Tag: denmark

Socialism Fails: Why the Danish Model Won’t Work in the U.S.

Denmark is regularly held up in U.S. political debate as proof that socialism works, with the country’s high taxes, universal healthcare, and generous benefits cited as a model the United States could adopt if it were only willing to embrace socialism the way Denmark has. The comparison usually comes with a pointed question: if socialism produces this standard of living in Denmark, why can’t the United States do the same?

The record of countries that have actually implemented socialism answers that question on its own. China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Venezuela have all organized their economies around state or Communist Party control of production. All five rank among the world’s most repressed economies and least free societies. Denmark’s nominal GDP per capita is high at $77,046, but it still trails the United States’ $89,991. The other five countries badly trail both: China sits at $13,968, Venezuela at $3,736, Laos at $2,288, and North Korea at just $640.

Cuba’s official GDP per capita is reported at more than $7,000 per year. That figure is calculated using the government’s official exchange rates, which bear little resemblance to the rate used in everyday transactions. At market exchange rates, the average state worker earns only about $15 to $25 per month.

On political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House’s 2026 report rates China at 9 out of 100 and North Korea at 3, both among the world’s least free states. Cuba, Laos, and Venezuela are all rated “Not Free” as well. Socialism, in its actual historical applications, has consistently produced restricted freedom and a low standard of living for the citizens living under it.

Denmark is frequently described as a socialist success story, but the label does not match how the Danish economy actually functions. Socialism, in its standard economic definition, means state or collective ownership of the means of production, with government directing investment, pricing, and output. Denmark does not operate this way. It is a capitalist market economy with private ownership of firms, competitive markets, and free trade. It carries a large tax-funded welfare and transfer system layered on top. That is the same market foundation the United States has, just carrying a much heavier tax load.

According to the OECD’s Revenue Statistics 2025, Denmark’s tax-to-GDP ratio reached 45.2% in 2024, the highest in the OECD for the second consecutive year, up from 44.0% in 2023. By comparison, the OECD average was 34.1% in 2024, and the United States collected roughly 25.6% of GDP in tax revenue, near the bottom of the OECD. That revenue funds redistribution and social insurance, not state-run enterprise.

Denmark’s private sector remains dominant, and government involvement is concentrated in financing benefits rather than owning production. The result is a market economy with a Gini coefficient of 28.6, among the lowest measures of income inequality globally, and a poverty rate of about 4% as of 2021.

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Denmark To Deny Residence Permits To Ukrainian Men of Conscription Age – Feed The Meat Grinder And Depopulate Ukraine For EU Globalists!

The European Union continues to push for ways to feed the Ukrainian meat-grinder and force the depopulation of Ukraine, and the death of Christians, rather than sue for peace.

The Danish government announced plans to amend its Special Act on Ukraine, barring Ukrainian men aged 23–60 who are subject to military conscription from obtaining new residence permits in the country.

The proposed legislative change, revealed on June 25, aims to prevent the use of Denmark’s temporary protection rules as a means to evade mobilization in Ukraine’s ongoing defense against Russia’s invasion. Danish Immigration Minister Morten Bødskov emphasized the government’s support for Ukraine, stating: “Denmark stands firm with Ukraine in their fight for freedom. That is why we are now amending the Special Act on Ukraine, because our residence rules are not intended to be used to avoid mobilisation.”

Under the amendment, men in this age group who are not exempt from military service will no longer be eligible for residence permits. The change applies to new applicants and will not affect the roughly 47,600 displaced Ukrainians already living in Denmark under the existing act.

The Special Act on Ukraine was originally passed by a broad parliamentary majority shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, granting simplified temporary protection and residence rights to Ukrainians fleeing the war. Similar discussions are taking place at the EU level regarding temporary protection schemes for military-age men.

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Denmark Moves to Ban Islamic Call to Prayer, Minister Says Country Should Not Sound Like Pakistan

Denmark is considering a nationwide ban on the Islamic call to prayer, with the country’s immigration minister saying it should not be heard “over Danish rooftops.”

Morten Bødskov said the government will reopen an investigation into whether the noise can be legally prohibited across the country.

