay for all these benefits, Danes are more heavily taxed than Americans. In Denmark, total tax revenues is 49% of the size of the economy, compared to 25.4% in the U.S., according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Danes pay a top tax rate of 56%, compared to 39.6% in the U.S.

Denmark, however, is contending with many of the same issues that are widening the income gap in the U.S. and other European countries. Wealthy Danes are benefiting from the boom in global stock markets in recent years. Educated citizens with mastery over the latest technology are commanding bigger salaries, while middle class manufacturing jobs are disappearing. The Danish government cut taxes for the rich, while curtailing public assistance for the poor, jobless and recent immigrants.

"There's more of a stigma on unemployment," said Kristian Weise, director of Cevea, a center-left think tank.

[panzerkamphwageneinz]

How many blacks and latinos are in Denmark?

Immigration killed America

[Walrus]

Homogeneity certainly helps.

[Verginius Rufus]

Have the Danes ever paid reparations to England for all the damage done by the Vikings?

[Buckeye McFrog]

How many blacks and latinos are in Denmark?

Very few but the place is overrun with Middle Eastern types.

[Wpin]

One of the qualities of all socialist nations is the wide income disparity...so this is not a surprise. Socialists (all centralized government) governments choose who the producers are by regulation and taxation. It is generally a corrupt arrangement (think unions in our nation) and deprives the people of opportunity to be creative and prosperous. Hence, they have small middle class and large lower class incomes and a small but thriving upper income class based upon political power and influence.