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It is not a matter of wanting smaller; it is a matter of what you can afford. Anywhere, you can get a much larger home for the same amount of money as a smaller one, depending on where you live. It is a matter of location. It's a simple concept. Do you live in Europe or the US?
Yep, if you live in a socialist country or a blue state, then you're going to pay a lot more. Location!
Ah...the return of the "ugly American"...Biggest is best and screw all the rest....How can u pretend to LOVE America when u despise half of it's population and it's prez? And u certainly don't embody the tolerance and open heart that r true American values...
Sent from my iPhone using USMessageBoard.com
This is where the single minded and erroneous thinking comes in that the US is so much better than anywhere else. MILLIONS of people, by choice, migrate to countries all over the world, in great numbers. It is not everyone's dream to live in the US. People who want an higher standard of living want to live in a multitude of countries, not just the US.I'd prefer to live in a $20 million mansion. Is it going to happen?
How many people actually live where they'd prefer to live? Most people live in a place they would leave if they won the lottery. I'm sure Bill Gates lives where he'd prefer to live though.
No one is talking about what people would do if they were fabulously wealthy. We're talking about what people can actually do with the resources they have. It doesn't take much to travel to another country, as many illegal aliens can easily attest. The reason many people don't live overseas is because they can't make any money overseas. Yeah, I'd love to live in Rio de Janeiro if I was wealthy, but given the fact that I have to earn a living, the USA is the best place for me to be. People who want to have a higher standard of living want to live in the United States because that's where they can get it.
This is where the single minded and erroneous thinking comes in that the US is so much better than anywhere else. MILLIONS of people, by choice, migrate to countries all over the world, in great numbers. It is not everyone's dream to live in the US. People who want an higher standard of living want to live in a multitude of countries, not just the US.No one is talking about what people would do if they were fabulously wealthy. We're talking about what people can actually do with the resources they have. It doesn't take much to travel to another country, as many illegal aliens can easily attest. The reason many people don't live overseas is because they can't make any money overseas. Yeah, I'd love to live in Rio de Janeiro if I was wealthy, but given the fact that I have to earn a living, the USA is the best place for me to be. People who want to have a higher standard of living want to live in the United States because that's where they can get it.
Nevertheless, they relocate to obtain a higher standard of living. Most people in the world would prefer to live in the USA if they had the option of doing so.
Denmark: Potemkin Village
Mises Daily: Thursday, February 28, 2002 by Per Henrik Hansen
In the 1700s, the courtesans of Queen Catherine of Russia gave her tours along the Volga river where she witnessed a happy and thriving bourgeoisie living in clean and prosperous villages. But this was all a show to cover disease, poverty, and misery that lay just behind the facade that had been erected for her benefit.
This is the origin of the phrase Potemkin Village, a place where a politically generated appearance covers a less impressive underside.
Europe is today filled with Potemkin Villages, none as successful as Denmark. Denmark is often cited as an exemplary country within the EU, with an economic system that others should seek to emulate. In the comparisons of GDP per capita, Denmark ranks consistently in the top ten worldwide, and often in the top five.
Denmark's economic data for 2001 appear impressive:
Slow but balanced growth of 1.1 percent, down from 3.2 percent in 2000. Denmark has had higher growth than many other EU countries since the mid-1990s.
An inflation rate of 2.3 percent. The inflation rate has not been above 3 percent since 1994 and not above 4 percent at all in the 1990s.
The long-term interest rate (10-year) has shown a steady decline from a level in 1990 of more than 10 per cent to today's of just around 5 percent.
The short-term interest rate (3-month) likewise has shown a steady and even bigger decline over the period. From 12 per cent in 1990 to just around 3.5 percent today.
An unemployment rate that is relatively low and falling. The rate is now officially 5.2 percent, down from 12.2 percent in 1993.
A budget surplus of 1.9 percent of GDP. It is the 5th year in a row that the budget has been in surplus.
A fairly large surplus on the current account of 3.4 percent of GDP. Denmark has had a surplus on the current account continuously in the 1990s, except for 1998.
The Danish public debt as a percentage of the GDP has fallen for several years and is now approximately 45 percent instead of close to 80 percent in the early 1990s.
The Danish foreign public debt as a percentage of the GDP is also falling and is now approximately 15 percent instead of almost 40 percent in the early 1990s.
Denmark is the least corrupt country in the world according to surveys that measure such things.
Denmark also claims to have a population with a very robust work ethic, which is probably true. All of this looks very good, at least on the surface.
But let us look at some other economic statistics that are not mentioned nearly as often.
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).
When you recalculate these 2,214,000 people, of whom some receive only part-time government transfers, into people who live full-time on transfer income, the total becomes 1,590,000 people living off transfer payments.
Out of these 1,590,000 people, 710,000 are pensioners and the remaining approximately 900,000 are working-age people. Most of them cannot be found in the unemployment statistics. They are on other kinds of public transfer programs of which there exist ten different types.
