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

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Yes. If McDonald's workers in Denmark can have a decent standard of living, we can do it in the U.S.

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If Denmark and the other socialist European countries would pay to defend themselves then the USA could lower taxes enough that would allow companies to pay employees more and allow employees to keep more of their pay.

I bet it's not McDonalds paying for those perks. How much are the taxes? Try 4th highest in the world.

Countries with the Highest Single and Family Income Tax Rates

ANd the BIG MAC is $35!!!!

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Does that include restaurants we would tip at?

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That includes all restaurants, but tipping is not a thing there. You might leave a few kroner, but that's it.

Of course, their income tax is about 53%, anything and everything associated with owning a car is about 3x as much as it is here, unless it is a truck or van, in which case it is much more. People do not eat out nearly as much because doing so is so expensive. Summer lasts about six weeks and winter lasts about 40 weeks. But the beer is decent, certainly better than the food, unless you are big on pickled herring.

I don't know what maternity leave is like over there, but I'm sure it is extensive. It is a socialist country and when I was working there, 20 years ago, it worked fairly well. It's a small, homogenous country whose citizens are well-educated. Most understood that you needed to work and not take advantage of the system to keep it going, but not all did.

One project manager I worked with quit because he got mad. I had gotten to know him and asked him what he was going to do. He told me that the government would pay him 80% of his salary for up to a year, so he was going to paint his house and worry about a new job later.

Those kind of benefits cost money. They were ok with paying for them then, but by our standards, they lived in tiny houses, drove economy cars (1 per family) if they had a car -- rode a bike or took public transportation if not, and had far less disposable income that an American in the same field would have.

Not saying it was bad, just different. There were cracks in the system even then, maybe more so now. The younger generation was more prone to take advantage of the largess than older generations. Immigrants from Arab or Turkish countries were increasingly seen as a problem (the Danes were stricter than Sweden).