“The call to prayer should not be heard over Danish rooftops,” Bødskov told Danish news agency Ritzau.

“It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn’t be in any doubt whether you’ve ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark.”

The Adhan is traditionally recited five times a day to call Muslims to prayer. In some countries, it is broadcast through loudspeakers attached to mosques or minarets.

Bødskov said the review will examine whether a ban can be introduced while complying with Denmark’s constitutional protections for religious freedom.

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All It Took Was a Single Non-Woke Word for This Man’s Life’s Work to Come to the Brink of Ruin

A Danish man spent years building a clothing company. Over the years, he fashioned, through hard work, careful study, trial and error, attention to trends, and sheer perseverance, a popular clothing brand. In the last few days, however, he has come to the brink of ruin, and of seeing all his labors come to naught.

No, his place of business wasn’t robbed or burnt down. He wasn’t defrauded. He didn’t lose all his money at the gaming tables, or succumb to drug use. What threatens to destroy his life’s work is that he told a truth that many people might admit behind closed doors, but that hardly anyone would ever say publicly. Tobia Sloth said it. All it took was a single word. And now he is paying the price. But that doesn’t make what he said any less true.

The Danish-language news outlet Nyheder reported Sunday that “a single comment from the director has caused problems for a Danish clothing brand. The popular clothing brand Norse Projects – and not least its founder, Tobia Sloth – has ended up in a regular s**tstorm.”

It all started with a silly icebreaker-type survey at LinkedIn: “A Linkedin user asked on the platform what you would remove from Earth that would make it better if you could only choose one thing.” The expected answers came flooding in, but not from Tobia Sloth: “While just under a thousand users have answered everything from ‘nanoplastic particles from the biosphere’ to ‘rainforest destruction’ and ‘mercury-based gold mining,’ Tobia Sloth’s one-word response was without further explanation.”

That one word? Hide the kids, cover the dog’s eyes, and then I’ll tell you.

To the question of what he would remove from the Earth in order to make it a better place, Tobia Sloth answered: “Islam.”

Nyheder notes, with admirable understatement, that Sloth’s “answer has struck many a chord – both in Denmark and in the USA, where Norse Projects has a large customer base.” In other words, the usual suspects are beside themselves with spittle-flecked rage, and “they criticize the company for being built on a racist foundation.”

Racist? What? Islam is not a race, and there are Muslims (and jihadis) of all races. But “racism” is the primary, if not the only, sin that a human being can commit, as far as the left is concerned, and so pretty much anything the left dislikes these days counts as “racism.”

You don’t like getting blown up or having some guy screaming “Allahu akbar” stab you at random on the street? Then you’re a racist. You don’t like the idea of making women cover their hair and in some cases even their faces, even in the most stifling heat, on pain of being beaten if they don’t? Yep: racist. You’re not a fan of institutionalizing discrimination against and harassment of people who hold a different religious faith from your own? You’re practically Bull Connor.

And so now Tobia Sloth is looking at the very real prospect of professional ruin: “The criticism has already caused Tobia Sloth to apologise, but it is not certain that the apology is enough to save the company’s reputation, assesses a branding expert.” When the woke mob gets enraged at you, it stays enraged until it extracts its pound of flesh. “Although Tobia Sloth’s comment was quickly deleted from Linkedin, it has gotten people both in Denmark and internationally to the keys with massive criticism of Norse Projects and its founder.”

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Babies exposed to cannabis in the womb show no signs of impaired brain development, study finds

Children exposed to cannabis in the womb do not show signs of impaired cognitive or language development by age three, according to new research that challenges concerns about prenatal cannabis use.

The study, published in the journal Early Human Development, found that children with prenatal cannabis exposure actually scored higher on language assessments than unexposed children, and performed equally well on cognitive tests.

Recent data shows that past-month cannabis use amongst pregnant women in the US has grown from 3.8% in 2002 to 7% in 2017, and daily use during pregnancy increased from 0.9% to 3.5% in the same period.

This prompted the multi-national team of researchers from King’s College London, Cambridge University, Aalborg University, and the University of Oslo to hypothesise that children exposed to cannabis while developing in the womb would develop cognitive and language issues by the age of three.