There are approximately 1,900,000 people working in the private sector and 840,000 working in the public sector or publicly owned companies. (The reason the numbers do not add up to 4.2 million is because not all are full time workers.)
We can conclude from this that of the people in the working age of 18 to 66, more than one quarter live passively on government transfers (full time). For every 100 persons employed full time in 1999, there were 33 working-age people receiving support. Adding pensioners, the total number was 61 people on full time transfer income for each 100 full time employed persons. (The pensioners are financed by a pay-as-you-go pension scheme). And out of those who are employed, 31.5 percent work for the government.
All of this, of course, needs to be financed. Denmark has therefore for many years had a very high and continuously increasing tax level.
In 2002, the lowest marginal income tax level is 44.31 percent, then it increases to 49.77 percent and 63.33 percent. Forty percent of the working people pay the top marginal tax rate of 63.33 percent, which applies to all income over $33,000.
There are very few tax deductions available, and the tax value of the tax deductions is continuously being reduced.
A sales tax of 25 percent hits just about everything.
The capital gains tax is 59.7 percent for a private person in the high income tax bracket, unless you hold your investment for more than 3 years. It then falls to 44.8 percent.
There are additional taxes on "sinful" and "luxury" products likes cigarettes, alcohol, candy, soft drinks, electronic goods, and other luxuries.
For cars, there is a 180 percent special tax on top of the sales tax of 25 percent. Then there is a registration fee and a weight fee to be paid twice per year for the privilege of using the roads. The price of gasoline is nearly three times as high as it is in the US.
Denmark imposes many new green taxes. These are the taxes that have increased most substantially during the 1990s. These taxes hit heating, electricity, water, and gasoline.
Real estate, which is already heavily taxed, has been the target of new taxes throughout the 1990s. In addition, the tax value of deductions have been continuously reduced.
With Denmark, as with all of Europe, your perception of its economic status depends on which statistics you are looking at. Also, your judgement of its economic status depends on your preferences (is stability alone to be valued, or is freedom also important?) and your time horizon (does it matter that all these taxes make Denmark far less prosperous than it otherwise would be?).
Danish politicians proudly proclaims that Denmark is the most egalitarian country in the world. They may be right. The obsession with equality delivers a crushing, daily blow to anyone with a new idea or the inkling to cultivate an ability that surpasses the norm. Young people have virtually no chance to improve their lot in life, to take risks, to make it big through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Excellent and hard work are not rewarded by a system that systematically levels the population into a huge homogenous middle class, whose standard of living advances only incrementally and in ways that flout economic priorities. A total tax level that approaches 70 percent is a relentless and debilitating reminder that this country desires no personal economic achievement and no accumulation of wealth.
And yet many people seem to be happy with this system, somewhat like the masses of Huxley's Brave New World. Of course it sets up a dynamic that harms everyone in the long run, but people don't seem to understand or care about this. Equality and stability are regarded as more important than progress and freedom.
A heritage of honesty and hard work are marvelous tools for papering over the failures of welfarism and subtle servitude. With the right attitude, even a prison population can settle into a comfortable and egalitarian existence, one that might even impress Queen Catherine passing by on a boat. But lacking energy, enterprise, entrepreneurship, and freedom, such systems of economic control exact a huge toll with the passage of time.
No one is talking about what people would do if they were fabulously wealthy. We're talking about what people can actually do with the resources they have. It doesn't take much to travel to another country, as many illegal aliens can easily attest. The reason many people don't live overseas is because they can't make any money overseas. Yeah, I'd love to live in Rio de Janeiro if I was wealthy, but given the fact that I have to earn a living, the USA is the best place for me to be. People who want to have a higher standard of living want to live in the United States because that's where they can get it.
Nevertheless, they relocate to obtain a higher standard of living. Most people in the world would prefer to live in the USA if they had the option of doing so.
Nevertheless, they relocate to obtain a higher standard of living. Most people in the world would prefer to live in the USA if they had the option of doing so.
A lot of people in poorer countries would. In Europe, for example, most people wouldn't.
Nevertheless, they relocate to obtain a higher standard of living. Most people in the world would prefer to live in the USA if they had the option of doing so.
A lot of people in poorer countries would. In Europe, for example, most people wouldn't.
Actually, plenty of them would.
Denmark: Potemkin Village
Mises Daily: Thursday, February 28, 2002 by Per Henrik Hansen
In the 1700s, the courtesans of Queen Catherine of Russia gave her tours along the Volga river where she witnessed a happy and thriving bourgeoisie living in clean and prosperous villages. But this was all a show to cover disease, poverty, and misery that lay just behind the facade that had been erected for her benefit.
This is the origin of the phrase Potemkin Village, a place where a politically generated appearance covers a less impressive underside.
Europe is today filled with Potemkin Villages, none as successful as Denmark. Denmark is often cited as an exemplary country within the EU, with an economic system that others should seek to emulate. In the comparisons of GDP per capita, Denmark ranks consistently in the top ten worldwide, and often in the top five.
