gcl8a

Here's a small pile of bikes on Strøget:

http://www.mip.sdu.dk/~glewin/cyklin...s/Page459.html

There's a comic on the wall in the coffee room here that shows two signs: One says "Sunny beaches and scantiliy clad women, THIS WAY", the other "Rain, wind and pork products, THIS WAY."

Sven says "Hey Ole, I smell bacon!"

I dunno', they seem to take it all in stride and not take themselves too seriously. My take is they just have a very good idea about what's important (family time, free time, etc.) vs. work, work, work. The taxes _are_ a little ridiculous. I pay about 33% of my salary in income taxes (and I get a discount as a foreigner), PLUS 25% sales tax on everything. Heck, if you so much as _own_ a TV, you have to pay 170 kroner / month (about $30) just for a TV license. Imagine if contributing to PBS was not only mandatory, but required every month!

But then my health care is greatly subsidized (not totally 'free'). There are lots of social services (not just 'welfare', but free/highly subsidized day-care, good roads and bike facilities, college students usually get a stipend, adults can go to 'højskole', etc.). We get a check for $1000 every three months just because we have two children (even though we're foreigners). And the drunks have their own little beer garden so they don't bother the rest of us.

I'm not sure it's how I'd want to run a country, but as a guest, I try not to get too indignant -- except for the TV thing -- that's absurd. But the economy is booming here, with ~4% unemployment, so things are going OK for now. Whether or not the taxes will catch up with them in the long run, we'll see. (They do have trouble retaining engineers and scientists, which is why they have the tax break for foreigners).

And now the sun is back even...