One of the greatest differences that I could see between Danish society and US society was the importance of equal benefits to all citizens such as universal healthcare and welfare to whoever meets the requirements in Danish society. This is not the case in the United States where many people would not want to pay the exceptionally high taxes that support these systems. The Danish welfare system is egalitarian in that the principle behind the system is that all Danish citizens have access to social benefits regardless to their family situation, economic situation, or social background. This taxation and welfare system acts to spread the wealth of Danish society out more evenly. While it is the Danish government that regulates the taxation and maintains the welfare system, the Danish people largely support this system and are in favor of the social benefits that they can receive through the state, regardless of having to pay one of the highest personal income tax rates in Europe.
Learning this about Denmark, I started to wonder why a whole society would be in support of taxes that can take out, in some cases, more than half of a year’s income. Supporting such an extensive social benefits program and welfare system is definitely a compromise for many people. These more socialist policies both reflect and affect the egalitarian nature of Danish society. In Danish culture, equality in benefits among the Danish society is highly valued and people are willing to pay a price for social programs such as education and health care and for the welfare system. It can be said then that these policies have resulted the egalitarian nature of Danish society and its cultural ideals.
Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation
Welfare Society. Electronic document, http://www.workindenmark.dk/Welfare, accessed November 10, 2007.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
2007 The Welfare State as a Political Compromise. Electronic document, http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/AboutDenmark/SocietyWelfare/ScandinavianWelfareModel/TheWelfareStateAsAPoliticalCompromise, accessed November 10, 2007.
2 comments:
I found this blog to be clearly written and well organized. The author has a clear understanding of her anthropological presepcive and proves to the reader to be successful in her understanding of the culture. One thing to really empathize about this blog is the vocabulary used. It is very professional in terms of how it sounds like the anthropological jargon that we learn in class. Also the fact that it references the class shows that our lecture is a real good source of structure. She uses the classroom as a tool and as a means of organizing her project. A reader can clearly follow the culture of Denmark especially if the reader has no prior knowledge on the subject. In general, Liz covers a wide variety of topics including language and space. It is important that she defined how the society is in terms of the Egalitarian structure. The fact that this particular blog revolves around the fact that she hosted a Danish foreign exchange student bring a certain personal factor to her ethnography. Overall the 7 blogs entries that were available to me should a clear understanding of the topics that have been covered so far. The most interesting part was the fact that each topic was some how related to the Egalitarian society creates a more harmonious ethnography. This theme is shown in all of its diversity through space, language, sports, and I really hope that it continues into the rest of the blog because this cohesion to making the blog flow smoothly.
I found this blog to be clearly written and well organized. The author has a clear understanding of her anthropological presepcive and proves to the reader to be successful in her understanding of the culture. One thing to really empathize about this blog is the vocabulary used. It is very professional in terms of how it sounds like the anthropological jargon that we learn in class. Also the fact that it references the class shows that our lecture is a real good source of structure. She uses the classroom as a tool and as a means of organizing her project. A reader can clearly follow the culture of Denmark especially if the reader has no prior knowledge on the subject. In general, Liz covers a wide variety of topics including language and space. It is important that she defined how the society is in terms of the Egalitarian structure. The fact that this particular blog revolves around the fact that she hosted a Danish foreign exchange student bring a certain personal factor to her ethnography. Overall the 7 blogs entries that were available to me should a clear understanding of the topics that have been covered so far. The most interesting part was the fact that each topic was some how related to the Egalitarian society creates a more harmonious ethnography. This theme is shown in all of its diversity through space, language, sports, and I really hope that it continues into the rest of the blog because this cohesion to making the blog flow smoothly.
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