But now the answer is an emphatic yes. Here’s a chart based on IMF data.
As you can see, Denmark did a great job at spending restraint from
2013-2019 and a good job of limiting government from 2013-2023.
The spending restraint during the 2013-2023 period is particularly
impressive since that included the pandemic years. Danish politicians
allowed spending to expand when COVID hit, but only for one year (2020)
and by a far lesser amount (8.2 percent) than most other nations.
And the spending restraint was so good before and after the pandemic
that overall spending grew by an average of only 1.7 percent during the
2013-2023 period.
The most impressive achievement in the graph is that the overall burden of spending dropped by 11 percentage points of GDP.
Government consumed nearly 58 percent of the economy’s output in
2012, the year before spending restraint began. By 2023, the spending
burden was less than 47 percent of GDP.
Unsurprisingly, spending restraint meant the nation also went from
having large budget deficits to having large budget surpluses. The
obvious takeaway is that when you address the disease of excessive spending growth, you automatically fix the symptom of red ink.
Back in 2014, I showed a list of nations that had multi-year periods of spending restraint, with government growing by an average of less than 2 percent annually.
I need to update that table and include Denmark.
The bottom line is that Denmark’s government made a lot of progress.
However, the public sector is still far too big (and spending is growing
far too fast this year, so some of the 2013-2023 progress is being
eroded).
At this site, when I have written about countries and states seeking to be among the leaders in eliminating fossil fuels from their electricity supply, I have generally focused on the larger jurisdictions, like Germany and the UK in Europe, and California and New York in the U.S. But there is one much smaller country that puts all of those bigger ones to shame: Denmark.
With a population of only about 6 million, Denmark has pushed the “renewable” electricity generation thing well beyond what others have been able to accomplish. According to its official statistics, in 2024 Denmark got some 79.5% of its electricity from what it calls “low carbon” sources. The large majority of that came from wind and solar, with only a minimal contribution from nuclear. As to nuclear, Denmark had in fact mandated phasing it out, by a law passed back in 2003.
So then, does it seem like, with just a final little push, Denmark can go over the top and reach the long-sought goal of 100% of generation from “renewables”?
In fact, according to the most recent news from Denmark, it is the opposite. Just during the past week, the lower house of Denmark’s Parliament, by a wide margin (102-8), passed a resolution reversing the nuclear phase out. This will likely lead to retaining the few remaining reactors, and then starting to build new ones. The immediate impetus for the resolution appears to have been the recent blackout in Spain and Portugal, which has been generally attributed to the lack of synchronous generation on the power grids of those countries.
The statement by the Danish government announcing the Parliament’s resolution did not explicitly walk back support for the continued build-out of wind and solar generators, but said that this new pro-nuclear approach “pave[s] the way for a realistic and resilient energy model.”
Now that Denmark has recognized the need for some form of high-inertia synchronous generation to make its grid work reliably, it’s hard to see how they can avoid the next inevitable question: Do wind and solar actually serve any real function here? Or are they just a large added cost without any corresponding benefit? It can’t be long before lots of people start pressing this obvious question.
Belgium's federal parliament has voted by a large majority to repeal a 2003 law for the phase-out of nuclear power and banning the construction of new nuclear generating capacity. Meanwhile, the Danish parliament has approved an analysis of the potential use of nuclear, which has been banned for the past 40 years. Belgium's federal law of 31 January 2003 [has] require[d] the phase-out of all nuclear electricity generation in the country.
Under the 2003 law, several nuclear plants had been closed, although the closure of the last two had been delayed. Most recently, those last two were scheduled to close in November of this year, but now that is likely to be postponed again.
