Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark. Not.

In Act 1, Scene 4 of Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," a palace guard named Marcellus sees the ghost of the dead king appear on the palace walls and suggests to his friend Horatio that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Well, there may be something rotten in Denmark, but it's apparently not rotten enough to make the Danes miserable. According to this article in HowStuffWorks, Denmark is noted for being one of the happiest countries in the world, and there are five reasons they're happier than the rest of us ... the first two of which I think are of particular interest to present-day Americans:

#1. They Trust Each Other. Wow! Trust ... what a novel concept! According to an author who has written on the issue of Danish happiness, trust in one's fellow citizens is "taught in schools and learned through everyday interactions with trustworthy and responsive institutions." I suppose there was a time in America when we trusted each other, but - except for our closest friends and family members - that time is long gone. We've fake-news'ed and insulted ourselves right out of the ability to trust our fellow Americans ... which is bad news for our civic culture and democratic institutions.

2. Their Welfare State Works. To the average American, the term "welfare state" conjures up the horror of hard-working, upright citizens forced to support a vast underclass of lazy, worthless people happy to do nothing at their expense, and a visceral hatred for taxes is encoded in the DNA of every American. But contrary to the assertion by Donald Trump and the unshakeable belief of most conservatives that Americans are the most heavily-taxed people in the world, Danes pay as much as 52% of their income in taxes. As the author of the article notes:

"... in exchange for forking over half their earnings, every Dane gets free health care, free K-college education (students are actually paid $900 a month), highly subsidized child care and generous unemployment benefits."

The article goes on to note that surveys reveal that nine out of 10 Danes say they pay these huge taxes gladly, because they see that they're getting something for it.

As my father would have said, can ya manganese that?

We Americans have so thoroughly drunk the Kool Aid of belief that government is always the enemy and taxes are always bad that we cannot conceive a situation in which that's not the case, in which we might actually be happier under a different approach to taxation and overall social welfare.

It may be that the Danish model wouldn't work on an American scale ... but wouldn't it be interesting to try?

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo