Word: danishes
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...thing. And why shouldn't they? Living standards in Denmark are among the highest in the world. Per capita income trails that of the U.S. but is distributed far more equally. Unemployment is just 3.1%. The country exports more goods and services than it imports. And while only two Danish corporations (shipper A.P. Moller-Maersk and the Danske Bank) are big enough to make the FORTUNE Global 500 list, Denmark has more than its share of smallish, nimble, outward-looking firms well positioned in growth areas ranging from alternative energy to health care to high-end furniture...
...part of a trade-off, the Danes say. By largely banishing the financial insecurity that plagues so many American workers, Danish politicians and business leaders have won public support for all manner of business-friendly policies. Corporate taxes are lower than in the U.S., and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate than ordinary income. There are few restrictions on trade. That, and it's easier to fire people in Denmark than anywhere else in Europe...
...advocate of big cutbacks in the welfare state: "I have to admit now, 15 to 20 years later, that the model we have found here--free education, free health care, a good financial situation if you lose your job, together with a flexible labor market and the size of Danish companies--somehow has struck something that is the answer to the challenges of globalization...
...European social democrats and American liberals, and the country has been overrun lately with visiting journalists, academics and politicians looking for insights. One of the things a visitor discovers, though, is that Denmark's size and homogeneity--5.4 million people, of whom all but 478,000 are of Danish ancestry--are crucial to how the economy works. "We've been one small nation for 1,000 years," says Hans Skov Christensen, who as director general of the Confederation of Danish Industries negotiates the nationwide bargaining agreements between management and labor every few years. "We're basically a clan...
Informality, disputation and disrespect for authority are core Danish traits. But there are limits, and Danes seem to know in their bones just how far they can push them. The result is an economy that looks like something out of an enlightened management textbook. There are a few clear goals and lots of leeway to achieve them. In one fascinating study, two American sociologists found that Danish line workers have nearly as much job autonomy as supervisors do in the U.S., while supervisors in Denmark have about as much autonomy as upper managers...