The myths and fairy-tales behind the Danish welfare society

This is the year of Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark so inspired by a fantastic article in Danish called The many myths of the welfare society by Lasse Olesen I felt it would be a good idea to analyze the modern myths and fairy-tales that have become a part of the Danish psyche.

These are based on the standard myths that I hear repeated everyday even by supposedly conservative and libertarian Danes. They have been repeated so many times that they are used as truths in themselves that do not need to be argued for. To be fair I have heard these as well amongst lefties around the world, but I believe Denmark is the only country where not even the right dare to question them.

We must protect the weak.

The “weak” is the favorite word here, but the word the “exposed” is also a favorite in particular of the people who make a living “caring” for the “weak/exposed”. You often hear phrases like:

We can’t have the weak living on the streets like in the US.

or its cousin

We don’t want American conditions.

First of all I’m not sure which reality distortion field they have used, but I see many homeless people on the streets of Copenhagen every day. And not just in poor areas either. In fact a recent study showed that Denmark has something like 12-14,000 homeless people in Denmark, where roughly half live in Copenhagen. The great Danish libertarian blog Punditokraterne compared this with New York City and it turns out that here in Copenhagen we have 12 homeless people per 1000 inhabitants, where NYC only has 5.

As an extra factoid which is also embarrassing for the Danish welfare state is that Panama City released their homeless figures the same week as Denmark did. I will search through the papers to get the link to this, but Panama city with its 708,738 inhabitants (the city of Copenhagen has 501,285 for reference) supposedly has between 500 and 600 homeless people. When I have mentioned this to Danes they have gone quiet and mumbled excuses, like that can’t be right. Hell I’m surprised. But the truth is that in Panama City the only places you see homeless people are in Tourist and commercial areas. You hardly ever see them in pure residential areas like you do in Copenhagen.

There could be many reasons why this is so low and the Danish number is so high. I figure there are two main reasons…

Firstly in Panama it is a lot easier to survive as poor without government help than in Denmark. e.g. If you lose your home, you can build a “shack” hopefully temporary someplace and later build a real house. In Denmark they would do a Mugabe on you and forcibly through you into social workers jail if you tried that. You can also survive on a lot less and make a living much easier in the informal sector than you can in Denmark. The guys selling flowers and cellphone parts on the street easily make $20 daily, which you can easily bring up a family of four on (if you pay no rent).

Secondly in Denmark, the culture of dependency is so strong. It is very difficult to leave the system once you are within it. After all the social workers only have an incentive to keep you in the system. and not to get you out.

The Danish economy is booming because of the welfare society.

This is such a great lie that just has zero truth to it. The Danish economy is booming despite the welfare society and perhaps not in the best way possible. It is one of those lies to make people feel good about them selves.

The fact of the matter is that Denmark as an oil producing nation is doing well right now, just like such other basket cases like Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. The high oil prices on the international market together with the current real estate bubble has brought lots of wealth to Denmark. None of these things have anything todo with the safety-net provided by the welfare society. As a matter of fact it is bad, because when things look good no is motivated to do necessary changes.

As a matter of fact have a look at the damage the Danish welfare system has done on the welfare in Denmark. These images where posted by Work For All a Belgian think tank in their comparison between high tax Belgium and low tax Ireland:

Denmark is a relatively well functioning well educated society with strong non governmental institutions and a tradition for good business. This would continue with out the millions of Danes employed by the government. I think it would actually improve the economy drastically.

Fairplay

When I arrived last year in Denmark the train stations and bus stops where filled with posters (paid by tax kroner of course) proclaiming we need fairplay in the labor market:

These featured famous sports stars dressed up as common “workers” spouting a message of fairplay. That people who work without paying taxes are playing unfair and should be given a yellow card. Am I the only one who see the parallels between these and soviet propaganda posters?

The fact of the matter without people moonlighting Denmark would grind to a halt. No normal people can afford to pay carpenters or other builders at official tax paying prices. The only way you can do it reasonably is if the builders moonlight. This is a fact. It was like this in the 80s and it is still like that today.

Another example are the thousands of Arab and Turkish owned shops who sell illegally imported Danish beer for 6kr a can 24 hours a day. These guys provide a valuable service in a country, where your only legal option after 8pm is paying 25kr in a bar. They also sell cheap Slovenian coke at large discounts on the price of “legal” coke bottles.

The whole concept of fairplay is really quite ridiculous. It builds on the invented idea of us working together as a country (remember those soviet posters?) and that not paying your taxes is immoral. The campaign also tried to equate the concept of moonlighting with social benefit fraud. These are not the same. If you don’t pay tax you are just keeping what is yours, if you receive benefits illegally you are robbing money from the people who are paying taxes. Although you could argue that anyone receiving benefits or salaries from the state are doing the same.