DENMARK: A Growing Dissatisfaction

Denmark has long been envied as a model welfare state of social harmony and governmental stability. No more. Since last spring, tens of thousands of discontented Danes have taken to the streets in demonstrations to protest inflation (currently 19% annually) and unemployment (10.3%—the highest in Western Europe). In contrast to oil-rich Norway and politically stable Sweden, Denmark is so problem-ridden that Danish Economist Thorkil Kristensen notes: "It is not easy to write anything encouraging about Denmark today."

Free Services. The public unrest also reveals a growing dissatisfaction of many Danes with the cost of their cradle-to-grave social-welfare system, pioneered by the...

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