[Occupymendocino] Fwd: Gaze Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom - Truthdig

[agnes at mcn.org]

------------------------------------------------
Sent: 5/29/2013 8:58:49 A.M. Pacific Daylight  Time
Subj: Fwd: Gaze Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom - Truthdig


Hi gang,
Wish we could all  become Danes!
Agnes

Begin forwarded message:



Subject:  Gaze  Upon the Danish Dream of Freedom - Truthdig

Date:  May 29,  2013 7:47:31 AM PDT

_
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaze_upon_the_danish_dream_of_fr
eedom_20130528/_
(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaze_upon_the_danish_dream_of_freedom_20130528/)

Posted on May 28, 2013

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.
“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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.”
—Posted by _Alexander Reed  Kelly_
(http://www.truthdig.com/alexander_kelly) .
Sen. Bernie Sanders at The Huffington Post:
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 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!
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.
_Read  more_
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/what-can-we-learn-from-de_b_3339736.html)
More Below the Ad
New and Improved Comments
If you have trouble leaving a comment, review _this help page_
(http://docs.disqus.com/kb/commenting/) . Still  having problems? _Let us
know_
(http://www.truthdig.com/contact/) . If you find  yourself moderated, take
a moment
to review our _comment policy_
(http://www.truthdig.com/about/comment_policy/) .









=
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20130529/6a680819/attachment.html