MY BELOVED DENMARK, AND HOW DO WE CATCH UP WITH THE DANES?

I’m ecstatic, last night David Brancaccio was a guest on the Rachel Maddow show. And guess what? … In talking with Rachel about our infrastructure, he spoke about my beloved Denmark.

If you’ve been keeping up with the posts on this blog, you know I have a love for Denmark. I love the Danes. I embrace their core values and their innovative spirit; and I often wish the United States had their kind of government.

On March 17th of this year, I posted a piece called "AMERICANS SOLD A BILL OF BULL". I wanted to let Americans know that they are deluded, and they don’t have a clue how much previous administrations [and perhaps this administration] have kept them in the dark.

Our government has also, in collusion with our corporations, and the rich, and the powerful, … perpetrated a fraud. And yet, we still live in denial about our free enterprise system.

Several days ago, I wrote a small piece called "Capitalism 201 Gone Wild" Fosters Inequality". I talked about our economic system, and my ideal economic system. Denmark comes pretty close to my ideal system.

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It is an economic system where good familial and community relationships are highly valued. When you get some time, read the piece.

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Update: "The Social Democrats led a string of coalition governments for most of the second half of the last century in a country generally known for its liberal traditions. This pattern was upset in November 2001 when a centre-right coalition promising tighter immigration controls came to power following a snap election called by the then Social Democrat Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in an attempt to capitalise on his rising popularity in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the US." In 2007, Rasmussen was re-elected - boasting to tighten immigration and boost the economy. We'll wait to see how this change in direction will affect the social fabric of Denmark.

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Update November 10, 2010
How the Wealthy Organized to Rip Everyone Else off -- And What You Can Do to Stop It | | AlterNet by Maria Armoudian


RACHEL'S INTERVIEW WITH DAVID:
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"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"
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Denmark
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Economic Council of the Labour Movement
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Danish Council of Ethics
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The Danish National Centre for Social Research
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Copenhagen Institute
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Philip Morris and its growing negative influence in Denmark
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Infrastructure

HEALTHCARE REFORM AT A CROSSROAD

Without going back and editing my previous post “Capitalism 201 Gone Wild Fosters Inequality”, I’d like to continue to focus on core values of different economic systems, and their role in health care reform.

As I said before, our free enterprise system values money and physical things. I would like to expand that by saying that it values power, money, and the acquisition and pursuit of money; and values physical assets and the acquisition and pursuit of physical assets.

In the second system mentioned in my previous post [let’s call it the Denmarkian system – smile], value is placed on familial and community relationships, human rights, human dignity, mutual cooperation, mutual respect, and creativity.

We, the people, have to decide which fundamentals [for lack of a better word] of the above systems do we want to embrace in health care reform.

In the last post, I stated that our free enterprise system is in opposition to the Denmarkian system. They don’t fit together.

In our present free enterprise [capitalistic] system we see health care as not a human right, but a privilege [some entitlement, with limited access and conditioned on a persons ability to pay] . In the Denmarkian system, health care is a human right [it is universal without conditions].

The progressives in the Democratic Party are more closely ideologically aligned with the Denmarkian system. Conservatives and members of the Republican Party are more closely ideologically aligned with our present free enterprise system, as are some moderate Democrats.

The American people are torn. They were raised in the [United States] Free Enterprise system, but deep down, I believe if they had a choice of core values, and understood the benefits of the Denmarkian system, they would embrace that system; though to what extent I know not.

And so we stand at a crossroad where a majority of representatives [218 in the House, 51 or 60 in the Senate] from 50 states must decide whether health care is a human right or a privilege. The choice they make [I believe] will have moral, ethical, and economic repercussions for years to come.
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-Human Rights

-Denmark

-Socialism

-Free Enterprise

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Healthcare Reform

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Progressivism

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A Story of Dire Consequences

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CAPITALISM 201 GONE WILD FOSTERS INEQUALITY

I was going to expound upon the comments made by “a voice within the financial industry”; but I decided to go with some thoughts about economic systems.

Our Free Enterprise system [Capitalism 201 Gone Wild] fosters inequality because it’s based on a set of flawed values; and hard work has little to do with financial success or happiness. This free enterprise system embraces (for the most part) a flawed concept of social Darwinism which rewards unrestrained competition over human rights.

