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From: jaynethomas@mac.com<BR>To: nanbartell@aol.com, mantiq@earthlink.net,
GlennPReeder@gmail.com, peacefulalternatives@yahoo.com, florrella@gmail.com,
margot94709@aol.com, libbydemo@att.net, kayla94708@yahoo.com,
signemattson@yahoo.com, dowd.douglas@gmail.com, cyn4justice@gmail.com,
aheilbrun@gmail.com, jeanrowel@sbcglobal.net, grantbennett@transbay.net,
jreid@berkeley.edu<BR>Sent: 5/29/2013 8:58:49 A.M. Pacific Daylight
Time<BR>Subj: Fwd: Gaze Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom - Truthdig<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000
size=2 face=Arial>Hi gang, Michael found this article. Wish we could all
become Danes! Jayne<BR>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV>Begin forwarded message:</DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; COLOR: ; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>From:
</B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">Michael
Wiest <<A title=mailto:mwiest@mac.com
href="mailto:mwiest@mac.com">mwiest@mac.com</A>><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; COLOR: ; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Subject:
</B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Gaze
Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom - Truthdig</B><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; COLOR: ; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>Date:
</B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">May 29,
2013 7:47:31 AM PDT<BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; COLOR: ; FONT-SIZE: medium"><B>To:
</B></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica'; FONT-SIZE: medium">Jayne
Thomas <<A title=mailto:jaynethomas@mac.com
href="mailto:jaynethomas@mac.com">jaynethomas@mac.com</A>><BR></SPAN></DIV><BR><SPAN
style="POSITION: relative !important; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; FONT: medium Helvetica; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
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<DIV class=original-url><A
title=http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaze_upon_the_danish_dream_of_freedom_20130528/
href="http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaze_upon_the_danish_dream_of_freedom_20130528/"><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaze_upon_the_danish_dream_of_freedom_20130528/</A><BR><BR></DIV>
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class=title>Gaze Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom</H1>
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<H6>Posted on May 28, 2013</H6>
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<P>Unlike the Danes, American society has abstracted freedom from its
prerequisite of economic security. Vermonters learned of enviable Danish
freedom in a series of town meetings this month with one of their senators,
Bernie Sanders, and Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the Danish ambassador to the
U.S.</P>
<P>“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,” Sanders wrote of the meetings in an editorial in The Huffington
Post on Sunday.</P>
<P>Most Americans are gripped with “a massive amount of economic anxiety,”
Sanders continued. “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.</P>
<P>“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.”</P>
<P>Not so in Denmark. There, “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,” Sanders wrote. Taksoe-Jensen told his
American audiences that although Danes have a difficult time becoming
obscenely wealthy, no one is allowed to be poor, Sanders noted. Minimum wage
is twice what it is in the United States, and people who are unable to find
jobs and care for themselves have a basic guaranteed income of $100 per
day.</P>
<P>Health care is a right of citizenship, Sanders explained. No one pays at
the time of service and the care is of high quality. Patient satisfaction is
much higher than in the United States and everyone can choose a doctor in
his or her area. Prescription drugs are inexpensive or free, and Danes spend
11 percent of their GDP on health care in contrast to Americans’ 18
percent.</P>
<P>“When it comes to raising families,” the senator wrote, “Danes understand
that the first few years of a person’s life are the most important in terms
of intellectual and emotional development.” Mothers get four weeks of paid
leave before giving birth and an additional 14 weeks afterward. Expecting
fathers get two paid weeks off, and both mothers and fathers have a right to
32 more weeks during their child’s first nine years of life. The government
covers three-quarters of the cost of child care. For low-income workers, it
pays for more.</P>
<P>Virtually all education in Denmark is free, including graduate programs
such as medical school, Sanders pointed out. The Danish government also
invests in job training programs. For those who have lost their positions,
unemployment insurance covers up to 90 percent of their earnings for as long
as two years. In the U.S., benefits are cut off after as few as 26 weeks.
Danish workers get five weeks of paid vacation and 11 paid holidays.
Americans are entitled to no guarantee of paid vacation time. Fewer than
half of lower-paid hourly wage workers in America receive any paid vacation
days.</P>
<P>What is the result of all this social beneficence? According to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Danes rank among the
happiest people in the world, Sanders noted. Americans didn’t make the top
10.</P>
<P>“As Ambassador Taksoe-Jensen explained, the Danish social model did not
develop overnight,” Sanders wrote. “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.</P>
<P>“In Denmark, more than 75 percent of the people are members of trade
unions,” Sanders continued. “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.”</P>
<P><I>—Posted by<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(32,0,127); FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
title=http://www.truthdig.com/alexander_kelly
href="http://www.truthdig.com/alexander_kelly">Alexander Reed
Kelly</A>.</I></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><B>Sen. Bernie Sanders at The Huffington Post:</B></P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>They want ordinary Americans to have the freedom NOT to have health
care in a country where 45,000 of our people who 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!</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P><A
style="COLOR: rgb(32,0,127); FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none"
title=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/what-can-we-learn-from-de_b_3339736.html
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/what-can-we-learn-from-de_b_3339736.html">Read
more</A></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
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