And meanwhile, up to now Denmark has been the absolute champion of building wind turbines and solar panels to supply its grid. Since the 1990s, Denmark has had a crash program to build out more and more wind and solar generators. According to Danish statistics reported at Low Carbon Power here, in 2024 Denmark got 52.3% of its electricity from wind and 10.2% from solar, for a total of 62.5% from those two sources. Here is a pie chart from Low Carbon Power showing all of the sources of Denmark’s electricity for 2024:
The “low carbon” total comes to 79.5%, after adding an additional 17% from a category they call “biofuels.” Note the leafy branch appearing in the pie chart as the symbol for the “biofuels.” Don’t be fooled. As far as I know, “biofuels” mainly means burning garbage, with some wood pellets from cutting down trees thrown into the mix. Both garbage and wood pellets contain carbon, and thus the energy from the “biofuels” comes from burning the carbon. Exactly why this is in the “low carbon” category is a mystery to me.
And yet, having surpassed the 60% threshold of electricity from wind and solar, Denmark has now recognized that 100% is not feasible, and wind and solar alone cannot be the only sources to power their grid. Even if the intermittency problem can be overcome, the problems of lack of synchronization and inertia cannot be solved with only wind and solar. Some amount of timed spinning generation is necessary, and nuclear is the proposed low-carbon solution. Some amount of nuclear is going to get built. Let’s assume the amount of nuclear to be built will be sufficient to supply 50% of average demand (the exact percentage is not important).
Once you have nuclear to supply half of average demand, here’s the key question: should you run it all the time, or should you turn it on and off, or ramp it up and down, as wind and solar generation may be available to meet the same demand? This is not a difficult question. Nuclear reactors are expensive, and the cost of the capital needed to build them (e.g., interest on bonds) accrues 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. To minimize the cost of capital per unit of electricity produced, you want to run your nuclear plant all the time. Yes, there is a cost of fuel involved in a nuclear plant, but it is minimal compared to the cost of capital.
Instead of running your new nuclear plant at full capacity all the time, you could choose to have it ramp up and down as intermittent wind and solar generation are randomly available. Assume that (like Denmark) you have sufficient wind and solar generation to supply 62.5% of demand. This means that your new nuclear plant, operating in backup mode, will only be selling power 38.5% of the time. But the bondholders who financed it must be paid 100% of the time. After some (relatively small) adjustments for costs of fuel and operations, the bottom line is that the cost per unit of electricity from your new nuclear plant will be close to triple what the cost per unit would have been if you had chosen to run the plant all of the time. But if you run the nuclear plant all the time, you don’t need the wind and the solar. They are just a useless extra cost.
The real world cost calculations would be somewhat more complex than what I have outlined, but not much. The fact is that once you have nuclear plants to cover a given level of electricity demand, wind and solar generators serve no useful function.
It shouldn’t take the Danes too long to figure this out. I will enjoy watching the process unfold.
Given the crummy performance of government schools, that’s is great news for families in those states (and also for taxpayers).
But let’s not forget the global evidence. I’ve already written about the very successful choice-based systems in Canada, Sweden, Chile, and the Netherlands.
Today, let’s look at school choice in another nation.
Danish schools are characterized by diversity, autonomy,
and a uniquely long-standing historical commitment to government-funded
independent schools and parental choice in education… Primary and lower
secondary independent schools—which account for about 45 percent of the
schools in Denmark…—are supported financially by the government via a
school choice system, at about 75 percent of the rate of fully funded
government schools.
…Danish parents can choose the school to which they send their child.
Today, about 16 percent of students attend an independent school and
that share is growing. …
The expansion of school choice policies in
Denmark in the 1990s and early 2000s coincided chronologically with a 45
percent increase in independent school enrolment and a corresponding
decrease in government public school enrolment from 1998 to 2018. Over
the same period, secondary graduation rates and student achievement in
mathematics and reading improved, particularly in independent schools.
…
This improvement, following the expansion of the country’s school
choice policies, was achieved without increasing education spending as a
share of gross domestic product (GDP) or as a share of total government
spending.
Here’s a chart looking at the performance of private schools compared to government schools.
This excerpt from the conclusion is also worth sharing.
The expansion of Denmark’s school choice policies in the
1990s and early 2000s coincided with a 45 percent increase in
independent school enrolment between 1998 and 2018, decreasing enrolment
in government public schools, increasing secondary graduation rates,
and increasing student achievement in math and reading, particularly in
independent schools, which have lifted student achievement since the
country’s school choice policies were expanded.