The study analysed data from Danish families registered with Familieambulatorier (Family outreach clinics), which continuously monitor children of families deemed vulnerable or high-risk from early pregnancy until the child reaches school age.

The cohort consisted of 810 Danish children born between the years of 2009 and 2015 who were not diagnosed with conditions such as foetal alcohol syndrome or epilepsy, as these conditions would negatively affect the outcome of language and cognitive assessments.

Children were split into four groups, based on their exposure during gestation. 106 (13%) were exposed to cannabis only, 138 (17%) were exposed to tobacco only, 112 (14%) were exposed to both, and 454 (56%) were registered as not being exposed to either substance.

Researchers found that children with prenatal cannabis exposure achieved a higher Bayley-III Language scale score of 3.26-points than those in the group who were not exposed to cannabis, and they found that exposure to tobacco did not worsen this outcome.

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AI Safety Institute Debuts with Big-Name Backers and a Censorship Agenda

Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute arrived at the Danish Parliament this week and the guest list is stacked with people who think you can’t be trusted to speak freely online.

Hillary Clinton, Ursula von der Leyen, former Biden Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Ofcom chief Melanie Dawes, and the head of an organization that wants to break end-to-end encryption are all gathering at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen to announce what they’d like to do next about AI and children.

The “next” part is where it gets concerning. The Youth AI Safety Institute, launched by Common Sense Media on May 5, says it will “complement efforts by regulators and policymakers to translate frameworks such as the EU AI Act, the Digital Services Act, and the UK Online Safety Act into practical protections for child-safe AI.”

Those three censorship laws represent the most aggressive government-directed speech suppression regimes currently operating in the Western world. The Institute isn’t questioning them. In fact, it wants to help implement them and push them further.

The summit, titled “Keeping Our Children and Families Safe in the AI Era,” is co-hosted by Common Sense Media, Save the Children Denmark, and Margrethe Vestager, who spent years as the European Commission’s executive vice president building the regulatory architecture that now lets EU officials order platforms to delete content.

More than 200 policymakers, tech executives, and civil society figures are expected. King Frederik X of Denmark is giving the opening address. The Duchess of Edinburgh will attend. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is on the bill.

And so is Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, whose company helped pay for the Institute’s creation.

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Denmark Revokes Residence Permits for Some Syrian Immigrants 

The Danish government has begun revoking residence permits for certain individuals from Syria, including those who have lived in the country for more than a decade and have successfully integrated. According to statements from the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Kaare Dybvad, this measure has been applied especially to citizens from Damascus, a region considered relatively safe, while other areas of the country remain in conflict. The official justification is that many Syrians with temporary protection in Denmark have the opportunity to return to their country and live according to their own principles if they so wish.

The minister also noted that those who do not adapt to Danish society, reject gender equality, or believe that women should not participate in the workforce, might find an environment more compatible with their beliefs in Syria than in Denmark. This approach makes a fundamental principle clear: those who arrive in a country must adapt to its culture, values, and laws, not expect the host society to change to accommodate their own beliefs.

Migration experts consider that this approach seeks to preserve social cohesion and ensure that foreign residents respect the norms and rights that underpin life in Western societies. Denmark makes it clear that offering refuge does not imply tolerating attitudes contrary to its core principles, and that those who choose to live in the country must commit to its laws and values.

The measure also sends a strong message about personal responsibility and the necessity of adapting to the culture of the host country. Freedom and rights in modern societies should not be taken as automatic privileges, but as an agreement that entails respect for equality, the law, and participation of all members of the community, without religious or cultural impositions that contradict these principles.

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Danish Troops Arrive for Greenland’s Arctic Endurance

Denmark has deployed additional troops and military equipment to Greenland as President Donald Trump declined to rule out using force to seize control of the Arctic island.

Several aircraft carrying soldiers, including Denmark’s army chief, landed in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq late Monday, adding to the more than 200 troops already stationed in the autonomous territory, the Financial Times reported.

Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric on annexing Greenland from Denmark’s home rule for U.S. and NATO security interests, vowing escalating tariffs on all trade with the eight NATO allies participating in the ongoing “Arctic Endurance” military exercises to defend against possible invasion.

