Should/could we all follow in the steps of Denmark?

Honestly, I’d sooner move there than try to make my country like theirs.

I don’t know if I’d like to live there or not…is the grass greener? ;)

Reading about it, it seems like a nice place. But what isn’t clear are things like how much people are pressured to conform. How are you treated if you’re “different” (gay, non-white, etc)? Before I could answer, I would have to look into laws and cultural norms.

Good question, DrasticDreamer. I have been there, and although there was a language barrier, it was easy as an american tourist to strike up a conversation with some people.

Hm. If things really are that good, and if there isn’t a lot of pressure to be the same as everyone else, it does seem kind of nice.

As an American who is extremely distrustful of our own government, it’s really hard for me to wrap my mind around paying the government that much money in taxes. lol It’s almost impossible for me to think that I’d ever be okay with that. I’m not sure, after growing up seeing what I have, that I would ever be able to trust our government with that much of my money. How sad… :-/

Yeah I thought it was an error or typo at first but I checked other sources lol. I think it just shows that you can still be happy even if you’re not striving to make ungodly amounts of money.

I spoke to a Danish woman recently and she was really unhappy wuth the constraints of life there and even the healthcare system. I was surprised at this as I am a quasi-socialist but her comments gave me pause. I realize she is just one person but it made me think.

It’s a nice idea, but quite unlikely.

The population of Denmark is about 5.5 million (the population of Connecticut is around 3.5 million—US population is over 300,000,000). Denmark’s size is about twice the size of Massachusetts. That’s not so large, compared to the entire US.

The Danish population is pretty homogeneous, over 97% ethnic Danes, and primarily Protestant Christian. Compare that to the US.

It’s a lot easier to make laws for a small group of like-minded culturally similar people living in a small place… and protected by the armed forces of a superpower who will take on that responsibility.

No, it’s a nice fantasy, a pleasant idyll. We’re not about to turn into Denmark.

I thought Bhutan was the happiest place on Earth.

@CyanoticWasp Ah yes, a small, homogenous group seems like a strong factor for a such a harmonious system. Seems the same goes for Bhutan.

Denmark is responsible for the happiest cheesiest corniest music ever made (bubblegum dance). A famous example of which is the song “Barbie Girl”.

It only makes sense that the happiest country in the world is responsible for producing that kind of music. Any country that makes that kind of music I would love to live in. :)

Although the non-diverse nature of the geography and climate would probably prevent me from actually living there. I certainly would love to visit there. But as @CyanoticWasp said, a small homogeneous population is often what causes these “perfect” places. I already got into a big argument with a Norwegian person about the nature of crime and its relation to diversity, both cultural/racial and economic…comparing Denmark to the U.S. is simply comparing apples to oranges.

Small population, little immigration, (mostly) unfriendly weather, and cultural continuity help smaller nations like Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and such. If they were overpopulated and experienced mixed cultural/racial make up you find in the U. S., their system would most likely fail.

I agree with @DominicX, and think what @YARNLADY said is possibly very true. It seems Denmark is having some troubles with Muslim Arapb immigrants in their country who are not assimilating. Possibly Denmark is naive in the challenges that cone with immigration og very different cultures to their own? Or, possibly they are experiencing some of the pains most countries go through as new populations enter the country, I don’t have a grasp of whether it is really any different in how their country is adjusting, but I think it reinforces what many have stated that a small, homogenous, society in some ways is much easier. I heard that one reason Danes are so accepting of a very socialized system is because when the government is helping someone the individual citizens paying taxes can identify with the person receiving help, and so they have strong feeling of it could easily be me who needs the help, and they trust the person receiving help is not taking advantage of the system, because the system is felt to be there for everyone. In places like America people who in their own minds feel they don’t need any public assistance, many of them spend a lot time in their minds separating themselves from who they believe works the system. They do it by making assumptions about race, religion, ethnic background, the type of household they live in, intelligence, etc.

Many Danes in a show I once saw said part of the reason they feel happy is because they felt cared for and secure. I figure it has something to do with Maslow’s theory of self actualization.

And, back to possible naïveté about immigrating populations. I think the Danish are incredibly excepting and protective of their citizens. What we see in fairly recent history, specifically the holocaust, was that they resisted Hitler, and snuck almost all of their Jewish citizens out of the country into Sweden (Sweden gets credit to for accepting them). I give this example not to support naivitivty, but rather possibly dispelling that hypothesis and demonstrating that the Danish simply have a history of feeling united among their countrymen no matter what race or religion, and maybe their acceptance and attitude helps make it a happy place.

Went there on holiday when I was a kid once. Bored shitless, just sayin!