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I don't like it when groups wrong individuals, even if it leads to generally happy mobs.
"And the Danes seem to like it that way." Don't lump everyone together please. The people living off of the back of the privately employed tax payers might like it that way, yes.
The sales tax is 25%. On cars there is an additional 160%-180% tax. There are also additional taxes on tea, coffee, candy, soda, alcohol, energy, some kinds of insurances and more.
With these taxes it is expensive to do things like eating out. It's less common than in the US from my experience.
GDP per capita might be high, but the state takes all the money away from you. And the GDP number is misleading since it is assumed that state/public "production" value is equal to the cost.
You can't compare "Self-reported life satisfaction" across cultures. And it just says that people say that they are satisfied, not that they are. Probably because they think that they should be.
As you mention, growth is stagnating. Forget Gini coefficients. People are more equally poor - yay. I want to leave Denmark soon.
So mortgage interest is tax deductible -- not an especially attractive compensation.
I have four questions which I beg you to answer:
1) How many people live in Denmark?
2) Where exactly is Denmark?
3) Is the capital of Denmark on an island?
4) What's the weather like in Denmark?
If you don't know the answers, then you can't use the statistics.
I will, however, take issue with Lau's assertion that going out to eat more often is somehow better than people eating at home. It's not. It's one of the reasons Americans are so fat, and it's leading to the loss of our cultural heritage—i.e. Americans no longer know how to cook. But I'm just one person who cares a lot about food, just as Lau is a Dane who wants lower taxes—these are anecdotes.
I'm digressing.
I have a question for Will:
Why is this? Or why do you think this is? It's not apparent to me at all.
However, since I am very smart, educated and ambitious I should think carefully about what country I bless with my effort.
Should I pay the very high tax and lessen the probability of ever earning economic independence, in return for an easy life, or, should I move to a country that is more friendly towards my kind?
The thing is, there is so much more left after tax, that it will be easy to afford an apartment or house in the foreign country and in Denmark, travel a lot, have a maid and still meet my friends now and then.
Denmark, you will never give me autonomy.
-It is so expensive(partly due to taxes).
-People work less because of the high marginal taxes.
-People don't have a lot of money left after taxes.
And I don't want the government to tax people to make them healthy - I don't think that would work anyway.
"The continued viability of countries like Denmark depends on the success of countries like the U.S."
Even though the private sector in Denmark is hampered by taxes, there is still some production going on, it's just not as much as it could be.
So for instance the Danish company Maersk is the largest container shipping company in the world. They also produce oil. Denmark as a country is a net exporter of oil. AFAIK the US is a net importer - so when it comes to shipping or oil you could say that the US "depends on the success of countries like Denmark". And that's not a bad thing - it's the case for virtually everyone. We all depend on trade.
Denmark is characterised by many small companies with low R&D. how ever - there are many forms of innovation and Denmark is leading on process, product and organization.
R&D is high on biotech, and in the food industry.
Denmark was just ranked nr. 1 in ICT http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%...
... and manages well on other criteria: http://www.worldbusinesslive.com/article/625442...
If scaling (accounting for Denmark being a small country) is taken into consideration, DK is by this paper ranked as no. 4 in Europe http://www.google.dk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd...
And while DK may be boring on some aspects.. well... Some parts of the states are not all that jazz ;-)
The general point about equality and happiness is that it has no independent effect. But, not surprisingly, if you happen to care a lot about equality, you'll find low inequality congenial. It turns out that Americans don't care a lot about inequality, and our relatively high levels have no effect either way on average happiness. The Danes, I bet, are generally really proud of being an egalitarian society, and so low inequality there probably has on average a positive effect.
This point seems to really aggravate egalitarians, since it's basically saying that if you like chocolate, more chocolate will make you happier, and if you don't it won't. Egalitarians would like us to care about equality because it has an independendt effect on well-being, rather than its having an effect (or not) just because we happen to care about it (or don't).
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.20046/pub...
But yea I'd rather live there, at least for a long while. Hey, I like electronic music and the internet alot.