Germany and France called for a firm European response, while EU officials prepared retaliatory trade measures, though they stopped short of deploying the bloc’s anti-coercion instrument in hopes of a diplomatic solution.

European leaders are seeking to defuse the crisis by offering a stronger NATO role in Arctic defense.

However, markets showed signs of strain as investors sold U.S. assets, the dollar weakened, and gold prices hit record highs.

Denmark said it remains open to discussions on expanding the U.S. military presence on Greenland, but it has balked at a sale to the U.S.

Trump remained steadfast in keeping open the option to take Greenland by force, despite Republican efforts to strip his “strength” leverage from his “peace through strength” foreign policy.

“No comment,” Trump told NBC News when asked about the option of taking Greenland by force during a brief phone interview Monday.

“Europe ought to focus on the war with Russia and Ukraine because, frankly, you see what that’s gotten them.

“That’s what Europe should focus on — not Greenland.”

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Native Greenlanders Reveal Horrors Under Danish Rule Including Years of Forced Sterilization and Removal of Children

President Trump has said since early in his second term as US President that he wants to purchase Greenland, the strategic landmass, from Denmark.

Speaking to reporters, President Trump underscored the strategic urgency of Greenland’s location in the rapidly militarizing Arctic, warning that America’s adversaries are already exploiting the vacuum left by European inaction.

“I will say this about Greenland: We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said. “Denmark is not going to be able to do it—I can tell you that.”

As Greenland comes under the international spotlight, native Greenlanders are speaking out about the realities of living under Danish rule, saying their future has been ‘stolen.’

In an exclusive report, The New York Post spoke with native Greenlanders about some of the disturbing abuse under Danish rule, including hundreds of Greenlandic women and girls who were forcibly given contraception between 1960 and 1991. Between 1966 and 1970, over 4,500 women and girls, some as young as twelve, had an intra-uterine device (IUD) implanted.

The forced contraception was part of centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families and included policies that removed young Inuit children from their parents.

The 1951 “Little Danes” experiment removed Inuit children from the country and sent them to live with Danish foster families for reeducation and controversial parental competency tests, which “resulted in the forced separation of Greenlandic families.”

From The New York Post:

Amarok Petersen was 27 years old when she learned the gut-wrenching truth about why she couldn’t have children — and that Denmark was to blame.

Suffering from severe uterine problems, a medical doctor discovered an IUD birth control device in her body that she didn’t know she had.

Danish doctors had implanted it when she was just 13 as part of a population control program for thousands of native Greenlandic girls and women.

“I will never have children,” Petersen told The Post, with tears of anger and sorrow welling in her eyes. “That choice was taken from me.”

Following a two-year investigation, independent researchers have released a report on the forced sterilization.  Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, issued an apology to Greenland.

In an August 2025 written statement, Frederiksen wrote, “We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility. Therefore, on behalf of Denmark, I would like to say: I apologise.”

She also acknowledged the case had caused “anger and sadness for many Greenlanders and many families” and damaged perceptions of Denmark. Even without the full picture (pending ongoing investigation), it made a “serious impression” that so many women reported abuse by the Danish healthcare system.

During a ceremony in Nuuk on September 24, 2025, Frederiksen stated, “On behalf of Denmark, I apologise.”

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Greenlanders speak out against Danish rule after decades of forced sterilization, poor living conditions: ‘They stole our future’

Native Greenlander Amarok Petersen was 27 years old when she learned the gut-wrenching truth about why she couldn’t have children — and that Denmark was to blame. 

Suffering from severe uterine problems, a medical doctor discovered an IUD birth control device in her body that she didn’t know she had. 

Danish doctors had implanted it when she was just 13 as part of a population control program for thousands of native Greenlandic girls and women. 

“I will never have children,” Petersen told The Post, with tears of anger and sorrow welling in her eyes. “That choice was taken from me.”

While the government of Denmark officially apologized last year for decades of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls, the horrific mistreatment has cast a long shadow on the island that has become the center of an international ownership fight.

This week, the Danes hosted European troops for military exercises on Greenland, asserting they are protecting the island from outside powers — particularly the United States. But for many Inuit, Denmark itself has long been the real threat.

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