Whether the country is lead by a conservative or a socialdemocrat, Denmark is widely regarded the world over as a bright example of social democracy.
One example of one man claiming the opposite does not make an argument.
Of course Rasmussen is a previous conservative prime minister, who was pandering to the Americans' absurd phobia of everything socialist to stay in their good graces.
However that article is from 2015.
Since June 2019 the prime minister has been a socialist, Ms Frederiksen, the Leader of the Danish Social Democrats.
It seems that your studies were not very accurate. Whatever you think socialism means, it doesn't.
The propaganda of fearmongering rightwingers and runaway capitalism apologists always equates socialism with "radical revolutionary socialism". That is absurd.
There are many forms of social democracy, democratic socialism (no they are not the same thing), liberal socialism, and even libertarian socialism in the world.
They are all socialism, and most reasonable places, like Denmark, have applied it very successfully for a long time.
The radical Mao socialism you have in mind is a caricature, and doesn't even exist in China anymore.
It's time the propaganda stops.
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This is what Rasmussen said, by the way:
The PM then went on to give the audience an overview of Denmark’s welfare model.
“We have universal health coverage – you don’t pay to see your doctor or go to the hospital. We have a high degree of social security. You are entitled to benefits if you lose your job, if you get sick, if you are disabled. We have one year of maternity leave, we have one subsidised early childhood education and care and we ensure care for our elderly if they cannot manage on their own,” he said.
“We also have a strong and free educational system. Students in institutions for higher education and university do not pay for their education, on the contrary they receive educational grants for studying,” he added.
Rasmussen then laid out some key differences between Denmark and the United States.
“So, what is the catch you might ask. The most obvious one, of course, is the high taxes. The top income tax in Denmark is almost 60 percent. We have a 25 percent sales tax and on cars the incise duties are up to 180 percent. In total, Danish taxes come to almost half of our national income compared to around 25 percent in the US. Quite a substantial difference,” he said. "
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This is what I - and most reasonable people - mean by socialism. This is extremely successful in all of northern Europe, so successful in fact that it stays like this even when conservative governments control the countries.
Call it what you want, go ahead and make this a matter of words if you like. The substance remains that this is what socialism means to a lot of people, that it is adopted very successfully in Denmark and elsewhere, and that this constitues no threat whatsoever to democracy.
In fact many democracies that adopt a socialist approach work a hundred times better than America's bankrupt democracy, dominated by money and lies. Rich candidates and even richer donors with their undemocratic influence.
