[digitalengineer]

Yes, Danish people are happy with them. Don't know for how long though. The population of Denmark is aging rapidly and already a very small minority of working people is paying for everyone. But because they are a minority it's like 2 wolfs and a sheep 'voting' what's for dinner...

<Quote> Denmark has an entire population of 5,350,000 people. Of them, 1,150,000 are below 18 years old. Of the remaining 4,200,000 people, 2,214,000 people receive government transfer payments (not counting 260,000 students that receive public scholarships of $550 per month).

From taxing their citizens into poverty to forcing them to endure the highest electricity rates in the world due to the cult like obsession with lowering carbon emissions (god forbid it actually warms up a bit in Denmark!), the Danish State takes top marks for keeping the prisoners down.

I thought I might share with you a few of the observations and thoughts I had on the worker’s paradise of Denmark. http://www.dollarvigilante.com/blog/2012/3/21/denmark-social...

</quote>

[_delirium]

Ah yes, "taxing their citizens into poverty". Have you looked up what a typical after-tax income is in Denmark? It is a very well-off kind of poverty, if it's poverty!

More generally I'd suggest that 30 seconds of Googling and some quotes from a blog run by gold-bugs doesn't really constitute an educated opinion about Denmark...

[paulhauggis]

"Have you looked up what a typical after-tax income is in Denmark?"

Your higher income doesn't matter if everything else is many more times expensive to buy.

If the US raises the minimum wage, those people that got that minimum wage most likely will have the same buying power because the raise in costs will be pushed through by companies (rightfully so) to the consumer (their costs will have increased).

It also has to do with the perceived value of a dollar and it's less when everyone has more of them.

The other thing is that Danish citizens have no choice. You don't have a choice to opt-out of all of these government-run programs. When it's described above, it reminds me of organized crime tactics. They give you something for free, but everything comes at a price.

You can keep telling us that Denmark's situation is great, but one thing is obvious: Startups and business owners avoid it like the plague. Great government benefits don't really help you in the long-run when you end up giving 60%+ of your profits to the government. This doesn't even include the strict rules about hiring and firing people. The Danish government doesn't like businesses. It's because they would rather have all the control.

I remember there was an article about how great Sweden was for startups last year (a country very similar to Denmark). Almost everyone in the article mentioned how they wanted to get out of the country.

With rules like these, it really only gives you two choices: work for the government or a large corporation. I don't ever want to do either..no mater how much free sub-par education and medical care you throw at me.

[aspelund]

But the main reason that swedish startups wants to leave is because of the small market. Or as Zennström says: "Sweden is a great test market. But it isn't a real market."

[paulhauggis]

This doesn't make any sense. Many of the Swedish companies I saw had sites in English and catered to non-Swedish citizens. The Internet allows you to run a website anywhere and have international customers/users.

[moonchrome]

Isn't Sweden a part of the EU ? Doesn't that mean you have access to the EU market like any other country/without tariffs/simplified regulation ?

[digitalengineer]

I felt it was relevant because I have noticed it is how a large majority of Americans view Denmark.

Of course the question is how long this can continue now even mario dragi (head of the European Central Bank) stated the Welfare State Model is dead: ""the old welfare state is dead, because it could not survive without debts"

http://www.agi.it/latest-news/news/201203221050-epp-rt10068-...