What Can We Learn From Denmark?
By Senator Bernie Sanders
May 26, 2013
Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen spent a
weekend in Vermont this month traveling with me to town meetings in Burlington,
Brattleboro and Montpelier. Large crowds came out to learn about a social
system very different from our own which provides extraordinary security and
opportunity for the people of Denmark.
Today in the United States there is a massive amount of economic anxiety. Unemployment
is much too high, wages and income are too low, millions of Americans are
struggling to find affordable health care and the gap between the very rich and
everyone else is growing wider.
While young working families search desperately for affordable child care,
older Americans worry about how they can retire with dignity. Many of our
people are physically exhausted as they work the longest hours of any
industrialized country and have far less paid vacation time than other major
countries.
Denmark is a small, homogenous nation of about 5.5 million people. The United
States is a melting pot of more than 315 million people. No question about it,
Denmark and the United States are very different countries. Nonetheless, are
there lessons that we can learn from Denmark?
In Denmark, social policy in areas like health care, child care, education and
protecting the unemployed are part of a "solidarity system" that
makes sure that almost no one falls into economic despair. Danes pay very high
taxes, but in return enjoy a quality of life that many Americans would find
hard to believe. As the ambassador mentioned, while it is difficult to become
very rich in Denmark no one is allowed to be poor. The minimum wage in Denmark
is about twice that of the United States and people who are totally out of the
labor market or unable to care for themselves have a basic income guarantee of
about $100 per day.
Health care in Denmark is universal, free of charge and high quality. Everybody
is covered as a right of citizenship. The Danish health care system is popular,
with patient satisfaction much higher than in our country. In Denmark, every
citizen can choose a doctor in their area. Prescription drugs are inexpensive
and free for those under 18 years of age. Interestingly, despite their
universal coverage, the Danish health care system is far more cost-effective
than ours. They spend about 11 percent of their GDP on health care. We spend
almost 18 percent.
When it comes to raising families, Danes understand that the first few years of
a person's life are the most important in terms of intellectual and emotional
development. In order to give strong support to expecting parents, mothers get
four weeks of paid leave before giving birth. They get another 14 weeks
afterward. Expecting fathers get two paid weeks off, and both parents have the
right to 32 more weeks of leave during the first nine years of a child's life.
The state covers three-quarters of the cost of child care, more for
lower-income workers.
At a time when college education in the United States is increasingly
unaffordable and the average college graduate leaves school more than $25,000
in debt, virtually all higher education in Denmark is free. That includes not
just college but graduate schools as well, including medical school.
In a volatile global economy, the Danish government recognizes that it must
invest heavily in training programs so workers can learn new skills to meet
changing workforce demands. It also understands that when people lose their
jobs they must have adequate income while they search for new jobs. If a worker
loses his or her job in Denmark, unemployment insurance covers up to 90 percent
of earnings for as long as two years. Here benefits can be cut off after as few
as 26 weeks.
In Denmark, adequate leisure and family time are considered an important part
of having a good life. Every worker in Denmark is entitled to five weeks of
paid vacation plus 11 paid holidays. The United States is the only major
country that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation time. The result is
that fewer than half of lower-paid hourly wage workers in our country receive
any paid vacation days.
Recently the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found
that the Danish people rank among the happiest in the world among some 40
countries that were studied. America did not crack the top 10.
As Ambassador Taksoe-Jensen explained, the Danish social model did not develop
overnight. It has evolved over many decades and, in general, has the political
support of all parties across the political spectrum. One of the reasons for
that may be that the Danes are, politically and economically, a very engaged
and informed people. In their last election, which lasted all of three weeks
and had no TV ads, 89 percent of Danes voted.
In Denmark, more than 75 percent of the people are members of trade unions. In
America today, as a result of the political and economic power of corporate
America and the billionaire class, we are seeing a sustained and brutal attack
against the economic well-being of the American worker. As the middle class
disappears, benefits and guarantees that workers have secured over the last
century are now on the chopping block. Republicans, and too many Democrats, are
supporting cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition, education,
and other basic needs -- at the same time as the very rich become much richer.
Workers' rights, the ability to organize unions, and the very existence of the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are now under massive assault.
In the U.S. Senate today, my right-wing colleagues talk a lot about
"freedom" and limiting the size of government. Here's what they
really mean.
They want ordinary Americans to have the freedom NOT to have health care in a country
where 45,000 of our people die each year because they don't get to a doctor
when they should. They want young people in our country to have the freedom NOT
to go to college, and join the 400,000 young Americans unable to afford a
higher education and the millions struggling with huge college debts. They want
children and seniors in our country to have the freedom NOT to have enough food
to eat, and join the many millions who are already hungry. And on and on it
goes!
In Denmark, there is a very different understanding of what "freedom"
means. In that country, they have gone a long way to ending the enormous
anxieties that comes with economic insecurity. Instead of promoting a system
which allows a few to have enormous wealth, they have developed a system which
guarantees a strong minimal standard of living to all -- including the
children, the elderly and the disabled.
The United States, in size, culture, and the diversity of our population, is a
very different country from Denmark. Can we, however, learn some important
lessons from them? You bet we can.