Fractured Continent by William Drozdiak

Author:William Drozdiak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

CHAPTER EIGHT

COPENHAGEN

THE GREEN WELFARE STATE IN PERIL?

DURING THE 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY CAMPAIGN, BERNIE Sanders offered an unequivocal response when asked about his ideal vision for the United States. America, he said, should become more like Denmark. This small homogenous nation of 5.6 million people consistently ranks as the happiest society in the world. Who could disagree with aspiring to emulate the attractions of this prosperous, well-educated, and caring society?

Danes consider themselves open and egalitarian, with perhaps the world’s highest degree of social mobility and gender equality. They enjoy some of the world’s highest per capita income levels and lowest rates of crime and poverty. Anybody can receive free health care, and university education is available without cost. Parents are sent quarterly checks to pay for child care, college students receive a monthly stipend of about $900 to cover room and board, and elderly people get free maid service.

Danes have always taken pride in their reputation as a progressive and generous nation. Besides constructing their elaborate network of cradle-to-grave social protections at home, they have funded one of the world’s largest development aid programs, which has helped improve education and curb starvation and disease in many impoverished regions around the globe.

They are also masters of work-life balance. They enjoy working hard, yet leave plenty of time to revel in the company of family and friends. Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”) is an untranslatable word that conveys the Danish art of cozy conviviality, similar to the German term Gemütlichkeit. It conjures up a lifestyle of bracing walks in the forest, sitting by a warm fire with mulled wine, orderly bicycle commutes, uncluttered interior spaces suffused with bright sunlight and minimalist pine furniture. Luisa Thomsen Brits, the best-selling author of The Book of Hygge, says one key to Danish happiness is finding comfort and contentment in the absence of material junk. “Hygge is an experience of selfhood and communion with people and places that anchors and affirms us, gives us courage and consolation.”

The Danish utopia sounds too good to be true—and perhaps it is. Danes are among the world’s heaviest consumers of antidepressants, and alcoholism is not uncommon during the long Nordic winters. The country’s reputation for tolerance and understanding is coming under attack because of what critics call a growing hostility toward multiculturalism and Muslim immigrants who dilute the blond, blue-eyed homogeneity of their native society. Many Danes fear their remarkable social welfare edifice that has been perfected over generations could soon be trampled by the forces of globalization, including the revolution in cheap travel and digital efforts in communications.

Danes are worried about the tide of refugees surging out of Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life among the peaceful and prosperous societies of northern Europe. They see the bountiful stocks of fish that once served as a staple of the Danish diet being rapidly depleted in polluted oceans. They watch as the planet-wide phenomenon of climate change melts the vast ice shelf of their colony Greenland and realize it

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.