Here’s what Denmark does during the COVID-19:

1. The Danes test twice the number of citizens per capita and have fewer than half as many deaths per capita than the U.S.
2. Denmark reduced infections so successfully it has reopened elementary schools, day care centers, barbershops, and physical therapy centers in April.
3. Denmark helps hard-hit companies pay fixed costs – on condition they suspend dividends,  stock buybacks, and avoid all foreign tax havens.
4. To keep employees on the payroll, it reimburses up to 90% of worker wages of those laid off.
5. Denmark employs stay-at-home policies and Sweden doesn’t. As a result Denmark’s death rate by COVID-19 per million is less than one-third of Sweden’s.

Think safety nets provoke laziness and welfare queens? Almost 80% of Danes between 16 and 64 are in the labor force. The U.S. rate is only 74%.

Danish workers pay an extra 19 cents per dollar in taxes, but here’s what they get for those 19 cents: (1) free health care; (2) free education from kindergarten through college; (3) subsidized high-quality preschool; (4) a strong safety net and very low levels of poverty, homelessness, crime and inequality; (5) Danes live two years longer than Americans, and they earn about the same after-tax income as Americans although they work 22% fewer hours.

The Danes have built a country that works by combining capitalism tempered by democratic socialism.

Via Duluthreader A trip to Oz