Denmark's economic data for 2001 appear impressive:
Slow but balanced growth of 1.1 percent, down from 3.2 percent in 2000. Denmark has had higher growth than many other EU countries since the mid-1990s.
An inflation rate of 2.3 percent. The inflation rate has not been above 3 percent since 1994 and not above 4 percent at all in the 1990s.
The long-term interest rate (10-year) has shown a steady decline from a level in 1990 of more than 10 per cent to today's of just around 5 percent.
The short-term interest rate (3-month) likewise has shown a steady and even bigger decline over the period. From 12 per cent in 1990 to just around 3.5 percent today.
An unemployment rate that is relatively low and falling. The rate is now officially 5.2 percent, down from 12.2 percent in 1993.
A budget surplus of 1.9 percent of GDP. It is the 5th year in a row that the budget has been in surplus.
A fairly large surplus on the current account of 3.4 percent of GDP. Denmark has had a surplus on the current account continuously in the 1990s, except for 1998.
The Danish public debt as a percentage of the GDP has fallen for several years and is now approximately 45 percent instead of close to 80 percent in the early 1990s.
The Danish foreign public debt as a percentage of the GDP is also falling and is now approximately 15 percent instead of almost 40 percent in the early 1990s.
Denmark is the least corrupt country in the world according to surveys that measure such things.
Denmark also claims to have a population with a very robust work ethic, which is probably true. All of this looks very good, at least on the surface.
But let us look at some other economic statistics that are not mentioned nearly as often.
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).
When you recalculate these 2,214,000 people, of whom some receive only part-time government transfers, into people who live full-time on transfer income, the total becomes 1,590,000 people living off transfer payments.
Out of these 1,590,000 people, 710,000 are pensioners and the remaining approximately 900,000 are working-age people. Most of them cannot be found in the unemployment statistics. They are on other kinds of public transfer programs of which there exist ten different types.
There are approximately 1,900,000 people working in the private sector and 840,000 working in the public sector or publicly owned companies. (The reason the numbers do not add up to 4.2 million is because not all are full time workers.)
We can conclude from this that of the people in the working age of 18 to 66, more than one quarter live passively on government transfers (full time). For every 100 persons employed full time in 1999, there were 33 working-age people receiving support. Adding pensioners, the total number was 61 people on full time transfer income for each 100 full time employed persons. (The pensioners are financed by a pay-as-you-go pension scheme). And out of those who are employed, 31.5 percent work for the government.
All of this, of course, needs to be financed. Denmark has therefore for many years had a very high and continuously increasing tax level.
In 2002, the lowest marginal income tax level is 44.31 percent, then it increases to 49.77 percent and 63.33 percent. Forty percent of the working people pay the top marginal tax rate of 63.33 percent, which applies to all income over $33,000.
There are very few tax deductions available, and the tax value of the tax deductions is continuously being reduced.
A sales tax of 25 percent hits just about everything.
The capital gains tax is 59.7 percent for a private person in the high income tax bracket, unless you hold your investment for more than 3 years. It then falls to 44.8 percent.
There are additional taxes on "sinful" and "luxury" products likes cigarettes, alcohol, candy, soft drinks, electronic goods, and other luxuries.
For cars, there is a 180 percent special tax on top of the sales tax of 25 percent. Then there is a registration fee and a weight fee to be paid twice per year for the privilege of using the roads. The price of gasoline is nearly three times as high as it is in the US.
Denmark imposes many new green taxes. These are the taxes that have increased most substantially during the 1990s. These taxes hit heating, electricity, water, and gasoline.
Real estate, which is already heavily taxed, has been the target of new taxes throughout the 1990s. In addition, the tax value of deductions have been continuously reduced.
With Denmark, as with all of Europe, your perception of its economic status depends on which statistics you are looking at. Also, your judgement of its economic status depends on your preferences (is stability alone to be valued, or is freedom also important?) and your time horizon (does it matter that all these taxes make Denmark far less prosperous than it otherwise would be?).
Danish politicians proudly proclaims that Denmark is the most egalitarian country in the world. They may be right. The obsession with equality delivers a crushing, daily blow to anyone with a new idea or the inkling to cultivate an ability that surpasses the norm. Young people have virtually no chance to improve their lot in life, to take risks, to make it big through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Excellent and hard work are not rewarded by a system that systematically levels the population into a huge homogenous middle class, whose standard of living advances only incrementally and in ways that flout economic priorities. A total tax level that approaches 70 percent is a relentless and debilitating reminder that this country desires no personal economic achievement and no accumulation of wealth.
And yet many people seem to be happy with this system, somewhat like the masses of Huxley's Brave New World. Of course it sets up a dynamic that harms everyone in the long run, but people don't seem to understand or care about this. Equality and stability are regarded as more important than progress and freedom.
A heritage of honesty and hard work are marvelous tools for papering over the failures of welfarism and subtle servitude. With the right attitude, even a prison population can settle into a comfortable and egalitarian existence, one that might even impress Queen Catherine passing by on a boat. But lacking energy, enterprise, entrepreneurship, and freedom, such systems of economic control exact a huge toll with the passage of time.
I don't know, doesn't exactly sound like what I want ...
A lot of people in poorer countries would. In Europe, for example, most people wouldn't.
Actually, plenty of them would.
Depends on the person. But people seem to prefer Australia, for the weather, or Canada for the better life style (also the same with Australia).
Canada does not have a better lifestyle. I have been working in Toronto for the last six months, and all the Canadians here are constantly complaining about all the taxes they pay and how the price of everything is far higher than in the United States. I can attest to the validity of their complaints from personal experience. Most of the people I work with would move to the United States if they could.
All the Europeans I have met who have traveled to the U.S. marvel at how cheap everything is and how big the houses are. They make no bones about the fact that they would prefer to live in the United States if it wasn't for family/job/visa issues.
For the past decade, social scientists and pollsters have given elaborate questionnaires to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe. Two of the largest studies that rank the happiness of countries around the world are the World Map of Happiness from the University of Leiscester and the World Database of Happiness from Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University Rotterdam. All the happiness surveys ask people basically the same question: How happy are you?
But if you mine all the databases of universities and research centers, you'll find that the happiest place on earth is Denmark.
Denmark: The Happiest Place on Earth - ABC News
Canada does not have a better lifestyle. I have been working in Toronto for the last six months, and all the Canadians here are constantly complaining about all the taxes they pay and how the price of everything is far higher than in the United States. I can attest to the validity of their complaints from personal experience. Most of the people I work with would move to the United States if they could.
All the Europeans I have met who have traveled to the U.S. marvel at how cheap everything is and how big the houses are. They make no bones about the fact that they would prefer to live in the United States if it wasn't for family/job/visa issues.
Maybe this is the sort of person you hang out with then. I'm struggling to find one person I know who has even contemplated moving to the US from Western Europe. I know quite a few who have gone to Canada or Australia though.
But the point I have made before, and will make again is, what is best for one, isn't best for another.
People who like the money making side of things will like the US.
People who like other things in life, will like elsewhere.
For the past decade, social scientists and pollsters have given elaborate questionnaires to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe. Two of the largest studies that rank the happiness of countries around the world are the World Map of Happiness from the University of Leiscester and the World Database of Happiness from Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University Rotterdam. All the happiness surveys ask people basically the same question: How happy are you?
But if you mine all the databases of universities and research centers, you'll find that the happiest place on earth is Denmark.
Denmark: The Happiest Place on Earth - ABC News
And if you read the posts by all the callous conservatives you'll find the angriest people on earth. They hate it when others are happy.
Canada does not have a better lifestyle. I have been working in Toronto for the last six months, and all the Canadians here are constantly complaining about all the taxes they pay and how the price of everything is far higher than in the United States. I can attest to the validity of their complaints from personal experience. Most of the people I work with would move to the United States if they could.
All the Europeans I have met who have traveled to the U.S. marvel at how cheap everything is and how big the houses are. They make no bones about the fact that they would prefer to live in the United States if it wasn't for family/job/visa issues.
Maybe this is the sort of person you hang out with then. I'm struggling to find one person I know who has even contemplated moving to the US from Western Europe. I know quite a few who have gone to Canada or Australia though. But the point I have made before, and will make again is, what is best for one, isn't best for another.
People who like the money making side of things will like the US.
People who like other things in life, will like elsewhere.
What things are better in Canada? Certainly, not the weather. 99% of all people prefer to have better material circumstances than they currently enjoy. I've never heard of anyone turning down a pay raise, have you? The only thing that keeps the people I work with in Canada from moving to the U.S. is the difficulty of getting a visa.
Denmark: Potemkin Village
Mises Daily: Thursday, February 28, 2002 by Per Henrik Hansen
In the 1700s, the courtesans of Queen Catherine of Russia gave her tours along the Volga river where she witnessed a happy and thriving bourgeoisie living in clean and prosperous villages. But this was all a show to cover disease, poverty, and misery that lay just behind the facade that had been erected for her benefit.
This is the origin of the phrase Potemkin Village, a place where a politically generated appearance covers a less impressive underside.
Europe is today filled with Potemkin Villages, none as successful as Denmark. Denmark is often cited as an exemplary country within the EU, with an economic system that others should seek to emulate. In the comparisons of GDP per capita, Denmark ranks consistently in the top ten worldwide, and often in the top five.
Denmark's economic data for 2001 appear impressive:
Slow but balanced growth of 1.1 percent, down from 3.2 percent in 2000. Denmark has had higher growth than many other EU countries since the mid-1990s.
An inflation rate of 2.3 percent. The inflation rate has not been above 3 percent since 1994 and not above 4 percent at all in the 1990s.
