Biden Closer Than Sanders To Denmark's Social Democracy

(Photo of Denmark is by Fedor Selivanov, and was found at newyorker.com.)

Bernie Sanders likes to hold up the nation of Denmark as the model for what the United States could be. He calls it a Democratic socialism. There's just one problem with that. Denmark is not a socialist country. It is a social democracy -- with a market-based free enterprise system, an adequate social safety net, and regulations that ensure all citizens are treated fairly and share in economic growth.

And while Sanders supporters won't like to hear this, that describes the vision of Joe Biden more than it does Bernie Sanders. Here's part of how Thomas A. Friedman puts it in The New York Times:

Bernie Sanders often cites Denmark as the kind of country he would like America to be under his ideology of “democratic socialism.” Well, here’s a news flash: Bernie Sanders, with his hostile attitudes toward free trade, free markets and multinational corporations, probably couldn’t get elected to a municipal council in Denmark today. Ironically, Joe Biden, with his more balanced views on trade, corporations and unions, probably could. . . .

Denmark is actually a hypercompetitive, wide-open, market economy devoted to free trade and expanding globalization, since trade — exports and imports — makes up roughly half of Denmark’s G.D.P.

Indeed, Denmark’s 5.8 million people have produced some of the most globally competitive multinationals in the world, by the names of A.P. Moller-Maersk, Danske Bank, Novo Nordisk, Carlsberg Group, Vestas, Coloplast, the Lego Group and Novozymes. These are the very giant multinationals Sanders constantly rails against.

As the former Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen once remarked in a speech at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to those who might not fully grasp the Danish model: “I would like to make one thing clear, Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy. The Nordic model is an expanded welfare state, which provides a high level of security for its citizens, but it is also a successful market economy with much freedom to pursue your dreams and live your life as you wish.”

It is through these engines of capitalism, free trade, economic openness and globalization that Denmark has managed to become wealthy enough to afford the social safety net that Sanders rightly admires — as do I: access for all to child care, medical and parental leave from work, tuition-free college, a living stipend, universal health care and generous pensions. . . .

America is now out of balance. We all sense it in the gross and widening inequality we see around us. Sanders sincerely wants to eliminate that. Alas, so do a lot of us. Michael Bloomberg was running on a platform advocating a 5-percent surtax on incomes of over $5 million annually.

But when you begin that conversation, as Sanders does, by effectively demonizing all risk-taking American entrepreneurs as corrupt, by vowing to redistribute their income — which Sanders seems to believe is all ill gotten by definition — by pretending that all the benefits can be paid for by the wealthy and nothing from the middle class and by voting against the new version of NAFTA — which was supported by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Nancy Pelosi as precisely the kind of trade deal with the very union and environmental protections Democrats have long sought — then your true model country is not Denmark. It’s a socialist fantasy.

The truth is, Joe Biden would make a much better Scandinavian-type leader than Bernie Sanders.

Biden, in my view, would be much more likely to — and able to — build a new social contract in America than a President Sanders, because Biden not only genuinely cares about the working class and the homeless — and understands the need for access to lifelong education and health care — he also knows that you don’t get there by demonizing the engines of capitalism and job creation. You have to find a way to work with them.

Denmark did not become Denmark because of a revolution. It evolved where it is today through a steady iteration — unleashing its entrepreneurs on the world to generate as much wealth as they could while constantly forging a dialogue at home among all the stakeholders about how best to share enough of the profits to have a truly just safety net, while not destroying the free-market, free-trade engines of growth, and while maintaining a high sales tax so everyone contributes something.

If Denmark’s social contract is your model — and it’s a good one — then I’d trust Biden much more than Bernie to head us there.

Trump Insults Another Good Ally Of The United States

I have to admit that when I heard Donald Trump wanted to buy Greenland, I thought it was a joke. Sadly, it wasn't. The idiot occupying our White House was serious about trying to buy Greenland -- a part of Denmark with self-rule.

It was an absurd idea, and Denmark's Prime Minister (Mette Frederickson) said so. She made it clear that Greenland was not for sale at any price.

That should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn't. Trump narcissism can't take anyone saying NO to him, especially a woman. So, he cancelled the scheduled visit to Denmark.

When he got some negative feedback from both American and Danish citizens, he tried to cover for his childish action by saying the Danish prime minister had been nasty to the United States. He said her calling his proposal absurd was an insult to the United States. It wasn't.

She was not referring to the United States in calling the proposal absurd, but to Trump. And it was not an insult, because it was absurd.

Danish officials are now insulted by the cancellation of the scheduled trip, and they should be insulted. Denmark has been a good ally to the United States. When Bush called for allies to help him in Afghanistan, Denmark was one of the first to respond, and send troops to help. And when Bush stupidly invaded Iraq, Denmark again had our backs -- even before France and Germany.

Some other nations (like Canada, Germany, France, Australia, etc.) had already realized that with Trump in the White House, the United States could not be trusted to back her allies or provide leadership for the free world. Now Denmark has been shown the U.S. has an insane leader who cannot be trusted.

Bernie Says We Can Learn From Denmark

This month, Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen spent a weekend in Vermont, talking and traveling around that state with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). After that visit, Senator Sanders wrote the following article for The Huffington Post. It is well worth reading:

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.