So what did I do? Watched "Oprah", of course. Ok ...... and did a little online research.
Turns out that they pay about half their considerable incomes to the government, which in turn gives excellent health care to all of its citizens. School, from pre-Kindergarten through university is also completely paid for every citizen. In fact, the government pays its citizens to attend university. Hmmm: encouraging its population to be educated. Imagine doing that rather than breaking parents' backs having to pay tens of thousands a year to get their children educated in the United States.
Even though the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the government's pick of state religion, most Danish are not particularly religious and do not attend church. Horrors! Imagine no religion! Imagine no pious assurety that one religion is right and all others wrong. Imagine!
Believe it or not, the Danish tend to live with less. WAY less. Their homes look ...... well ....... Danish! Clean lines and smaller, less cluttered spaces. Their closets hold what little they do accumulate.
To quote one of the Danish women on "Oprah", "we live with less things but more life." Ya ...... let's digest that one in this country. Believe me, I'm pointing directly at myself on that one.
Now lest ye get the wrong idea, I adore the United States. However, I also think that this does not disallow the general niftiness of other countries.
The most remarkable thing about Denmark, to me, was this: it's safe. So .... we're safe in this country, right? Well let me ask you this. Would you leave your twin, month-old babies sleeping in their pram out on the street in front of your house or in front of the restaurant while you dine with the rest of your family? No? Why not?
Because you'd be scared absolutely into going to church every dang Sunday if you had to leave you baby out on the street in this country. In fact it's so perilous here (in comparison) that in a county not too far from where I'm living now, a woman killed another woman in order to cut her open and steal her fetus!
The Danish, evidently, don't have a tendency towards stealing someone else's child. That's an idea I could live with, and here's another. Women don't feel the need to be married unless they find a man who actually seems like a spiritually aligned mate. Danish women are raised with the notion that they can take care of themselves, thank you, and don't need a male for taking care of them. As one Danish woman pointed out, the women there don't dream about weddings.
What a wonderful idea! Here it seems that we dream of a fantabulous wedding party but give little to no attention to the picking of the person we're supposedly going to share the rest of our happily-ever-after lives with. Isn't that reverse logic? Happiness doesn't just take care of itself because we read it in a fairy tale. Seems a bit ironic since wasn't it some Danish guy who wrote a lot of those fairy tales?
Oh, and one more thing. No homeless people in Denmark, either. If you're out of a job the government not only pays 90% of your previous salary for four years, they assist you in finding a new job. Most jobs pay similarly so that one's career is picked accordng to one's likes, not one's desire to earn more than the Joneses. In other words: everyone is important, and every job is important.
Another idea with which I'd feel comfortable, as it's my philosophy that from janitor to CEO, every job is important.
Wonder if they're looking for middle-aged, sorta blonde, overweight (they tend towards tall, slender blondness over there due to a fresh, healthful diet) kitty lover in Copenhagen.