The long-term interest rate (10-year) has shown a steady decline from a level in 1990 of more than 10 per cent to today's of just around 5 percent.
The short-term interest rate (3-month) likewise has shown a steady and even bigger decline over the period. From 12 per cent in 1990 to just around 3.5 percent today.
An unemployment rate that is relatively low and falling. The rate is now officially 5.2 percent, down from 12.2 percent in 1993.
A budget surplus of 1.9 percent of GDP. It is the 5th year in a row that the budget has been in surplus.
A fairly large surplus on the current account of 3.4 percent of GDP. Denmark has had a surplus on the current account continuously in the 1990s, except for 1998.
The Danish public debt as a percentage of the GDP has fallen for several years and is now approximately 45 percent instead of close to 80 percent in the early 1990s.
The Danish foreign public debt as a percentage of the GDP is also falling and is now approximately 15 percent instead of almost 40 percent in the early 1990s.
Denmark is the least corrupt country in the world according to surveys that measure such things.
Denmark also claims to have a population with a very robust work ethic, which is probably true. All of this looks very good, at least on the surface.
But let us look at some other economic statistics that are not mentioned nearly as often.
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).
When you recalculate these 2,214,000 people, of whom some receive only part-time government transfers, into people who live full-time on transfer income, the total becomes 1,590,000 people living off transfer payments.
Out of these 1,590,000 people, 710,000 are pensioners and the remaining approximately 900,000 are working-age people. Most of them cannot be found in the unemployment statistics. They are on other kinds of public transfer programs of which there exist ten different types.
There are approximately 1,900,000 people working in the private sector and 840,000 working in the public sector or publicly owned companies. (The reason the numbers do not add up to 4.2 million is because not all are full time workers.)
We can conclude from this that of the people in the working age of 18 to 66, more than one quarter live passively on government transfers (full time). For every 100 persons employed full time in 1999, there were 33 working-age people receiving support. Adding pensioners, the total number was 61 people on full time transfer income for each 100 full time employed persons. (The pensioners are financed by a pay-as-you-go pension scheme). And out of those who are employed, 31.5 percent work for the government.
All of this, of course, needs to be financed. Denmark has therefore for many years had a very high and continuously increasing tax level.
In 2002, the lowest marginal income tax level is 44.31 percent, then it increases to 49.77 percent and 63.33 percent. Forty percent of the working people pay the top marginal tax rate of 63.33 percent, which applies to all income over $33,000.
There are very few tax deductions available, and the tax value of the tax deductions is continuously being reduced.
A sales tax of 25 percent hits just about everything.
The capital gains tax is 59.7 percent for a private person in the high income tax bracket, unless you hold your investment for more than 3 years. It then falls to 44.8 percent.
There are additional taxes on "sinful" and "luxury" products likes cigarettes, alcohol, candy, soft drinks, electronic goods, and other luxuries.
For cars, there is a 180 percent special tax on top of the sales tax of 25 percent. Then there is a registration fee and a weight fee to be paid twice per year for the privilege of using the roads. The price of gasoline is nearly three times as high as it is in the US.
Denmark imposes many new green taxes. These are the taxes that have increased most substantially during the 1990s. These taxes hit heating, electricity, water, and gasoline.
Real estate, which is already heavily taxed, has been the target of new taxes throughout the 1990s. In addition, the tax value of deductions have been continuously reduced.
With Denmark, as with all of Europe, your perception of its economic status depends on which statistics you are looking at. Also, your judgement of its economic status depends on your preferences (is stability alone to be valued, or is freedom also important?) and your time horizon (does it matter that all these taxes make Denmark far less prosperous than it otherwise would be?).
Danish politicians proudly proclaims that Denmark is the most egalitarian country in the world. They may be right. The obsession with equality delivers a crushing, daily blow to anyone with a new idea or the inkling to cultivate an ability that surpasses the norm. Young people have virtually no chance to improve their lot in life, to take risks, to make it big through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Excellent and hard work are not rewarded by a system that systematically levels the population into a huge homogenous middle class, whose standard of living advances only incrementally and in ways that flout economic priorities. A total tax level that approaches 70 percent is a relentless and debilitating reminder that this country desires no personal economic achievement and no accumulation of wealth.
And yet many people seem to be happy with this system, somewhat like the masses of Huxley's Brave New World. Of course it sets up a dynamic that harms everyone in the long run, but people don't seem to understand or care about this. Equality and stability are regarded as more important than progress and freedom.
A heritage of honesty and hard work are marvelous tools for papering over the failures of welfarism and subtle servitude. With the right attitude, even a prison population can settle into a comfortable and egalitarian existence, one that might even impress Queen Catherine passing by on a boat. But lacking energy, enterprise, entrepreneurship, and freedom, such systems of economic control exact a huge toll with the passage of time.
I don't know, doesn't exactly sound like what I want ...
