Sometime sickness can give you a job.

[Covergaard]

As you properly know, your companies have bought a lot of Danish companies because we have inventet software and techology that are second to none.

Some of the reasons are that we test and test our products over.

And sometimes the best candidates for that job iare people that not entirely well as the majority see it. In Denmark we do not believe in correcting a problem that are bearable. This add for candidates illustrates that:

http://www.specialisterne.dk/english/candidate.html

Some children sufferes from diseases where the parents can decide if they want their child to live with it or the want to correct it. I have read about www.judgerc.com where they try to eliminate candidates for jobs like that by the use of electrical shock.

I am not an extremist that claims that every kind of medicin should not be used on children. My wife has no thyroid gland and she have been medicated since her birth. Without medicin she would be dead in days. Sometime medication is necessary.

But accept that some children just need space, time, structure and an organized enviroment in order to live like the rest of us. Then there is a job for them too.

[Covergaard]

Yes our tax-level is exstremely high.

In return I can any kind of treatment I would need. Health care is included. Education are included.

We pay up to U.N. in full.

Our institutions are runned or controlled by the state. That means that low-paid unqualified personel can not be acceptable in a try to gain profit. The institution would be closed if it is found out.

Yes, we have a small army. Yes, there are not so many Danes around to become soldiers.

All that cost. Denmark is not perfect because we have not found a golden bucket of coins at the end of a rainbow.

And our system does only function fully if we in a combination push and nurse people into work. We have to mobilize every Dane so we can continue to pay so much. That means that we sometime have to invent systems so even people with poor health can work.

Our society as well as yours are under pressure. Our values are under pressure. Parents, as an combined result from a double income society and a lot of new citizens comming into our small country, do not take part in the lives of their children as they used to.

A farmer from a Mittle East country can not be a fartherfigure for his children if he does not learn Danish as well as his children and takes part in our society. That has become a main issue. But even parents with Danish origins spend more time with buying material comforts instead of talking with their children.

So I like many other Danes are looking around in other systems in order to find improvement while we on the other hand have send signals to the rest of the world about leaving us alone.

People perhaps don't like our strategy, but in a way we do not care. Our future is too important, so in a way we must ignore that we sometime hurts people feelings.

We do not want to copy your society and I dont think that you should copy ours. We are two different cultures. But we have discovered certain things you can use and you have something we could use.

As an example of a thing we could use I can mention that we do not have a juvenile court system. Children are mixed with adults inmates. Just this morning a research still showed that children are violated in our residential home for young persons. So there are room for improvement in Denmark too.

[Anonymous]

Doesnt a debate about socialism belong in the Tactus Relm forum. Gentlemen please. lets not turn this into an international pissing contest! I am sure nobody is up for a game of my country rules and your sucks because...
Fact is the US has given the world many great things. Jazz, the right to pursue happiness, New York City and the Simpsons and overall friendly citizens.
But like Canned Cheez, Tele evangelists and Coors brand beer The Troubled Teen industry is not one of them.
When an indsutry this nasty and damaging apparently catches on and grows anywhere, it is reasonable to look at the social factors behind its growth and to compare it with other countries whose young behave in similar ways but whose parents are not allowed to send them to jail for it!

[Dr Phil]

mmm... danish..

[Anonymous]

Please offer one to my nigger & ask him to wait there for me.

[Antigen]

Stone soup, Overgaard. Specialization happens without interference wherever interference can be escaped. In this country, telephone operators are ugly, especially the midnight people. Used to be true of radio personalities too, but what with the boom in low budget cable programing and Howard Stern being the goof-ball that he is, well they have  to at least look interesting anymore.

I could give many, many examples.

The difference between a Socialist model and a free market model is who makes the decisions. In theory, back when America was a free country, it was left up to the employer and the employee with no middle man. Now we have all manner of intervention and publicly funded retraining. It doesn't work very well for one real simple reason. Employers don't have time to triffle with all the bureaucratic silliness and reasonably sensible employees 1) don't either and 2) understand that the best employers aren't scalping the welfare lines, they're looking elsewhere for help.

I think our way works best on that count. Without going into great detail about all of my faults and shortcomings or those of many of my friends, suffice it to say that it's more dignified to find one's own way than to be defined by your malladies and dependent on some omnipotent faceless benefactor to dole out the goodies based on whatever formula the bureacrats are most impressed with this political season.