P.S. Getting rid of the Department of Education in Washington would be a good idea, but the battle for school choice is largely won and lost on the state and local level.
“The unfree, medieval forces of the Middle East have won a victory today”, Denmark’s former immigration minister has said as the nation’s present government ploughs on to mollify criticism from the Muslim world by banning Qur’an burnings.
Denmark was the last Scandinavian country to still have historic blasphemy laws on the books when it scrapped its 334-year-old statute in 2017, but now the nation’s left-led government is bringing them back. A new law is being drafted, targeted at a surge in Qur’an burning protests recently which would make desecrating any holy book illegal, with the government saying the legislation is a matter of national security..........To Read More...
Denmark’s Signal to the World, It says, "We're cowards."- by Bruce Bawer30 Comments - n Scandinavia, this has been the summer of Koran burnings – scores of
them. Opponents of Islam, and of the steady Islamization of Western
Europe, have chosen this means of protest – which is usually carried out
in public squares, or in front of mosques or important government
buildings, in some of the region’s larger cities – to register their
hostility to the totalitarian ideology spelled out in Islam’s holiest
book. Some of these Koran burners are ethnic Scandinaivans who have felt
their countries and cultures slipping gradually away from them for
years; others are freedom-loving immigrants from the Muslim world who
are alarmed to see the countries to which they escaped looking more and
more like the countries from which they fled.............
There's been a great deal of outrage expressed over Florida's law on sex education for very young children. Outrage from the left because it has passed, and outrage from the parents because this needed to be passed. But I'm a bit amazed. Why?
Because it isn't like it just started this year. Below are a series of recent articles dealing will this, but below them I've linked some articles from my files going back to 2013 and 2014. And no one noticed this has been going on for years. Is it possible the media has been hiding it? Remarkable!
Well, the rock has been turned over and parents are seeing what was under that rock, and they're just a bit upset. Teachers are upset also, because these parents actually believe these children belong to them and not the education system. Imagine that. It would appear these teachers, teacher's unions and boards of education keep forgetting who are paying the bills, who the children belong to and who really is in charge.
They seem to think they're unaccountable autocrats rather then employees. Well, the parents think if they're paying the bills, they're the employer. Imagine that. And when the employer is told to shove it by the employee, things can and will get testy. This cartoon really sets to tone for the next election.
At a Fairbanks school board meeting, you could feel the leftist panic- April 26, 202 By Andrea Widburg -
When I think of
Alaska, I tend to think of a sturdy conservative state that elected
Sarah Palin as its governor. Then I remember that Alaskans keep sending
Lisa Murkowski to the Senate. Clearly, there's a leftist strain in
that state. It was clearly revealed at a Fairbanks School Board meeting
regarding a proposed revision to school policies that would have
required teachers to wade into controversial, polarizing
subjects. That's an interesting discussion and one school boards should
have. What I found noteworthy, though, was the desperate speed with
which leftist board members moved to silence a conservative board member
who peacefully began to read from a book readily found on the high
school library shelves............
More Secret Gender Transition Closets Discovered in Public Schools Epoch Times, by Alice Giordano - They started in colleges, but trans closets—rooms stocked with transgender
clothes and accessories for students to change into after arriving at
school and back out of before going home—are being discovered in public schools, with some indication that they’re being kept secret from parents. In a recent TikTok video, a California teacher implies that the trans
closet he started at the high school where he works is meant to be kept
from parents. “The goal of the transition closet is for our students to wear the
clothes that their parents approve of, come to school, and then swap out
into the clothes that fit who they truly are,” the teacher said.........
The Role of Parents in Education- By Anthony Matoria
April 26, 2022 - The education of
children is one of the more consequential issues in American politics.
