Burger King in Denmark vs Burger King in the United States..

[Playinghardball]

Any questions?

[Jackie Wilson Said]

1. And all we need to do this here is the will to do it. period

[RantinRavin]

2. Take a look at Denmark taxes

Lowest personal income tax rate is 55%
Sales tax is 25%

[Bucky]

3. and a 4.2 unemployment rate

[Scootaloo]

4. Yup. And people manage to live pretty damned well

Because those taxes are directed towards the public good.

Unlike in Adam Smith's day; his anti-tax polemics were based on the reality of an era where taxes went right to the tables and soirees of the aristocratic class.

Also unlike modern America wheree the largest chunk of our taxes go into the military, which outside of a pending invasion of the country, is the opposite of "spending it on the public good"

[Maedhros]

5. And a much better rate of child poverty:

But who wants THAT if it takes higher taxes...

[virgogal]

53. Many of the poor children in this country

belong to parents who came here to make a better life.

Denmark does not have a huge immigrant population.

Apples and oranges.

[Maedhros]

54. Whatever you need to tell yourself to assuage the guilt. [n/t]

[virgogal]

55. No guilt here.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. Oh really? Percentage of immigrants in various countries:

according to a UN report from 2015

The U.S. 14.3%

Sweden also 14.3%

Denmark 9.0%

Norway 13.1%

Finland 5.09%

Iceland 10.46%

The stereotype of the Nordic countries being homogeneous lands of blue-eyed blonds is way out of date. And as you would know if you had been there recently, most of the immigrants in Scandinavia are from the Middle East, Africa, or Southeast Asia.

Furthermore, Canada has a whopping 20% immigrant population and a lower child poverty rate than we do. Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland also have a higher percentage of immigrants in their populations than the U.S. does. Germany, the UK, and France are all over 10%. They also have lower child poverty rates, although the UK is catching up since the Conservatives took over.

You have to use a different excuse for our child poverty rate, especially since so many of the nation's poor children are natural born American citizens from places like Appalachia, Indian reservations, African-American urban ghettos, and industrial towns deserted by the corporations.

[Shadowflash]

6. 1. Denmark

Denmark came in first place as the happiest country in the world in the 2013 happiness report

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/travel/happiest-countries-to-visit/index.html

[FailureToCommunicate]

27. Haven't read it, but this is supposed to detail some of that happiness...

[w0nderer]

8. common misconception is also what one gets

in the us (fla) i paid approx 20% tax
well federal income tax + social + medicare
however that's not all a Dane would get

to match a swedish (i'm using swedish since i'm more familiar but it's close enough to work for gov purposes)
tax....i'd have to add to my US tax

health insurance with a copay max $20 guaranteed
and a $150-300 or so high fee protect on medication (i go over that and i get free meds)
pension (basic)
dental (basic but enough for a check up, clean and minor procedure yearly)
paid workday insurance (aflac)

for starters

now once i started to add that onto my approx 20% in florida
healthcare insurance
high cost protection on medication and treatment
dental
pension
vision
aflac
my numbers were frequently consistent with sweden if not even much OVER them

run them yourself on yourself
cause that's what's included among other things (yes more things...subsidized school, daycare...so on) when northern europeans talk 'tax' they include all that as well

when americans usually talk tax they mean
federal, sometimes state and town tax
that's all they mean
the 'come up to spec' of what taxes in those countries give...rarely done

so take your paycheck pre tax
withdraw tax
healthcare
401k
aflac
high cost protection on meds AND healthcare
vision
dental

and so forth
then run that number...how many percent?

[rurallib]

16. Well, well stated

[w0nderer]

37. thankie sai

[wickerwoman]

19. Don't forget the difference in cost between

heavily subsidised and barely subsidised public universities.

In New Zealand, most recent graduates have less than $10,000 in student loans while I suspect in the US it's generally 4-10x that much.

It doesn't help having "lower taxes" when 20% of your take-home pay is going to debt servicing on your student loans.

[w0nderer]

36. that's in the 'among other things not mentioned' category

i figger just my list will bring most people up to a nice percentage of 'tax' if they run the math

but thanks

and

[Wilms]

13. OK?? You get it now?

That's what happens when you rant and rave. Think, instead.

