Because, as Margaret Thatcher once said: “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
It looks as if Denmark is hitting that threshold.
From Bloomberg.com:
Aging Danes Hope Robots Will Save Their Welfare State
by Peter Levring
Denmark needs creative solutions to its labor shortages
Denmark has a problem: it may soon be unable to afford offering such a good deal to its people.
Free health care for all, a $757 monthly stipend for college students and robust safety nets for the less fortunate all cost money – Denmark devotes slightly more than 30 percent of its gross domestic product to social spending, one of the highest levels in the rich world.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, such a “generous welfare system requires robust public finances.” And while Denmark’s “seem sustainable” for now, the assumptions that underpin that view carry a high level of uncertainty, the OECD warned in a recent survey.
What? The gravy train is about to derail? I thought Denmark was the welfare and socialist Utopia favored by the rest of the planet.
True, an unemployment rate below 4 percent is one of Europe’s lowest, and industry frequently complains about shortages in skilled labor. But population projections show that Denmark’s 600 billion-krone ($91 billion) welfare system is facing a future of more customers and fewer people around to pick up the bill.
The alternative to cutting costs, of course, is to increase revenue. But Denmark’s not doing too well there either, with faltering productivity leading to an economy that’s now expanding at a slower pace than the euro area’s.
But wait! Weren’t we told that Denmark is a worker’s paradise? They out-produce the rest of Europe? Everyone has a smile pasted on their face? Check the graphic at the top of this post as opposed to the graphic above. Apparently, not so much. The graph above says this: you are heading towards a cash crash, in terms of being able to pay for all of your free shit. That is to say, the ultimate tipping point of more parasites than hosts.
Let me finally state this: Denmark has it easy. It is a small country (133rd in size), with a small population (5.7 million, including the Faroe Islands and Greenland) that has, conversely, one of the world’s highest income tax rates. The world’s. And even then, with having a much smaller geographic area and population to pacify — than, say, the United States — it is already running out of cash and labor.
If the Perfect Ideal Utopia that all Leftists, Progressives and Demorats immediately point to when prompting and promoting welfare and socialism theories is running out of gas — with a fraction the size and population of the US — what makes anyone think it will work here?
Historical Alzeimers, as I call it. That’s what.
Because, as I’ve always said, everyone thinks they can “do” Socialism better than the last guy.
Ahem. Hillary.
BZ