This is so, not merely because of concerns regarding the poor quality of
education in many locations throughout the country, but also because
the issue is used to justify alterations to established institutions and
norms. The family and the individual dignity and welfare of the child
are among these institutions and norms. Debate regarding education thus
tends to wander into such areas as "parental rights" and whether
children "belong" to society. These are the issues of actual interest
to progressive ideologies, and education is merely one front on which
the ideologues seek to advance their agenda. .............
Transgender Mania Grips the White HOuse, Despite Wrnings From Europe...
By Bill Donohue
| April 22, 2022 - There is no such person as a
transgender — you are either male or
female — but there is such a thing as transgenderism: it is an ideology
that promotes the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable. To win,
proponents are bent on getting to children, prompting little
kids to question whether they are satisfied being a boy or a girl. If
they are in doubt, they should be advised to at least consider making
the switch. There is no more rabid advocate of transgenderism in
America than the
president of the United States. Indeed, transgender mania has gripped
the White House........
State to require 2nd graders to learn about gender identity You can have 'boy parts' but be a girl- By WND News ServicesApril 22, 2022 -
New sex-education standards that are set to go into effect in New
Jersey this year have sparked a nationwide controversy and have even led
to a public comment from the state’s Democratic governor, who supports
the standards but wants clarification on what children will be taught.
The standards, approved in 2020, are scheduled to be implemented this
fall and will expand what students across all grades will learn about
several issues, including LGBTQ+ matters. For example, by the end of
grade 2, children should be able to “discuss the range of ways people
express their gender and how gender-role stereotypes may limit
behavior.”........
'The Way in Which Wars Start': Randi Weingarten Warns Parental Rights Bills Could Have Severe Consequences - Landon Mion Apr 22, 2022 10 -American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said on a
recent podcast that GOP-backed parental rights legislation could have
alarming results and even suggested that such laws are how "wars start." During an appearance
on a podcast with radio host Rick Smith earlier this month, Weingarten
criticized parental rights bills like the one recently signed into law
in Florida. "This notion – we've been very lucky in America, and
we in some ways live in a bubble for a long time," she said. "This is
propaganda. This is misinformation. This is the way in which wars start.
This is the way in which hatred starts." The AFT president also
dismissed the suggestion that teachers are engaging in efforts to make
students think in a certain way or are exposing children to
inappropriate content...............
LGBTQ Activist Group Urges American Students to ‘Take Vow of Silence’ in Schools to Address ‘Anti-LGBTQ Behavior’ - Susan Berry, PhD - The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) rallied U.S. students to participate in their annual Day of Silence Friday, during which the students are supposed to vow to remain silent in school, apparently to draw attention to claims of “anti-LGBTQ behavior.” According to GLSEN, which was founded by gay activist and former Obama administration “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings,
the “Day of Silence” is “a national student-led demonstration where
LGBTQ students and allies all around the country—and the world—take a
vow of silence to protest the harmful effects of harassment and
discrimination of LGBTQ people in schools.”..........
Now, from the files of Paradigms and Demographics let's take a very short trip back in time to 2013 and 2014.
‘Gay’ Lawmaker to Christians: ‘We’ll Take
Your Children’- August 25, 2013 by J.Matt
Barber -Few people doubt that New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hopes to become president in 2016. Unfortunately for
him, he may have just signed away any chance of that. Last week, Christie signed
A3371, a draconian piece of legislation that bars licensed therapists from
helping children overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior or identity.
This law bans help for minors even when – as is so often the case – those
same-sex attractions arise from childhood sexual abuse by the likes of a Jerry
Sandusky.
This law will prohibit minors
and their parents from receiving counseling they desire and will force
counselors to violate ethical codes because they will not be able to help
clients reach their own counseling goals. This law would enslave children –
whether abused or not – to a subjectively determined sexual identity that they
reject....[beyond] violating their first amendment rights......The governor is
one of three things. He is either: 1) ill-informed, 2) politically motivated or
3) stupid.
I don’t know, I guess he could
be 4) all of the above.....
DOJ: Children Do Not Need—and Have No Right to--Mothers -March 3, 2013 By Terence P. Jeffrey - Solicitor
General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., speaks at Georgetown Law School. The
Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court
that children do not need mothers. The Justice Department’s argument
on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama
administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which
challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot
initiative that amended California’s Constitution to say that marriage
involves only one man and one woman. The
Justice Department presented its conclusions about parenthood in
rebutting an argument made by proponents of Proposition 8 that the
traditional two-parent family, led by both a mother and a father, was
the ideal place, determined even by nature itself, to raise a child.The
Obama administration argues this is not true. It argues that children
need neither a father nor a mother and that having two fathers or two
mothers is just as good as having one of each….
Yale mulls paying for students' sex change operations- By Joshua Rhett Miller Published February 28, 2013 - Yale
is considering joining Brown, Penn, Harvard and Cornell universities by
picking up the tab for Ivy League students who want sex changes. The
New Haven, Conn., school is still reviewing policies regarding the
procedure for its 5,322 undergraduate students and its 6,526 graduate
and professional students, but has already extended gender reassignment
coverage to employees. "The benefit is offered to faculty and staff,
and is being considered for students," Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart told
FoxNews.com in an email. "Cost would vary depending on treatment."
Gabriel Murchison, a member of Yale’s Resource Alliance for Gender
Equity (RAGE), told FoxNews.com gender reassignment surgery is just one
of several areas where student health care should be on par with that
offered to faculty, staff and their dependents....
Irate parents pummel gov't official over porn in class - By WND Staff October 13, 2019 - 'If it's not suitable to talk about with adults, how can it possibly be suitable to talk about in schools?' Parents infuriated over school-mandated lessons that "promote
pornography" have confronted the education secretary in the United
Kingdom. It happened at a recent National Parent Forum of Scotland
event. The Christian Institute explained that one of the parents faced
off with Education Secretary John Swinney over the curriculum. "When [a] father gave a graphic description of what he claimed was being
taught, he was asked by the chair of the event to tone down his
language. He responded by saying if it's not suitable to talk about with
adults, how can it possibly be suitable to talk about in schools?'" the
institute said. The parents charged the lessons are "corrupting children.".........
Officials in Sweden and Denmark have paused use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in younger age groups due to concerns about the shots causing rare heart inflammation. The two Nordic nations - separated by only a dozen miles of the Kattegat sea area - announced the decision on Wednesday. In Sweden, the Moderna jab will no longer be available to any one born after 1990, or those aged 30 and younger. Denmark has restricted access to the vaccine to anyone under the age of 18.
Myocarditis
and pericarditis, both types of inflammation of the heart, are known as
side effects of the Covid vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) even warns that the condition may develop in young
males after vaccination. Heart
inflammation is also a symptom of many viral infections like COVID-19,
though, and the likelihood of developing the inflammation after
infection is much higher than it is after vaccination......To Read More...
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has
set a target of zero new asylum seekers as her government’s new goal,
citing concerns that too many migrants will affect the social cohesion
of the country.
The Danish prime minister stated her goal on Friday at the Danish
Folketing, saying: “We cannot promise zero asylum seekers, but we can
set out the vision that we also did before the elections, namely that we
want a new asylum system and then we do what we can to introduce it.”............“One in five young men from non-Western backgrounds who were born in
1997 had breached the penal code before the age of 21. One in five,” she
said.
“It’s nothing new, and that’s the problem: it’s been going on for too
many years. Girls are called derogatory things because they are Danish.
Or girls are subjected to social control because they have become too
Danish. A sausage cart in Brønshøj is attacked with firecrackers because
it sells pork,” Fredericksen observed..........The number of asylum seekers entering Sweden in 2020 was not only larger
than that of Denmark, but it was also around three times more than all
of its Scandinavian neighbours combined............To Read More....
My Take - When are these people going to learn. This is immigration jihad, and as long as Muslims are Muslims their practices will be devoted to destroying western culture and civilization. They're so delusional they blame themselves for the lack of integration, and won't even call these immigrants Muslims, they're called non-western immigrants. Europe is doomed, and Biden is working to make the United States just as doomed with the immigration policies he's working to implement.
