[Culturechat] Denmark: A Case Study in Social Democracy (From Mises Insti...

[WesTexas@aol.com]

I'm not making any claims; I just thought that the article was extremely 
interesting, since the author is challenging conventional wisdom.  The author of 
the article is Per Henrik Hansen, who teaches economics at the Copenhagen 
Business School.  (perhenrikhansen@hotmail.com).

Paul is correct in pointing out that there are EU issues here, and the issue 
of differing tax rates within the EU is a sore point within the Union--for the 
very reason outlined in the article.  I understand that Ireland for example 
is under considerable pressure--from high tax EU countries--to raise their tax 
rates.   Presumably if Denmark put up their own version of the Berlin Wall, 
they would have to withdraw from the EU.  

The very high tax rate welfare state democracies like Denmark, and to a 
lesser degree Germany, are the "canaries in the coalmines."  The problem that the 
high tax rate countries face is that young people--and companies--are rebelling 
against  
high tax rates and voting with their feet, so that high tax rate governments 
are left with a steadily shrinking tax base.  Consequently, Germany has been 
forced to start reducing both tax rates and government benefits.  

J. Brown