re: bernie sanders: In denmark, mcdonald's employees earn 22/hour!

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Is this bullshite? Because it sounds like bull shite.

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No. I think they passed an act that guarantees at least 5.

Don't try to reach a Nordic colleague in July. They basically take that whole month off.

Bernie is correct in that American wages have been stagnant for far too long and that there should be some minimum medical/social safety net for everyone regardless of what they earn.

The problem is that despite America right now being the richest, most technologically advanced, powerful country in the history of the world, it hemorrhages spending in all of the wrong places. Propping up foreign countries, attempting to maintain a constant military presence everywhere in the world, as some of the worst offenders. It also requires enforcing immigration policies because such a social safety net will be highly desirable. Open borders simply doesn't comport with maintaining benefits for all Americans, it just isn't feasible.

This country has the money and the capability to not have crumbling infrastructure, to not have poor people and old people trapped in a healthcare system where they are driven mad from not only drug prices, but just getting in to see doctors, and to not have single parents crushing themselves working two low-pay jobs to subsist.

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I bet they actually pay taxes. I want to know what their take home salary is after taxes and then adjusted for increased cost of living.

The bottom 50% of this country doesn’t even contribute anything to the system.

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This. The roads are dog shite in almost every state, yet they want more money to take on even more complicated shite. If I ever run for office, the first bill I will put forth is if your roads suck, budgets decrease annually by 10 percent across the board.

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You get the story. You can pay a lot for a espresso if you know "eh, I can afford it, everything I have in my wallet is for spending on the fun stuff. Everything serious like college and so on, paid for, no need to scrimp for it anymore, paid it already with my taxes".

Is it a better or worse way? I don't know. I don't consider it better or worse. Just different.

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What you just described is a parent- child relationship where the parents expect the child to do certain things and in return the parent gives them an allowance for their efforts. Those "kids" are pretty much relegated to the caste they were born in.

That sentiment is why entrepreneurship is largely dead in Europe while the US still has a vaible entrepreneurship opportunities.

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Is it a better or worse way? I don't know. I don't consider it better or worse. Just different.

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Thats the beauty of being able to emigrate out of the US at any time you want.

What do they actually make after taxes, and how much buying power do they have based on Denmark's CPI?


SIAP

I lived in CPH for 3 years and was paying the top rate of 56% but had some discounts given to some specialized expats. (And related to this topic, my best friend while I was there was the Director of McDonalds for all of Scandinavia...)

It is a great place to raise young kids and for the most part is very safe. Would I ever want to live there again? Absolutely not... It's expensive as hell - my income tax would have been 56% but because of a waiver, I "only" paid 47% income tax. Then add 25% VAT on everything, cars have over 100% tax on the value ($65K for an Opel wagon with a stick!) and additional taxes added to everything... We would do a monthly run to buy cases of beer, soda and beef in Germany as the Danish taxes were much higher on these than in Germany... This influences the work practices there - since they are taxed so high on what they make, don't spend a moment working longer than is required... (Fair enough regarding the work/life balance)

This is the basic mindset of those living in the Scandinavian countries called the the "Law of Jante":

You're not to think you are anything special.
You're not to think you are as good as we are.
You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
You're not to imagine yourself better than we are.
You're not to think you know more than we do.
You're not to think you are more important than we are.
You're not to think you are good at anything.
You're not to laugh at us.
You're not to think anyone cares about you.
You're not to think you can teach us anything.

It's a totally socialist society - if you think your neighbor had a car that is too expensive for what you think they make? Report them to the tax authorities and they will get audited...

The whole system is based on everyone working - a stay-at-home mother is unheard of except in the expat community. Work stops at 4 so you can run to the school to pick up your kid and then rush to the grocery before it closes at 6 to buy food for the evening. (This has since changed and you can shop some stores until 9).

Not to be sexist but women run the country and the men have all been neutered. Don't agree with what a woman says? As a male, if you disagree with the comment or opinion, you get the evil glare of death...

My wife went into our bank to try to have her government child subsidy check - all women regardless of income - get paid around a $800/kid/month until the kid is 18 - into our joint account and the woman banker tried to convince her not to as I might "steal her money".

As for McDonalds, with 2 pre-teens, we would easily drop $65 a visit there for what would cost me $25 for the same food back in the States.

My McD buddy's biggest fight while he was there was all the environmentalists and "naturalists" - fast food bad.... For 2 years they had to fight the government to be able to advertise that they sold 100% pure beef because a mist of beef tallow was sprayed on their patties during the freezing process... Beef misted with beef fat wasn't considered 100% beef... That being said, the McDonalds franchises in Denmark we still some of the highest grossing locations in all of Europe...

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A Big Mac combo meal is $12 and change in Copenhagen.

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That's a bargain compared to the same in Zurich.

Ok Bernie, you’ve never worked an honest job in your life so I’ll break it down.

Denmark, your socialist utopia, has some of the most crippling debt with a population smaller than 32 US states

Have you looked at how much more utilities, eggs, transportation act are in places like Denmark? You might be surprised that on avg Danish people deal with more household debt than the US. You know how you’re big about Medical debts and student loans, which don’t get me wrong are a big deal, but even taking those things into account household debt in Denmark is still higher. Denmark is higher than the US. Take a simple tweet about the BigMac cost.

“Raising wages means your food will cost more!! :omg:

No no it doesn’t (lie) mean that at all.

Big Mac USA:$4.80
BigMac Denmark: $5.15 (yes McDonald’s is terrible)

McDonald’s worker salary in US : $7.25
McDonald’s worker salary in Denmark $22


This is easily destroyed using simple economics. HE is trying to argue the avg cost of labor not increasing prices. He took the AVG cost of a BigMac in the US. Issue #1: The price varies a ton depending on location. A BigMac in NYC will be close to $6.20, but could be 3.99 near you or I. NY already has higher cost of living, but what about those areas that have lower cost of living and products are cheaper? Comparing a BigMac that costs 3.99 to one that cost $5.15 is a 29% increase in price. Guess what? BigMacs in Denmark are expensive. They are actually the 5th most expensive in the world according to the “Big Mac Index”

So not only are prices higher with their higher minimum wage, but they also have more household debt. SO explain to me again their standard of living being better.

My source is Nationmaster, where you can easily compare two countries.