A former migration minister faces procecution
because she ordered child brides to be removed from their older migrant
adult husbands during the 2016 Europe Migrant Crisis, an act lawyers
have claimed was illegal.
Inger Støjberg used the order in 2016 when she served as immigration
and integration minister in the previous Danish government and separated 23 couples where one partner in the adult relationship was legally a child in Danish law..........The matter will now go to a vote in the Folketing and according to Berlingske, three parties, the ruling Social Democrats, Venstre, and the Conservatives, remain undecided on how they will vote............To Read More....
Growing dissatisfaction with government-run program
WND 6/23/19
Self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and other Democrats frequently point to the Scandinavian countries as models for health care, but an increasing number of citizens in these nations are opting for private medical insurance, finding the universal government system inadequate.
Kevin Pham, a medical doctor and a former graduate fellow in health policy at the Heritage Foundation, points out in a column for the Daily Signal that Denmark, Sweden and Norway are not socialist countries but highly taxed market economies with large welfare states.
He notes a growing European interest in private health insurance that “typically stems from dissatisfaction with the state-run systems, which often provide poor or incomplete coverage and long wait times.”
“By contrast, private plans offer wider coverage, shorter wait times, access to private facilities, and more flexibility in patient choice,” he wrote.
Between 2006 and 2016, the portion of the population covered by private insurance increased by 4 percent in Sweden, 7 percent in Norway and 22 percent in Denmark.
A 2009 survey showed nearly half of Danes felt waiting times were unreasonable while only about a third disagreed. In 2007, the Danish government enacted a wait time guarantee of one month to receive treatment.
Meanwhile, some Democratic presidential candidates are proposing “Medicare for All,” which is most similar to the Canadian system in which providers bill a regional office administering the program...........under Medicare for All...........“Private health insurance would be abolished for everyone.”
............To Read More...
But to make matters clear, here’s a comparison of Denmark and the United States from Economic Freedom of the World.
The bottom line is that if folks on the left want to claim Denmark is socialist, then America also is socialist. Alternatively, if Denmark is an example of Democratic Socialism, then so is the United States.
And if that’s the case, we’ve already reached Collectivist Nirvana and my leftist friends can shelve some of their crazy ideas such as 70 percent tax rates and the Green New Deal.
Needless to say, I won’t hold my breath.
Today, I want to focus on another aspect of Danish public policy that warms my heart. Back in 2015, I applauded the government for imposing some spending restraint and I expressed hope that plans for future fiscal discipline would be fulfilled.
Well, based on IMF and OECD data, policy makers in Denmark deserve a gold star. They followed my Golden Rule and limited the growth of government spending. As a result, there’s been a meaningful decline in the burden of spending (measured as a share of economic output).
Too bad American politicians weren’t similarly prudent. If federal spending in the U.S. grew at the same rate since 2012, the burden of spending today would be more than $700 billion lower.
And since spending is the problem and red ink is the symptom, it naturally follows that the United States would have a deficit this year of about $370 billion instead of nearly $1.1 trillion.
Yet all that spending (and future red ink) doesn’t even provide a lavish retirement. Workers would enjoy a much more comfortable future if they had the freedom to shift payroll taxes to personal retirement accounts.
This is why I periodically point out that other nations are surpassing America by creating retirement systems based on private savings. Here are some examples of countries with “funded” systems (as compared to the “pay-as-you-go” regime in the United States).
There is…a mandatory occupation pension scheme based on lump-sum contributions (ATP). In addition, compulsory occupational pension schemes negotiated as part of collective agreements or similar cover about 90% of the employed work force. …Pension rights with ATP and with occupational pension schemes are accrued on a what-you-pay-iswhat-you-get basis. The longer the working career, the higher the employment rate, the longer contribution record and the higher the contribution level, the greater the pension benefits. …ATP covers all wage earners and almost all recipients of social security benefits. ATP membership is voluntary for the self-employed. ATP covers almost the entire population and comes close to absolute universality. …The occupational pension schemes are fully funded defined-contribution schemes… Some 90% of the employed work force is covered… The coverage ratio has increased from some 35% in the mid-1980s to the current level… Contribution rates range between 12% and 18%.
