The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

by Michael Booth

Does he not accept the Right’s argument that taxes are a disincentive to work, to innovate, to take risks? Naturally, he does not. When one looks at middle-class disposable income in the United States and Denmark, once things like childcare and health insurance are taken into consideration, they are on a par, he says. In Denmark you get all these things for free—75 percent of childcare costs are paid for by the State, along with health care, of course, and much elder care—while in the United States you pay lower taxes but then have to pay for these services. It is merely a matter of at what stage you pay for them. “The real difference is that those who have a high risk of being ill or unemployed are better off in our system, and those who have a very high income are not. They are better off in other parts of the world. But does that mean that those high achievers, highly skilled people, migrate from Denmark to avoid tax? That’s the real question.” Skilled politicians rarely ask questions to which they do not already have answers, and Lykketoft has one. There is no evidence to support this, he says. The wealth generators are staying in Denmark—there is no brain drain.