Brave New Denmark -
A Model For The USA?
By Ted Twietmeyer
Recently, I received an email from a former London Police officer, Philip Jones. Philip has given me permission to use his email and his full name. His powerful and highly articulate essay describes in detail what life in Denmark is like today, after living there more than ten years. Many of us have our own internal visions of what foreign countries are like which we may never have the opportunity to visit. These ideas are most often based on the media and classes in school. But it was a total surprise about what Philip had to say about Denmark and it's amazing placid lifestyle. I'll never look at a tin of Christmas cookies made in Denmark the same!
Most people are quite aware that the UK is a model police state, tightening the screws a little more each day on its citizens. One could easily think that Denmark and perhaps other EU countries are following the same model. What we learn from Philip's detailed description of Denmark is that this is not the case. Denmark is a country with the most passive people one could ever imagine. How this mindset was accomplished is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps the globalists found every weakness in Danish culture, exploiting each one to the fullest. It does appear it to be like Philip has named his essay, "Brave New Denmark."
The United States is turning into a hybrid of the UK and Denmark. New laws have been passes to help control what everyone thinks in the United States, while at the same time doing everything possible to help the people ignore the effects of growing government behind the scenes. Draconian laws are quickly and easily passed by formulating excuses or events so people will not grumble too much. If everyone in the United States were as dedicated to the Constitution and Bill of Rights as Ron Paul supporters are, none of this would be happening.
Today sports scores, video games and the internet are all that most people care about. They no longer care about each other or what big government is doing to them. A non-caring state of mind is also the same characteristic the Danes have as Philip so eloquently expresses. So without further delay, here is Philip's unedited email:
'Brave New Denmark'
Dear Ted,
Before I begin, perhaps I should tell you something about myself. I am a 49 year old British man, married to a Danish lady and living in Denmark. Prior to moving here back in 1996, I had spent 15 years as Police Officer in London and before that 6 years in the military.
I was raised in the industrial area of South Wales and come from `blue collar` stock. Up until quite recently, I had been a believer in the `democratic` process and a staunch conservative.
My awakening began upon my relocation to this small, cold northern country. Up until then, I had `bought` into the consensus viewpoint, and although as a serving officer in London, I had been aware of all the rapid changes taking place in society, I had not realised that these changes were orchestrated and designed, as opposed to `evolutionary`.
I had imagined that Denmark would be little more than a smaller version of my homeland. My wife was/is not much different in views and culture from myself, and our countries shared a joint history. For the first half year or so, I didn't take too much notice of my surroundings, as we were occupied with the day to day business of setting up our home and all those other mundane necessities.
It was when I was able to sit back and take note of my new environment that I was struck immediately at how different Danes were from British people. My wife had lived in the UK for some years and I soon learned that she was not typical of her country folk. The most immediate, and annoying character trait I noticed was the habitual need Danes have to tell other people how wonderful Denmark is, and how much better everything is compared to other places. To even the casual onlooker, it was clear that they were deeply delusional.
Denmark is an okay place, but no better and a degree worse than some places. It is small, with a population of around 5,000,000. Until very recently, it has been very homogenous, (and to a great extent still is) and somewhat isolated, tucked away as it is up on the top edge of Europe. In fact, if one wished to conduct a `social experiment`, few places would be better suited, or located. Add to this the truth that Danish people are by nature in awe of authority, compliant and passive. Forget the `Vikings` of yore. Most of them settled in Britain, Northern France and down the Volga.
I began to question this pride in all things Danish. The food variety and quality was nothing like as good as in the UK. The public infrastructure was inadequate, and oh so slow. Monopoly was the name of the game in business. No competition whatsoever. Danish produce and Danish produce only was the rule of things. The sheer cost of living in the place was/is at least 2-3 times that of the UK, and yet everyone was asking me so proudly if I felt lucky to be living in Denmark. Then there is the much vaunted Danish Medical System. Again according to Danes `the best in the world`. But that's just the thing, it wasn't/isn't and the standards are dropping continually, whilst the costs of prescription medicine and Dental care, even on the back of this `public health service` are out of control.
As a former London Police Officer, I was often asked to give lectures at Odense University, on matters relating to crime etc. Over the next few years, I gave dozens of these presentations, and was shocked at how unquestioning and compliant young Danish people were. They were immune even to provocation, which I used on several occasions in order to get a response, but usually to no avail. I was able to attend several classes over this period, and was appalled and shocked at the levels of Marxist/Feminist views being foisted on the young people. The history of their country prior to the end of WWII is just not taught at all, and very few Danes have any grasp of their country's past. Almost all the teachers were female (of a sort), and the classes themselves were overwhelmingly populated by girls. Almost every lecture I attended was weighted heavily towards a `European` future, and very few were not heavily biased in that direction. And yet, pardoxically, the `Denmark is the best country in the world, with the best education system, best medical system, best social system, best economy, ad nauseum was also a constant theme. This is the same message transmitted through every media outlet, and Danes take love of flag to a new height, even decorating Xmas trees and birthday cakes with that national banner. This apparent contradiction, caused me great confusion at the time, but no longer. Today, I understand.