As labour market pensions mature, they will challenge the people’s pension as the backbone The fully funded pensions provide the state with large income tax revenues from future pension payments which will also relieve the state quite a bit from future increases in pension expenditures. Alongside positive demographic prospects this makes the Danish system economically sustainable. … a main driver was the state’s interest in higher savings… Initially, savings was also the government motive for announcing in 1984 that it would welcome an extension of occupational pensions to the entire labour market. … Initially, contributions were low, but the social partners set a target of 9 per cent, later 12 per cent, which was reached by 2009. …it is formally a private system. Pensions are fully funded, and savings are secured in pensions funds. …It is also worth noting that the capital accumulated is huge. Adding together pensions in private insurance companies, banks, and labour market pension funds (some of which are organized as private pension insurance companies), the total amount by the end of 2015 was 4.083 bill.DKK, that is, 201 per cent of GDP.
Denmark’s government also is cutting back on the taxpayer-financed system.
… the state has also sought to reduce costs of ageing by raising the pension age. In the 2006 “Welfare Reform”, it was decided to index retirement age with life expectancy… Moreover, the voluntary early retirement scheme was reduced from 5 to 3 years and made so economically unattractive that it is de facto phased out. Pension age is gradually raised from 65 to 67 years in 2019-22, to 68 years in 2030, to 69 in 2035 and to 70 in 2040… These reforms are extremely radical: The earliest possible time of retirement increases from 60 years for those born in 1953 to 70 years for those born in 1970. But the challenge of ageing is basically solved.
The Social Security Administration has noticed that Denmark is responding to demographic change.
The Danish government recently implemented two policy changes that will delay the transition from work to retirement for many of its residents. On December 29, 2015, the statutory retirement age increased from age 67 to 68 for younger Danish residents. Three days later, on January 1, 2016, a reform went into effect that prohibits the long-standing practice of including mandatory retirement ages in employment contracts.
…pension reforms are expected to compensate the impact of ageing on the labour force… To maintain its sustainability…, major reforms have been legislated, including the indexation of retirement age to life expectancy gains from 2030 onwards. …a person entering the labour market at 20 in 2014 will reach the legal retirement age at 73.5. This would make the Danish pension age the highest among OECD countries. …As private pension schemes introduced in the 1990s mature, public spending on pension is projected to decline from around 10% of GDP in 2013 to 7% towards 2060.
Wow. Government spending on pensions will decline even though the population is getting older. Too bad that’s not what’s happening in America.
Denmark has also developed a funded, private pension system, which is based on mandatory, occupational pension (OP) schemes… The projected development of the occupational schemes will have a substantial effect on the Danish economy’s ability to cope with the demographic changes. …the risks of generational conflicts seem smaller in Denmark than in many other countries. …Overall, the Danish OP schemes are thus widely regarded as highly successful: they have contributed substantially to restoring fiscal sustainability, helped averting chronic imbalances on the current account and reduced poverty among the elderly.
This table is remarkable, showing the very high levels of pension assets in Denmark.
To be sure, the Danish system is not a libertarian fantasy. Government still provides a substantial chunk of retirement income, and that will still be true when the private portion of the system is fully mature. And even if the private system provided 99 percent of retirement income, it’s based on compulsion, so “libertarian” is probably not the right description.
So the next time I hear Bernie Sanders say that the United States should be more like Denmark. I’ll be (selectively) cheering.
P.S. The good news isn’t limited to pension reform. Having reached (and probably surpassed) the revenue-maximizing point on the Laffer Curve, Denmark is taking some modest steps to restrain the burden of government spending. Combined with very laissez-faire policies on other policies such as trade and regulation, this helps to explain why Denmark is actually one of the 20-most capitalist nations in the world.
August 8 addendum: Here’s a chart from a report by the European Commission showing that private pension income is growing while government-provided retirement benefits are falling (both measured as a share of GDP).