But different strokes. There's also the differenc among the two cultures which I think was best stated by a Dane interviewing for our news magazine tv show, 60 Minutes. He said that America is an idea. You can join an idea and become an American. Denmark is a country. You can't become Danish. He was talking about the nation's strategy and objectives for assimilating immigrants and noted that your objectives are quite different from ours. You want people to live there peacefully and productively, but not to become Danish while America is defined by our assimilated cultures; and ever changing as a result.

I see the point and respect your right to do as you will so long as you don't try to coerce others. Aside from the insidious spred of Danish pastry dependency, I haven't seen much sign of creeping Danish hegenomy lately. Oh sure, there was the small matter of the Viking raids. But really, how long can one country hold a grudge against a beloved other?

Seriously, guys, let's be civil and learn something.

[Anonymous]

Damned mofo Hamlet.

[AtomicAnt]

Having worked for a Danish company for over 20 years, and having been to Denmark countless times, I can say that the similarities between Americans and Danes outweigh any differences.

As far as the socialism and high taxes are concerned. Most expatriates I know will tell you, and the studies that our company has conducted, point out that we pay just as much money as the Danes for the same services. Add up the cost of a college education in the USA. In Denmark, its included in your taxes. Add up what you pay in medical insurance and expenses. In Denmark, it is included in your taxes. In America, if you run out money for school or medicine, you go without. In Denmark, you don't.

Personally, having travelled throughout Europe and the Americas extensively, I like Euopean cultures. I find the people are just more aware of the world geographically and politically. Like my Russian friend once said, while setting the New York Times on the table, "You know Ant, in Soviet Union, we read Pravda and knew it was pack of lies. You Americans; you read this shit; and you believe it!"

Or as the joke goes;

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?

Trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks one language?

An American.

[Oz girl]

its funny because i am from a country which is somewhere between the two extremes but is probably moving closer to America. health care is still public but is under constant threat. The majority of sudents dont pay up front fees but full fee places have just been introduced for those sudents who are walthy and stupid enough not to get a legtimate uni place. The thing is that taxes have not decreased at all under this move toward free enterprise. in fact in addition to the normal taxes people pay our conservative "freemarket" pm introduced a GST (goods and services tax) Therefore we are paying more than ever but under a "more free" system and getting much less.

Ant I find your comments interesting. i am aware that American print media can be pretty insular. The time Asia pacific version usually is @ least 2 thirds American thus not being focused on the Asia pacific at all. It strikes me as a little harsh to suggest that the peiople are though.  Whenever i have been in the US i have usually been bombarded with questions about what life is like over here. People have usually been fascinated by my "foreignness". I dont know if you guys are only this way toward Australians, but if it is toward all international citizens then it is perhaps that your media is more insular in its outlook than the actual people living in the US.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Denmark doesn't need a big army because, like Canada and Mexico, they aren't out trying to "establish a military presence" in the middle east.  I don't see Denmark in any terrorist's scope.  I don't see Denmark pushing to colonize and control other countries, slaughtering their citizens.  Sounds like they are busy using their resources to benefit their own people instead of inventing wars in order to enrich war profiteers.  My, what an original idea!!!!!!!  "Islamo-facists" don't seem offened by the westernization or Christianity of the Danes. ::armed::

As for "rolling over in WW2"  if you want to hold a country accountable for what previous generations did Americans would have to go  back to 1492 when their ancestors became the first  illegal immigrants.

[Dr Phil]

"Islamo-facists" don't seem offened by the westernization or Christianity of the Danes.

Tell that to this guy....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_G ... irector%29


or those cartoonist who had to go into hiding.. or the people killed in the riots...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-P ... ontroversy

[Oz girl]

No 3 springs. John Howard is way to dull and sensible for that. he is methodist. No sex it may lead to dancing!
You may be thinking of Bob Hawke. He was our PM during the 80s. One hot day at the cricket he made headlines for downing a yard class of beer in 25 seconds. Apparently it was some kind of national record. When we won the Americas cup he also declared the following Monday a national holiday so that everyone could nurse their hangover.

For those who dont know a Yard Glass is designed specifically for sculling and holds about a liter of beer

[Anonymous]

He's Dutch, not Danish but I never said some Muslims, like some of many other religions aren't nuts or murderous, which makes everyone fair game.  My point is that the Danish government is not out slaughtering a foreign people, helping to give birth to a larger terrorist movement.  They are actually using the money they suck from the people to actually provide services for those people, not putting it in the pockets of war profiteers like Haliburton, Brown and root, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, teh Carlyle Group and the select few who have been putting billions sucked out of our pockets into their own over the dead bodies of over 3,000 dead American soldiers, thousands of Muslims.  I guess having your family blown to bits, your country destroyed and plunged into civil war might piss some people off.

[Antigen]