Denmark’s Tax Burden since 1960

We lived in Denmark (1999-2000). A right of center government took over in 2001 (Fogh Rasmussen who is now NATO chief) and has remained in power since. The Danes have remarkable public safety, public education, public health, public transportation and public broadcasting, child poverty and prison incarceration rates 1/10th of ours, and 80% of workers are unionized. Minimum wage (negotiated not legislated) is $24/hr. The Liberal(libertarian)-Conservative coalition govt has not reduced social protections and before the recent recession they had racked up several years of consecutive budget surpluses. What we find interesting is that the right wing Danish government is to the left of our Democrats. There is no overlap in our respective political spectra. We were there in October and I asked our Danish friend “why do Danes tolerate such high taxation?” Ulrick answered, “because I know that my neighbor is paying these same taxes-nobody avoids them”. He and his wife Hanne-both retired-are not doing badly. Besides a lovely home in Copenhagen, they own vacation homes in southern France and on the Danish west coast of Jutland. Their health care system is mostly public, with a private system option in parallel. People who opt for the private pay a modest extra cost, since both are government subsidized but the private a lower level. By the way, all visitors to Denmark are eligible for free health care care in their public system. They are a remarkable people living in a nation focused on human decency welfare for all. According to a recent Economist magazine “Charlemagne” article about Scandinavian nursery schools, over 80% of all Danish 2 year-olds attend them.
We could live there in a heartbeat.
David Strand
Aitkin, MN