Denmark’s biggest party has announced it wants to introduce a cap for non-Western asylum seekers, like the large group of migrants pictured here walking on a highway near Rodby in September 2015
Denmark’s Social Democrats, part of the left-wing opposition and the country’s largest party, on Monday proposed slashing the number of “non-Western” foreigners allowed into the EU member state.
“We want to introduce a cap on the number of non-Western foreigners who can come to Denmark,” Mette Frederiksen, head of the Socialdemokratiet, said in a 44-page document which focused in particular on asylum seekers from Africa.
“We want to reform our asylum system, among other things, by setting up reception centres outside Europe, and in the future it will not be possible for refugees to obtain asylum in Denmark outside quotas set by the United Nations,” she added..........To Read More....
UK General Election Analysis
By Alexandra Phillips and RJ Galliano
While the left hungrily defends anything considered minority, they feel emboldened to attack what have hitherto been majority viewpoints in an increasingly fascistic manner. I don’t know what this new social religion is, nor do I really wish to sign up to it, but I fear it is building a congregation big enough to change the very fabric of our long-established culture..........
Out of Afghanistan?
By Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
To defeat the Islamists in Afghanistan, we should learn how to divide and rule. We must pursue a number of policies that may seem contradictory. First, we should strengthen the royalists, the republicans, and the nationalists not just at the center in Kabul but in the areas where they enjoy the most support: among the ethnic groups, tribes, and clans. Setting the tribes against one another and against various Islamic radicals, reformers, and nationalists formed the basis of Britain’s colonial policy in Afghanistan. Self-paralysis of the Afghans meant safety for the Empire’s policy there. Missing from my list is the liberal democratic orientation as it is naturally absent at this stage of Afghanistan’s development. First things first. We should get rid of the Islamists and, ideally, restore a modernizing monarchy. Then other good things will follow.,,,,
Trump Effect in Denmark: Reinvigorating Nationalism and National Defense
By Taylor Rose
Trump could indirectly make “it easier for us to criticize politicians like Merkel in Germany and the EU. Trump will be able to change the ways we think and act, especially if he succeeds with his proposals of vetting immigrants, profiling, deportations etc. We would, of course, be inspired.” .......
Trump’s ‘Active Leadership’ Reverses Course on Obama’s Cuba Policy
By RJ Galliano
To the Cuban government, I say: Put an end to the abuse of dissidents. Release the political prisoners. Stop jailing innocent people. Open yourselves to political and economic freedoms. Return the fugitives from American justice – including the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. And finally, hand over the Cuban military criminals who shot down and killed four brave members of Brothers to the Rescue who were in unarmed, small, slow civilian planes.” President Trump,,,,
The
rising threat of mass casualty terrorism poses a significant problem
for the criminal justice systems of the Scandinavian countries.
Legal traditions favoring defendants, and evolved to serve
populations that have historically been socially disciplined and
characterized by low rates of violent crime, may not be ideal for
safeguarding against terrorism or dispensing justice to those who
perpetrate terrorist attacks.
The
Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Norway and Sweden have historically
been among the least likely in the western world to experience
violent crime in any form, including terrorism. However in recent
years terrorist acts and concerns related to both domestic and
international terrorism have increased. The risk of terrorist
activity and the potential sources of such attacks are varied.
A fascinating account from October 28, 2013 of a libel trial in Denmark by
Dispatch International editor Lars Hedegaard:
Danish Journalist Jørgen Dragsdahl was a KGB agent With Friday’s acquittal of
history professor Bent Jensen for libel, the Danish Superior Court put an end
to a seven-year court battle. Jensen was unanimously and comprehensively
exonerated and the court determined that he was ”justified” in calling Jørgen
Dragsdahl a KGB agent. Dragsdahl (photo above) was also the man behind the
Social Democratic Party’s anti-NATO course during the 1980s. It remains to be
seen if the party will take this blow to its reputation lying down.Here we see the curtain drawn back on the
identity of an agent of Soviet influence, a "spy" whose mission under
consideration is... Read More »
