Here's another Danish anecdote for Bernie

by Kim D.

Did you catch the latest CNN debate night with Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders?  If you missed it, I highly encourage you to view the debate in its entirety. The subject was tax reform and one of the key moments of the debate was when Senator Cruz asked a basic question: "What is the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist on taxes? Senator Sanders' response was very telling: "I don't know the answer to that."

It would lead one to believe that perhaps the Democrat party has moved so far to the left that it has adopted many tenants of the Socialist belief system. If you agree with Sanders, that some live high on the hog and aren't paying their fair share, then you will probably view the debate as a win for the senator from Vermont. If you don't agree with these notions, you are closer to Cruz's conservative viewpoint that government is way too big, constantly choosing the winners and losers, and denying opportunity for any of us who weren't fortunate to be born into or luck into the American elite.

As tax related, several points in the debate turned to health care reform. Senator Sanders promotes a single-payer system and uses mainly emotional and ethical argument strategies, leaving out an important concept and rhetorical tool: logic (the facts and statistics that support emotional and ethical appeals). Many times he makes blanket statements, like every other modern society in the world provides health care as a right. He often points to Democrat Socialist societies as models to follow, and often the country highlighted is Denmark.

After Ted Cruz gave hard facts and statistics about average wait times in Denmark's health care system, Bernie's rebuttal was to call up the Danish questioner who gave anecdotal evidence that when his mother had cancer her treatment wait time was a matter of days, not weeks. And, this one instance which certainly isn't an "average" gave the Bernie Bros tons of ammunition to declare that Sanders had crushed Cruz on this topic point. However, anecdotal evidence in the absence of facts is rather flimsy.

Here's another anecdote for Bernie to consider. We have a family friend with dual citizenship in the United States and Denmark.  While he was able to live and be educated in the States as a young man, he chose to go back to Denmark, marry and live on a family farm, and raise two children. Over the years, he saw little opportunity and reward for his hard work and investment. As one of the largest welfare states, Denmark confiscates a large tax from its citizens and in return gives free health care, child care, education, etc. (see charts below).  However, the corporate tax rate is much lower than the individual burden.

Pic Credit

Pic Credit

But enough about facts, let's go back to the emotional appeal of a personal anecdote for Bernie. I met our friend Johann in 2002, well before he was being taxed at an average of 60%. He was in his 50s then and in great health not having to rely on much health care but admitted he loved the fact that his children were receiving free college. However, things soon changed. He separated from his wife and eventually divorced with the stipulation that she buy his interest in the family farm. He took contracts with American oil and gas companies which would send him all over the world working on projects as an environment clean-up specialist. I liken his role to that of the one who makes sure when oil and gas is extracted, it is done so in a way as to leave the smallest environmental footprint.

He basically is an international agent, not beholden to any one country and free to keep the majority of what he earns. However, as a Danish citizen he still has rights, one of them being free health care. Curious thing though, as he has aged, he doesn't use Denmark's free health care and opts to cash pay for services here in the United States, like laser eye surgery, repair to his ACL after an accident, and several cosmetic upgrades (facelift and liposuction).  I know this because he comes to Houston for these services and stays with us during the recovery process.

After the ACL issue, where he elected to wear a boot for pain reduction until he could get to the States for corrective surgery, I asked why he didn't hop over to Denmark and receive this service for free. With a disgusted shake of his head, he simply replied that the wait-time was too long and the quality of surgeons in Houston far surpassed those of his home country.  There's an anecdote that is just as strong as the one Bernie touted as evidence that his notions about Denmark were, in fact, on the mark.

Bernie touts Denmark as offering high quality of health care for free and would like to see America following suit. However when faced with the question of how the United States would pay for a single-payer health system, Sanders admitted nothing is for free. Someone has to pay for it, meaning every able bodied working American, not just the wealthy 1 percent.