By H. Roland J. Denmark Citizen |
I have noticed a lot of well-meaning Americans praising
Denmark for our happiness and our welfare system. We’re praised for our free
education, free healthcare, free childcare, short workweek and all the other
things that the goodness-industry is proclaiming to define us Danes.
People Are Not Happy They Are Over Taxed |
Well, think again, please. We are no more happy than Germans,
Turks, Americans or any other country in the world. We might just be a little
more complacent and have probably fallen prey to the comfort of our concept of
‘Hygge’. We’re not happy; we’re comfortable in our complacency.
Unlike the United States, which is a very young country with
a very short history, Denmark is one of the oldest existing nations in the
world. You would think the young nation would be full of great, new ideas, but
no; some Americans look to an old, stagnant nation such as Denmark for
guidance.
Nothing is free
“Child- and healthcare is free and students are paid to
study in Denmark!”. That’s a line I’ve heard a lot. It’s a truth that needs a
lot of modification. A lot!
If by ‘free’ you mean ‘paid for by someone else’ you are
right in the assumption that healthcare, childcare and education are almost
free of charge.
In order to pay for all this ‘goodness’ the Danes pay a lot
of taxes. Not just income tax but tax on everything! In some cases even tax on
the taxes, and we have what we call a ‘Nanny-state’. Indeed, the very reason we
Danes are so happy is because we are constantly under the watchful eye of
Mother State. I’ll get back to that later.
You need to understand something about Danes. We were Vikings
once. We spend our spare time seeing the world, making our mark on it and
inviting people to come home and live with us. Yeah, we sailed forth, ravaged
the world and brought back slaves, but the first version sounds better.
We became rich. Filthy rich. Which is the base of the wealth
we have today. We were never conquered by other nations – except for 5 years of
World War II – and therefore have had about a thousand years to amass wealth
and become complacent in our ways of life.
The people of the United States have a very different
history. You are from a lot of different places and your nation of little more
than 200 years old. You had a massive Civil War and you act as if you are the
“police of the world”. You are constantly at war somewhere in the world – never
at home – but you spend an awful lot of money on ‘defending’ yourselves.
Also, there is a lot more Americans in the world than there
are Danes. Danes are few in number and the kingdom is very small compared to
the United States. (if we subtract the vast emptiness of Greenland)
You, as Americans, can never be like us Danes; mainly
because you’re not even one people. You identify as African-American,
Hispanic-American, German-American, Native-American and all sorts of blank-American.
In order to have a welfare state you need to be one people and identify as
such.
And you shouldn’t have the welfare state to begin with…
What money can buy
If you want free healthcare, free childcare and free
education someone else needs to pay for it. Nothing in the world is free and
these things are very expensive. Free stuff never comes cheap and least of all
when it comes from the state.
Imagine being an ordinary working-class Dane with a monthly
salary of 25.000,- dkk. That’s about 4.000,- USD, but there is a vast
difference between our two nations and it is impossible to compare USD as used
in Denmark.
First you pay you income tax. This is done automatically
because in Denmark we have SKAT (TAX) which handles these things for us. The company
you work for registers you with SKAT and by magic this huge part of Danish
government handles your tax-payment.
Arbejdsmarkedsbidrag – which is impossible for me to
translate – is set at 8% – and it’s the first tax you have to pay. 8% of
25.000,- dkk is 2.000 dkk, which means you have 23.000,- left of your income,
and still have taxes to pay. But first, some good news!
We all have our ‘bundfradrag’, translates into ‘bottom
deduction’. It’s a deduction of non-taxed money! You simply don’t pay taxes of
this amount! Yay, free money!
In 2015 this Bundfradrag is 41.400 annually. Divided by 12
to get a monthly Bundfradrag makes it 3.433 dkk. Take that away from the amount
we had left after the state tax makes it 23.000,- minus 3.433,-.
19.567,- dkk left and now we move on to the big taxes.
Kommuneskat, or county tax – is different from county to county. In this
example I will use the average county-tax which is 24,9%.
So, we’re left with 14.694,81. No rounding up! We still have
taxes to pay!
If we in this example made more than 37.000 dkk per month
there would be ‘Topskat’ now. Yes, indeed, the more money you make the more
taxes you have to pay. Not just percentagewise, but all the money you make more
than 449.100 annually is taxes with yet another 15%!
Luckily we don’t make that much money in this example.
We have yet another tax to pay and they named it
Sundhedsskat – or Health-tax! It’s an odd little tax that is lowered by 1% each
year while Bottom Tax is raised 1% per year. This year Sundhedsskat is at 4%.
We need to pay that too.
We take our income of 19.567,- and take 4% off that. Say
goodbye to another 782,68. We take that amount from what we are left with which
make our entire income of the 25.000,- dkk new 13.784,32.
We have paid 11.215,68 in income taxes but are we done yet?
By no means!
Taxes, taxes, taxes everywhere!
Let’s take our 13.784,32 dkk out of the bank. Let’s pay some
bills, shall we?
Every time we pay a bill we must pay the government sales
tax. It’s at a staggering 25%! Yes, indeed, every time you buy anything from
your local vendor 20% goes to the government. If something would have cost 20,-
dkk, like an ice-cream or a soda, the government puts on an extra 5,- (25% of
the price) and takes that money from the vendor, who is nice enough to price it
at 25,- dkk for us.
He has the hassle of collecting the sales tax on the behalf
of the government. He gives it to them quarterly and subtracts what he has paid
for things that are sales tax-deductible for companies. Companies are given
back the money they spend on stuff they need to run their business once every
quarter.
This is of course very confusing, but all the sales taxes
end up with the government. So, we pay yet another 25% of our income in
indirect sales taxes!
Taxation on Tax
Let’s give that money to the government from our disposable
income. That makes our money 10.338,- (now we can round up)
There are much more expensive bills to pay, and ‘A gift’,
which is just another word for tax, is used instead of Skat, which means the
same.
When you pay you utility-bill you pay a lot in Afgift. I
have my most recent electrical bill on hand. Let’s use that one. It’s says
994,64 dkk for a three month period. Electricity-Afgift – yes, there is such a
thing – is where you pay for the privilege of being able to use electricity in
your home.
The Electricity-company charges 111,06 for my use of 358 kilowatt/Hour
and 30,- dkk for membership. With sales tax imposed on this it comes to 176,33
dkk.
The electricity-company charges 0,37 dkk pr Kilowatt/Hour,
and the state imposes an ‘electricity transportation Afgift’ of 0,21 dkk.
According to the electricity-company I used 358 kWh last period which makes
this Afgift 80,89 dkk for the period.
No, we’re not done with the taxation yet. Calm yourself
down.
EL-Afgift is the main portion of taxation here. It’s a
staggering 0,88 dkk pr kWh! That makes it 331,88 dkk in EL-Afgift!
All combined the state takes 412,77, but hey, those numbers
don’t add up, now do they? Of course not. There’s more!
When all combined the company gets 241,88 from me every
quarter, but this still doesn’t add up. 241,88 plus 412,77 only makes 654,65 dkk
and even with the company’s charges (with sales tax) of 176,33 it still only
makes 830,98 dkk, doesn’t it?
It would if the government didn’t have the gall to tax the
Afgift. The Afgift-ridden amount of 654,65 of course needs a sales tax! Sales
tax is different from Afgift and of course no money can change hands unless the
state gets it 20%!
The final bill for three months of electricity looks like
this:
Company charges 141,06 dkk and with sales tax that’s 176,33.
The state gets 35,27 dkk from this part of the process.
Now Afgift on transport and use of the state-owned network,
Afgift on electricity because it is something we need and want comes to 654,65
and slam! Here comes sales tax on the Afgifts which comes to 163,66.
Confused? Well, I am, so here comes everything a little more
simplified. Out of the 994,64 I paid for electricity the company gets 141,06
dkk – and the rest, a staggering 853,58 goes to the government. Some of it is
Afgift and some of it is even sales tax on Afgift!
I can’t afford to watch TV
Wanna buy a TV in Denmark? Maybe a phone? Maybe a computer
for internet access? Want to own a radio? You can, and buying it will, of
course, cost you 20% extra in sales tax, but that’s not all.
If you own any device that can pick up a TV- or radio signal
or have internet access you have to pay for ‘License’! Yes sir, you have to pay
a license-fee to own one such device because you have the opportunity to watch
or listen to something aired by Denmark’s Radio, or DR as it is known.
I know you’re confused here, but DR is a huge government media
company that doesn’t operate on market-terms. If you own anything that can pick
up DR you have to pay.
As a matter of fact, a representative of Licens-kontoret –
The License Office – will come to your door if you’re not registered with them
because everyone owns something that can pick up that damn TV-channel, go on
the internet or pick up a radio signal.
The cost for such a license is 205 dkk per month. Yeah,
that’s right, you own something and have to pay a fee for it. That’s state
logic for you.
I have personally chosen not to own a TV or a radio. My
computer actually belongs to my mother and my phone belongs to a close friend
of mine. Therefore I do not own anything that needs to be licensed, because I
fully reject the notion that I have to pay this license-fee.
When all is said and paid for
Tell me again how everything is free in Denmark? Tell me
again, that we are so lucky to have free education, free healthcare, free
childcare and free whatnot.
We are paying for it. We pay a lot for it. More than you can
ever imagine as an American. I have no idea how much you pay in taxes or what
you can deduct from them, but in Denmark – where the people are happy and
comfortable – we pay dearly for that.
Not only do you pay in terms of money but also as
individuals. The state has taken over our lives by making us believe that we
are so well of, that we are free and that we are ever so happy.
This is my advice to Americans who wants ‘free’ this and
that, and who are willing to raise taxes to such an extend as we have in
Denmark.
Stop. Look at yourself in the mirror. Are you that much
better than everyone else? Are you so self-centered that you think taking from
others to give to others and yourself is right? Are you the kind of person who
is willing to make some else pay for your life?
If so, I suggest you create a community of your own. It
doesn’t have to be somewhere but someone. Find likeminded people who are
willing to give up their freedom for this community. Make your own government
and impose taxation on that membership.
Just don’t use force to make others pay for your ideal
society. You don’t have that right. You don’t have the right to impose your
moral values upon others for ‘the greater good’. You, as a people born of the
desire for freedom, should understand this.
Your ancestors left their homes to find freedom. Your
ancestors fought the War of Indepence to assure that freedom. You had a civil
war that was all about freedom. You helped, albeit reluctantly, when freedom
was threatened in Europe and Asia during World War II. You still fight for
freedom, but rather perversely I might add, but some of you still believe it’s
about freedom.
Why would you go back on the very essence of America by
taking away freedom from others and force them to pay for ‘free’ things? You are
going in the direction of Denmark and as shown above that is an expensive route
to take. You should go back to freedom, not away from it!
I see The United States as sort of a grandchild of older
nations, such as Denmark, who have ‘been there, done that and made the
mistakes’. This is of course my very personal view, which is not shared by many
Danes, but as a true Viking I can only give you one advice.
Don’t give up your freedom for ‘free stuff’. There is no
such thing as ‘free’ when it comes to governments. Everything comes at a price
and you should never be willing to pay a price that includes your fellow man
paying the same price against his will.
I think I would like to add one of more problematic things about Denmark. The fact that everything is written down about you, going to the doctor, being out of work. And people can complain about their neighors and friends for all kinds of things. And that also gets written down. And nothing according to the Danish gouverment can ever be removed again. A gouverment with a huge amount of social-workers, who has authority as doctors and other higher professionals when writing things down. Denmark is not really liberal. If so there should be gouverment legal rights, and more people complaining.
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