False logic

Being an Icelander living in Denmark has opened my mind for many new things. A few of them are:

• Compared to Danish people, Icelanders are surprisingly aware of the power of private enterprise.
• Compared to people with basic history-knowledge, Danish people are surprisingly ignorant.
• Compared to a nation of rich, hardworking people, the Danish are surprisingly willing to hand the state problems to solve, thereby increasing the damage of the problems.
• Compared to how much Danish people enjoy the fruits of free competition in the free market, they are surprisingly willing to monopolize systems of e.g. health care and education by leaving them in the hands of the state.

This list is only to name a few of my surprises with the Danish people. They are hardcore-capitalists in most classical meanings of the word: They are vicious consumers and punish overprising and lack of quality without hesitation. They are naggers to the bone, making everything around them sound like the worst in the world, and criticize bad management and bad choices until ears drop off. However, they are also very willing to push problems out of their way by pointing at politicians and blame them for what is wrong. As a result, many problems (and "problems") are sucked into the state's supervision, and it's then when the nagging starts for real.

Denmark is a rich country filled with well-educated, hard-working, creative people who strive to improve their lives in every sense of the word. Danish people enjoy the fruits of the free market more than inhabitants of many other states, and Denmark is a magnet for those who enjoy the very best of what a free society has to offer. But they have a socialistic bone in them which tells them that some things are best left in the hands of bureaucrats, politicians and public officials, and as a result the Danish people are worse off than they could be. The newspapers are filled with left-oriented slogans and analyses, and it seems that the Right in Denmark (or 'de borgerlige liberals' like they call themselves to avoid comparison with national socialists) is careful of keeping its mouth very shut in the public discussion, hoping that people's common sense outwins the Leftist-anger. Sad and risky, to say the least.

But maybe I've just been focusing on seeing the bad for the last few months. Last week the idea was dropped that the best "family policy" for Denmark would be to lower taxes, thereby giving parents more flexibility to live of a single or one and a half income instead of two today, and this week it was suggested that the state should give up state-support in the housing-sector in exchange for more freedom and flexibility (which then would give more people better chances of finding appropriate, affordable housing). Maybe are some things okay in this country of pseudo-socialistic capitalism.