A better way

Op-EdAs the American worker’s share of the national wealth hits a record low, the folks in Denmark are able to run a nation that provides for its people.When I was starting Courthouse News, decades ago, I had good friends who had decamped to Denmark. So I went there regularly for a while, during summer and the holiday season.In the kind of discussions you have when you are young and curious, in cafés and small bars, we compared lives in Southern California and in Scandinavia. From those conversations and what I saw around me — the old and the very young were a happy part of the daily city rhythm — I came close to moving there myself.I thought the Danes had formed a more just and reasonable society. But I had started a business that was growing and my parents lived in the San Diego area.So I stayed.Since then I have often enough started a comment with, “Well in Denmark….” that those around me have grown tired of it. And so I resist the temptation to talk about the just society over in the cold north.But a couple days ago a friend from our alma mater, Reed College, sent me a piece published in the American Conservative with a note: “Amazing that we think that the American way is normal.”The article — this is one of the problems with our time — is free online out of the magazine’s economic necessity. If I had to pay to read it, I would probably not have. But I read it, then paid for a subscription.The article brought my old conclusions back to life. For example, when I used to tell friends that you get free healthcare, free higher education, fair pensions, and heavily subsidized daycare in Denmark, they would answer pretty much reflexively, “But the taxes are high.”The magazine writer, Peter Van Buren, pointed to the tax wedges — 36% for Danes, 30% for Americans — so yes, more, but not much more for all that you get.And, as I have always argued in these conversations, the Danes earn more to begin with. The average income is measured by different outfits online, but in very broad measure, U.S. folks earn around $72,000 per year and the Danes make about $86,000.More focused labor statistics are sent to me regularly in the Economics Daily from the U.S. Labor Dept. which seemed lately to have been subject to a Trumpian propaganda makeover where a good news story always headlined the report. But I saved one from last week because it blew up my theory.“Labor share — the fraction of economic output that accrues to workers as compensation in exchange for their labor — in the nonfarm business sector was 52.8 percent in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level ever recorded,” said the Daily. The first such measure was taken by the department 80 years ago.In other words, as America grows in wealth, it is not the workers who benefit from that growth. They are more and more cut out of it, more now than at any time since the end of World War II. Our own government is letting us know.The American Conservative writer was especially concerned about retirement and whether he would outlive his savings. “Walking back through rainy Copenhagen, I realized something. I hadn’t spent the afternoon envying Denmark’s architecture or museums or bicycle culture, all quite lovely. I envied the something much simpler: the absence of constant financial fear.”That part, the color from Copenhagen, affected me as much as the economic points. The writer had started his story in a café where he ended up talking with others about our two societies, just as I had done with friends once upon a time.So I remember those cafés.They are warm and well-appointed, relaxed and efficiently attended by a young person. They are a pleasant place to stop during the day. Outside, a number of bikes are parked. And if you are on a busy street, they form a stream of riders who, on rainy days, are bundled against the weather.You can start at the Danish National Museum: “Admire the massive Jelling Stones, often called ‘Denmark’s birth certificate’, once erected by King Gorm the Old and his son Harald Bluetooth. Look through swords, shields, and stop by the Runic Stones.”Afterward, you deserve to stop at a café to relax, and, in the afternoon, order a big glass of blond, crisp, cold Pilsner, and watch the world go by.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads