[hackernewds]

As prosperous and socialist as they might seem, Denmark also has the ugly determination of being #2 in the world's inequality index (only behind South Africa). Intentionally or not, the policies have had entirely the opposite effect.

[mortenlwk]

The most common misconception of Denmark is that we are socialists, something that could not be farther from the truth. Take a look at COVID restrictions and compare to the individual states in the US. When speaking to young Danes that have been indoctrinated by non-danes online about how we are I usually go with the following examples: liberation of porn; Christiania; abolition of slavery. Porn was set free in Denmark to remove it from the black market. Initially CP was legal as well, and the idea was to set everything free and then regulate minimally if needed. Christiania is where weed is dealt in Copenhagen. It is an old military area that the bz movement broke into and took. We had observed the severe problems it had created in other European cities, and it was decided to take a laissez faire approach and try to contain in that area. Slavery was abolished gradually in Denmark. It had been observed in other countries that it could politically dangerous to keep it going. Thus we made a gradual move away where it was made illegal to acquire new slaves, but those already in slavery were not freed. The reason it was a gradual process over a period of years, was to make sure that the slaveowners had time to build a slave population that was self sustainable from breeding. Only acquiring new slaves was illegal.

Edit: I forgot the most important one. We have no minimum wage in Denmark.

[zozbot234]

It's nonetheless very high in happiness and life satisfaction surveys. Socialism with Scandinavian characteristics (including a healthy dose of economic freedom and overall openness, as in Denmark) still has plenty of things to recommend for it.