Adding Up the Numbers, Unexplained

SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK. It just doesn't add up. Look at a list of the world's wealthiest countries, per capita; the Danes are up on top. So are most of these other socialistic European countries: all top ten, at the top of the list. The United States is hanging in there, on most lists, around number ten or something, sometimes not that high. Number one, believe it nor not, is actually Luxembourg, that tiny country somewhere in the middle of Europe tucked in between France, Belgium, Holland, or somewhere. How do these people do it? The average rate of income taxation in, say, Denmark is something around seventy percent. Seventy percent of your income, going to the government. Sounds outrageous. But what do the other numbers say about Denmark's economy? How do their businesses, large, and small, do? You would think that Danish companies aren't doing too badly, since the country is the second richest in the world, per capita. Free college, free health insurance, free everything, like some Bernie Sanders fantasy world. The very economic values scorned, despised, and demonized by our conservative American republicans, forming the basis of the most successful national economies in the world. Makes you think. There is much greater economic equality in countries like Denmark, with janitors, doctors, and lawyers all living in the same neighborhood. Levels of happiness, as measured in polls and surverys, are very high in these countries, higher than in, say, the United States. It shouldn't be that way. Is Denmark rich despite socialism, or because of it? Isn't the American way supposed to be the best way? At least, that's what we're told in America. We're told that we're "the best". The numbers would seem to indicate otherwise.