This acceptance/compliance extended into society in general, where complaints against the system of any kind were in very short supply, or non existent to be truthful. With every new law, or government inspired price increase or tax hike, would come the standard response "there's nothing you can do about" or in Danish, "Saadan er Danmark", which literally means, "that's how it is in Denmark".
Denmark is the country of rules. There are rules for everything here. Even the rules seem to have rules, and the people have an annoying way of interfering in each others lives to the point of self regulation. One of the world's smallest countries has one of the `biggest` governments, and `The State` is by far the biggest employer here, so people depend upon it for their livelihood.
The ID Card was introduced to Denmark back in the 1970's. Every Dane, or foreign resident here has a `personal number` and unlike the `National Insurance` number in the US or UK, it must be quoted in order to do almost everything. One cannot get a bank account, travel, do business of any kind, learn to drive, drive, be educated etc etc. without it. It masquerades as a health insurance card, but has a far more all encompassing purpose. It is also backed up by a national register data base. The coming Biometric model will simply be accepted as an `improvement` and or progress.
Conformity in all things is the way of life here. People dress the same, cut their hair the same, eat the same, do the same, like the same, say exactly the same phrases, in fact, modern Danish is more a language of phraseology than anything else (Newspeak ?). They like the same food (and will serve the same `fayre` to guests every time, no matter which Danish home one visits). An evening out at a Danish household, could/can be scripted beforehand, from start to end.
Danish women and girls have with a few exceptions, become almost androgynous in appearance, and most are fiercely feminist in their views, actions and manners. Danish men are for the most part emasculated. Danes love their country, but will not fight for it. Danes loathe all things foreign, and resist all such influences, to the point where their shops have very little on the shelves, and what there is is rediculously expensive, and yet, they absolutely fail to recognise or resist the looming shadow of the European Superstate, still believing it to be something they can just walk away from when they have had enough.
Danes rarely smile, are very reserved to the point of being rude, and yet, a recent (ish) opinion poll carried out throughout the EU showed them to be the most content of Europe's people. It was this that really got my juices flowing. Danes had been telling me for nearly eight years that `they had it so good`. But they didn't. Not at all. They had it good like a bird in a cage has it good.
I had the feeling even back then that if one made too many comments of an unfavourable `Anti Denmark`nature, then just maybe my residiency might be revoked, or I might come into contact with the `State Authorities`, (Danes are encouraged to `Spy` on each other and do so with gusto). Of course no such thing occured, but the feeling was there. Such is the insideous nature of Danish society, which heralds `Free speech` as an inalienable right (As in the Mohammad Drawings) and yet damns that same `free Speech` to foreigners or dissenters
By the end of the 1990's, I had begun to understand the extent to which the Danish population had been completely indoctrinated. Any form of criticism was fiercly resented. Nobody ever complained about anything of an official nature. Nearly everybody I knew, or those I saw speaking on TV seemed to believe that the Danish Government wished only good things for them. That the ever burgeoning tax burden was necessary, even a good thing. We are speaking of an income tax of on average 50% plus a sales tax of 25%. This level of taxation is across the board, and includes tax on cars, houses, food, and well, everything you can imagine could be taxed is taxed and then some. And all prices on all things rise on 31st January every year, without fail. This is just understood and accepted without comment by the majority of the people. "Saadan er Danmark".
When my wife and I tried to explain to people that in the UK, we paid a fraction of the Danish tax burden, and still managed at least a parity in social welfare, and medical care, they wouldn't believe it. When we told them that the food in DK was of an inferior quality, with no variety and rediculously priced. They again wouldn't hear of it. I just could not be.
We travelled to the US three times between 1996 and 2001 spending a total of fourteen weeks there and travelling some six thousand miles. Those three `trips` were milestones in my life, and I was bursting with tales of our adventures, but upon returning to DK, not one Danish friend or family member showed any interest whatsoever in our stories. It was as if we had never been away. The only people who were at all interested were our `international` contacts.
Now, I might be rambling at this point, but what I am trying to depict here is a society quite unlike anywhere else, even by European standards, Denmark is different. If it isn't Danish or Denmark, then they cannot contemplate it at all.
I felt totally disaffected with the country, and at that time, even with no knowledge whatsoever of any `Global Conspiracy`, would say things to friends such as; " These are not people, they're like `Body Snatchers`", or "There must be something in the water here", and even "It's in the food they eat". Little did I understand how close to the truth I was.