[redwitch]

18. The Danish guy has good healthcare too.

Kind of a big deal.

[zentrum]

28. They score very high

…….on levels of education (USA is always at or near the bottom of industrialized nations) and provide free higher education for their youth, who graduate without crippling debt.

Another big deal. They aren't eating their young.

[Hortensis]

22. Denmark is extremely expensive to live in, but

most people are pretty happy with it.

Very notably, however, contrary to many of Bernie Sanders' very dishonest suggestions, Denmark has a free market economy. Nasty old capitalism is very alive and well there, as we see from Burger King's presence.

Btw, my DIL is Danish, and she lost tolerance for Sanders' misrepresentations about her country long ago. "And those people call HER a liar?!" was her last comment on Bernie that I recall.

[arcane1]

26. Nobody has ever claimed there is no capitalism in Denmark.

Why must you lie? It just makes you look bad.

[zentrum]

30. Bernie is not against the free market.

He against a rigged so-called free market that favors mega corporations and hurts actual competition.

He's for a regulated capitalism, just like they have in Denmark. Your post could not be more misinformed.

[Jemmons]

32. I dont think that Bernie has misrepresented anything about Denmark in his speeches.

I have heard a lot of what he have to say, and quite a lot of it more than once. What he call democratic socialism pretty much matches what we have here: Free public health care for all. Tuition free university education for everybody who qualifies. Paid vacation and sick leave.

There might be a problem of "translation" if you by socialism understand an economy that is devoid of private capitalism or private enterprise. We have big, strong, high quality government programs. We have common sense regulation of business and environmental issues. We have wealth re-distribution by tax, that compensates for some of the extreme advantages and disadvantages that comes with wealth and poverty. We have far less "human waste" in the form of people being incarcerated, marginalized by poverty or by health problems. We have a high female job-market participation. Our socialism is a well oil machine that actually delivers, and delivers to all involved.
Our economy is benefiting from a highly skilled labor population. Our labor unions are not as strong as they were 50 or 100 years ago, but neither are they as weak and rare as the ones in the US.

[jtuck004]

24. It's called getting value for your money. They earn money to make their lives better. We earn money

to help the bank$ter/jihadists, who prey on and steal from the rest of us, live better. 'Cause we are exceptional.

And they got N. F. S. Grundtvig too, but that's another post.

[tabasco]

29. I'd move to Denmark in in one second if they'd take me.

Beautiful country and happy people.

[Skittles]

40. looke what they get for it

[alarimer]

58. You need to add all we pay for health care into that.

Denmark has some sort of universal health care that does not involve paying through the nose to insurance companies, doctors and hospitals. So comparing the tax rates is kind of an apples and potatoes comparison.

[Matrosov]

7. Socialism vs Freedom™

[Bjornsdotter]

9. I believe the Queen said

..."We are not Danmark".

Yeah, no shit....

[The2ndWheel]

10. More white male privilege?

[LanternWaste]

11. A statistical sample of two leads you wonder that?

A statistical sample of two leads you to wonder that?

[The2ndWheel]

15. Just going by the pictures provided

And, most people in Denmark are white.

[KamaAina]

12. Degreed professional in the United States:

$19 an hour
2 weeks paid vacation
No pension plan
Cannot afford to live in one of the handful of walkable neighborhoods in his city

Would you like fries with that?

[wickerwoman]

21. Same professional in New Zealand

$25-40 an hour
35 hour work week
6 weeks paid vacation
6 months paid parental leave
Pension plan - employer required to match 3% of salary
Single payer universal healthcare
Free daycare/preschool until age 5
State-guaranteed student loans; university tuition around $2-3000 a term.

Taxes only around 35%.

[Egnever]

14. The difference?

“Denmark is a small country” with a far higher cost of living, Mr. Caldeira said. “Unions dominate, and the employment system revolves around that fact.”

Danish law does not require fast-food companies or their franchisees to adhere to the wages required by the agreement with the 3F union. But they do, because employees and unions pledge in exchange not to engage in strikes, demonstrations or boycotts. “What employers get is peace,” said Peter Lykke Nielsen, the 3F union’s chief negotiator with McDonald’s.