It also says that those who adapt (Darwinian) and multiply unrestrained (free enterprise) are more valuable and the most financially successful. This system at its core, values power, money and physical assets over relationships and human rights; and it rewards exploitation. This system is most unstable.

In an economic system that values good familial and community relationships, human rights and human dignity over money and things [You can call it whatever you want]; people will agree to share regardless of one’s fitness.

This system takes into account human frailty and weakness; but tries to instill in its people the concepts of human rights, human dignity, mutual respect and cooperation; and appreciation of family and community. Innovation, creativity and true free trade is encouraged.
Trying to combine a system that values acquiring money and things -the free enterprise system we have today, with a system that values relationships and human dignity and human rights will always be inherently a flawed system; and will always be at odds trying to balance the two. They just don’t fit together well.

Denmark seems to largely embrace the second system and its people say they feel fulfilled, feel they are well provided for and feel happy. They also seem to be proud, innovative, creative and enjoy free trade.

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CONTINUED: OCTOBER 26 POST

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Update: November 10, 2010

As the Country Falls Apart, It's Time for Our Revolution | | AlterNet by Ted Rall

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Update November 10, 2010
How the Wealthy Organized to Rip Everyone Else off -- And What You Can Do to Stop It | | AlterNet by Maria Armoudian
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Update: September 10, 2012
Bill Clinton: The Great Deregulator, by Robert Scheer
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Update: March 2010
CHASING MADOFF, BY HARRY MARKOPOLOS

"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"

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Denmark

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Socialism

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Free Trade

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Individualism

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A Story of Dire Consequences

AMERICANS SOLD A BILL OF BULL

Story at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/17/surveys-americans-grip-to_n_175618.html

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Americans have bought into a lie and cling to it despite all evidence to the contrary.

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Americans seem to think that there is more class upward mobility in the United States than there is in other industrialized Nations that have large welfare states.*** Well, their belief is not supported by the facts.

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Doesn't surprise me at all. Americans have been listening to the **wrong people for a long time and buying into an ideology that is designed to keep most Americans less mobile. **[There have been more Republican administrations than Democratic administrations.]

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I had hoped we were smarter. Probably Americans had the mistaken notion about upward mobility because of the availability of credit cards and refinancing which allowed them to run up a "shameful" amount of debt for things they could not afford ... giving the illusion of being well off or living comfortably.

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I would bet, that if these Americans who feel that there is more upward mobility in the United States than elsewhere, would gladly go back into "suck the life out of you" debt just to make a point ... a stupid point ... but Americans are stubborn and so easily "snowed".

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Below are graphs which show where Americans stand vs citizens in northern European countries in regards to upward mobility. Americans also have the highest crime rates, the most pollution, the fattest people, the least educated, the most people in prisons, the most people without health care, and we make less money per productivity gains. All this evidence and we still cling to a false belief that countries with large "welfare states" are just horrible and don't allow for upward mobility.

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So here's the evidence, but I would bet that the "Americans for Prosperity" would deny it ... even looking at the truth ... that's how deluded most Americans are.
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From: "Surveys: Americans grip to Individualism in Economic Storm"

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"Not only do voters continue to be convinced, by large majorities, that they, and not government or big corporations, control their own destinies in the midst of the current recession, but they do so despite more long-term evidence suggesting that there is less class mobility in the United States than in most Northern European countries, or in Canada, and that U.S. wages have not kept up with productivity gains for the past three decades.

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This conviction underpins the long-standing American hostility to a full-fledged welfare state -- along the lines of many European countries -- and underpins the lack of a strong socialist tradition in the US. It also shapes the debate over policies to deal with the current recession, including the Obama administration's rejection of bank nationalization."
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Update November 10, 2010
How the Wealthy Organized to Rip Everyone Else off -- And What You Can Do to Stop It | | AlterNet by Maria Armoudian

*Survey of 2119 respondents conducted by the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies for the Pew Economic Mobility Project
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***Denmark has a free market capitalist economy, and a large welfare state,[3]. It ranks according to one measure as having the world's highest level of income equality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark
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"Norway has a Scandinavian welfare model and the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANADA
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"The French healthcare system was ranked first worldwide by the World Health Organization in 1997.[54] It is almost entirely free for people affected by chronic diseases (Affections de longues durées) such as cancers, AIDS or Cystic Fibrosis. Average life expectancy at birth is 79.73 years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrancE