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Comment by mrcwinn | Hacker News Reader

As an American, I’m often that countries like Denmark are in fact constantly investing in health and entitlements, and so everyone is healthier and happier. Is that not the case?

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We have the same problem as every other western country. Sweden has lowered the taxes by about 500 billion SEK (corrected for inflation and population growth) since I was born close to 40 years ago. That is about a third of the annual budget.

How these tax cuts are distributed over the population is... not very evenly. There was even an article yesterday in the NYT (iirc) that warned about wealth accumulation patterns in Sweden.

It is the same neoiberal experiment that the US has had since Reagan, just with some more social democracy.

In my part of the Nordics (Finland) they are cutting investment and sending people to private institutions. In rural areas private providers have entirely replaced public sector healthcare centers. This is seen as quite controversial across the board.

Self paid?

No, the taxes we pay are going to private institutions driven by profit instead of into funding public institutions that don't have this self-interest. This is not a model I support.

I see.

I think it is a balance.

Auctioning this work to private companies should theoretically make it more cost efficient - and I think it is.

At least I hear that workers a much more stressed than they were historically, so I don't hope this comes with no benefit...

I can only speak for the two countries I've lived in (Finland & UK) and society is not amenable to privatisation in either. In the UK pretty much everything that has been privatised has been ruined (water, energy, transport) with high prices and poor service.

Whereas in the US, where I live, everything that has been mostly socialized (housing, health & education) has become wildly unaffordable.

I honestly didn't think anyone in the US considered healthcare socialized (same for housing and a big chunk of university-level education), so I've learned something today.

I personally find it hard to reconcile the concept of socialized healthcare with UnitedHealth Group being apparently the 7th company by revenue in the world, at least I don't think that's what Europeans would mean by "socialized".

Live in the US and don’t understand why OP is saying those sectors are public. Everything mentioned is NOT socialized.

As someone from the US, I consider all those industries to be almost fully for profit. Our k-12 education is public, but constantly under fire to move those public funds to private providers via various voucher programs. I would say that each of those industries have various regulations around them, so maybe that's why the commenter thinks it's socialized.

You're wrong about this.

Denmark has a lot of social services, and commensurate taxes to support them. This is reaching a breaking point. You can't get more blood out of a body that has already been drained to near the point of death.

Average lifespan is 81 in Denmark and 78 in USA. During the pandemic, average USA lifespan dropped to 76, while in Denmark it didn't drop below 81. So yes, it seems they are in fact healthier.

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/denmark/usa?sc=...

Denmark is not constantly investing in health and entitlements at all. On the contrary unemployment benefits and such has been slashed. Over the last two decades there has been many broad cuts to public services. The health sector had to do percentage fixed cuts every year for several years in a row.

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