McDonald’s learned this the hard way. When it came to Denmark in the 1980s, it refused to join the employers association or adopt any collectively bargained agreements. Only after nearly a year of raucous, union-led protests did McDonald’s relent.

The unions forced those wages on them. Danish law did not require those wages.

We need to re energize the unions. Without them workers are destined to smaller pieces of the pie.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. American exceptionalism on the right. . . nt

[appalachiablue]

20. In this vein..

[pansypoo53219]

23. i have been to denmark twice. they are CONTENT.

they don't have to worry about shit. it also was very very clean. no sheriffs on the highway to make up revenue. break down? walk to the closest road phone. in almost a month is a smaller town, the ONLY siren i heard was an ambulance. i know a retired man in his 70's. amazing health care. he is a bike rider, w/ asthma, if he could not bike home, they provide a cab. HOUSE CALLS, nursing help. fixed up his apartment after a long hopital stay & NOT BANKRUPT. on his visit to NYC he had to stay in a hospital a few days, THEY PAID for all his costs AND his lost vacation time. we need to DEMAND BETTER government.

[James48]

25. BURGER PRICE

The price of a hamburger in Denmark is LESS that the USA:

See

http://www.statista.com/statistics/274326/big-mac-index-global-prices-for-a-big-mac/

[redwitch]

33. It's like magic! How do they do it?

[Fairgo]

31. It's funny how there seems to be a direct correlation

between tax rates and happiness in countries that are not corrupt. Seems almost counter intuitive...if you are a 'Merkin

[n2doc]

34. Well as you know, we just can't do that here

The US is incapable of that level of change. Better to hope for some sort of incremental stuff and a few nice-sounding bills, maybe. All our resources must be directed towards the twin wars: Drugs and Terror. Nothing else matters!

At least that is the message I hear.

[NCTraveler]

35. A Unitary State governing in an intelligent manner.

I believe that a number of states in the U.S. would attempt to operate closer to this if they operated independent of the Federal Government

[madinmaryland]

38. Lee Mercer, Jr? Is that you??

[corbettkroehler]

39. $15 Minimum Is Radical

Why can't you Sandernistas see that?

[Mnpaul]

41. But Denmark only has around six million people

O'Reilly's response on Colbert the other night.

I guess, in Bill's twisted reality, you can only accomplish this with smaller populations. I fail to understand the reasoning.

[SammyWinstonJack]

42. I've read that "reasoning" on DU.

[Kablooie]

43. That's just because Denmark still has a king.

So Burger King gets more respect.

President Burgers would do better here.

[Retrograde]

44. Actually, they have a queen

who seems to be a pretty cool woman - translated Lord of the Rings into Danish, moonlights as a theater designer, and recently designed her own tomb.

But, yeah, Burger President never really caught on here.

[Jemmons]

47. Indeed

[URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/07aefb481574294][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

Besides ruling the country she is also an accomplished artist.

[Jemmons]

50. No. She did illustrate an edition of the Lord of the Rings though.

Ingahild Gratmer is her pseudonym.

[lovemydog]

45. Do they call it a Royale with Cheese?

[firebrand80]

51. +1

[Recursion]

46. And Danish McDonalds employ about 1/4 as many people per store as American ones do

Because their wage structure means they have to make workers more productive. So, for instance, most of the time you order via a touchscreen.

That's kind of the point: high wages force innovation that reduces inefficient employment. That's an intrinsic good.

The trick is finding other paying work for those former McDonalds employees to do. That's more difficult; and in fact Denmark's unemployment rate (6.3%) is a good bit higher than ours.

[GeorgeGist]

48. I think you need to do more research ...

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/denmark/unemployment-rate

[Recursion]

49. You mean the chart where they just made up rates? Actually we do pretty well on that too (nt)

[StarTrombone]

52. In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal

In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion. Military spending includes: all regular activities of the Department of Defense; war spending; nuclear weapons spending; international military assistance; and other Pentagon-related spending.

Denmark 2011 2012 2013
3.1 3.1 3.2
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.ZS

Don't you wish just 1 Presidential candidate would tell the rest of the world that they're fucking on their own?

[TrappedInUtah]

56. How much for a burger?

Well how much does a burger cost in Denmark>?