Then I started to put the pieces together; the inertia of the youth, the conformity of it's citizens. The `blind` obedience of the populace. The apparent contentment being voiced, which was in obvious conflict with the miserable demeanour of Danish people. The narrow, insulated `bubble` view of the world around them. The conditioned state of national denial, refusing to admit even the possibility that some place else might be in some way better. And the absolute kicker; the Danish obsession with work. It is the only thing they talk about. To work is everything, and if one is not in work, then one is a member of a trade union, which will find some way of ensuring that one has little or no spare time to think and consider life, and what is happening all around.
In 2003, I read Sen. Pat Buchannan's book, `The Death Of The West`. This work set me on the path to discovery, and although I have moved a little beyond it, the facts and ideas expressed by the author were in many cases highly relevant to my experiences in Denmark. But the point is this; on page 77, Sen. Buchanan at the top of the page makes this quote, "The perfect totalitarian state, is one where the all powerful political bosses, and their army of managers, control a population of slaves, who do not have to be coerced because they love their servitude". This is from Aldous Huxleys nightmare novel `Brave New World`, and it describes Danes and Denmark almost to a tee.
I spoke to my wife about this, and she told me that she had read the book. That in fact it was required reading at `Upper level` schooling. You see Ted, that is it. Denmark is `Brave New World`. I set about reading `the work`, and it chilled me to see all the parallels with Danish Society.
They have introduced so much of it here. The mindless compliance and conformity, the androgyny, the totally passive and non agitative demeanour. The all pervading Social State. The Brain washing and categorisng of students within the education or rather, `State indoctrination` program`. The resorting to the use of `Psycho Analysis` for any form of `anti social` behaviour, which can be nothing more than daring to publicly criticise the state, or asking awkward questions, or young males playing around in classrooms. The prescription of `happy pills` to supposedly depressed people or in other words, anyone who begins to see what it is that surrounds them. The Mass Media, State Education, State Health Service and all the other avenues of public information tell the same story incessantly. Denmark is the best country, Danes are the best at everything. All things Danish, are better than those which are non Danish. It has created a people so `dumbed down`, so afraid, so passive, so paradoxically proud yet obviously suffering from a deep seated inferiority complex. Arrogant, yet totally lacking in self confidence. Put another way, this is one `mucked up place`.
No need of `Tasers`, or heavy handed Police tactics here. Not much evidence of surveillance cameras either. If the government says inject your kids with this or that drug, Danes will do it because the government told them to. When the time comes to be microchipped, the State will tell them it's for the best and they will do it without question. Simply without question.
Joseph Goebbels said, " Propaganda must be able to be understood by even the most stupid members of society. Then you can make people believe that paradise is hell, and hell is paradise".
Denmark is not quite `hell`, but it's on it's way there. Yesterday, another `BS` news report told Danish people than the reason the cost of food had risen so much was because of problems in Australia and Nigeria. Well then, that's okay then isn't it. We just have to suck it up, there's nothing we can do about it`. The State has explained why we now pay almost double what most people are paying in the rest of Europe for food, Electricity.oil, clothing, transport, tax etc. etc.
The fools just accept it. Nobody asks "What has Australia and Nigeria got to do with a 25% price rise in the cost of Danish Dairy Products, Bacon, Meats, Bread and the spectrum of food stuffs produced in Denmark" ? They are told it's down to a recession, or inflation, or some other (bogus) cyclical economic phenomenon. But the point is, nobody asks any questions. They are simply `content in their servitude`.
Recently, the Danish Prime Minister signed the EU Reform Treaty. Then without bursting into fits of laughter told the Danish people that there would be no referendum on this `Treaty` as it did not affect Danish sovereignty. This is clearly a `bare faced` lie, as once ratified, it will remove Denmarks ablity to decide it's own economy, justice system, home affairs, defence and a whole lot more. In other words, Denmark will be a nation no more, except in the daydreams of it's prozac popping citizenry. When I have tried to explain this to people here, they say things like "No, our Prime Minister would never do that. He would never sign such a document". Them when told he already has, I get, "Ah well, we can always withdraw later if it doesn't work out".
But that's just the point, they won't be able to. Short of declaring armed resistance, and that's just not the Danish way. To a Dane, raising one's tone a little above whisper level is considered displaying anger. The `Feminazi's` here have done their job very well.
It is my opinion that the EU is running two `Test Models` side by side. Model one is the UK `1984` type, which is intended for those member states whose populations are more prone to resistance, and Model two, the `Brave New World` type, as demonstrated here in DK, for smaller, less rebellious peoples.
I have probably not done this topic justice, but if I have introduced you to what is happening here, that will be my work done. Denmark, is like nowhere else, and Danes are unlike anyone else, except perhaps the Swedes and Norwegians, who from what others have said, are undergoing similar programming.
Hope it wasn't too tedious.
Regards, Philip
PS. It should be said that of course not every Dane follows this pattern, but in my experience at least 96% of those I have met during the past ten years do. Two sites worth visiting for anyone interested in Denmark are Webbhotell, nu med Cloud Drive - Från One.com and Nylonmanden ...fordi åben kilde hjælper - Home
Ted Twietmeyer
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data4science.net
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