[Culturechat] Quality of Life in Denmark

[Hal Taussig]

         About quality of life in Denmark, two years ago I came across an 
article in the National Geographic Traveler Magazine that  nominated three 
cities as having the worlds best quality of urban life--or some them to 
that effect. The cities were; Portland, Oregon,  a city in Brazil ( the 
name has been fogotten), and Copenhagen, Denmark. The article stressed how 
these three cities had successfully battled against the domination of 
automobiles--more accurately the domination of automobile culture. 
Because  we have long been interested in a Scandinavian Untour, and 
because  we prefer to find areas where our ground package can use public 
transportation---in recent years  increasingly difficult to find-- I flew 
off to Copenhagen in October 2001. Downtown Copenhagen is the only world 
capital which has kept automobiles at bay. It is a hub fro rail travel, it 
is a walking city, a city for bikes, for trams and buses. I found the 
quality of life profoundly affected--the quality of life improved--by this 
policy.
         To touch on the political social issues which have constituted 
something of a theme in the above entries of culurechat, I would point out 
that the free market ideology, which we Americans imagine ourselves to 
promote, heavily subsidizes automobile travel. One of the biggest social 
welfare spending programs in the US has been to spend tax money  on the 
Interstate Highway system. Furthermore, gasoline taxes do not come close to 
paying for our state and county highways. The air-pollution coming 
from  automobiles causes billions of dollars worth of health problems, 
millions of deaths annually--costs which we who drive automobiles should 
pay for--especially sine we Americans claim that one of our central 
cultural values is to promote individual responsibility (and hence reject 
tax subsidies).
         I have invited Idyllchat people to join our culture chat because I 
want to merge culture themes with travel issues. Denmark is still high  on 
our list as a country in which we want to start an Untour. We have avoided 
doing so for two primary reasons: 1) Prices are high, which will certainly 
make marketing more difficult; and 2) most people want to visit Denmark, 
Norway and Sweden, one week in each. That's an administrative  nightmare, 
and  adds considerably to expense. So we have been contemplating having 
a  two-week program in Copenhagen and offering a  rail/hotel add-on for 
Sweden and Norway. I'm hoping for comments, perhaps a few suggestions of 
how to solve the problems I've posed--maybe some questions.
Hal

At 06:16 PM 7/22/03 -0600, Marlene Rodgers wrote:
>Quality of life
>
>Denmark is a country which offers a high quality of life
>
>Quality of life is not only a matter of material wealth, but also depends 
>to a great extent on the social and political circumstances of a country.
>
>According to the University of Pennsylvania's studies of different 
>countries' ability to satisfy their inhabitants' social and material 
>needs, Denmark is the best country to live in. The studies show that the 
>countries that invest the most in human and economical progress are the 
>ones that rank highest.
>
><http://www.workindenmark.dk/Quality_of_life>http://www.workindenmark.dk/Qu 
>ality_of_life
>
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