As it works out the Danes are becoming more like us:
Income inequality is on the rise. The rich control more of the country’s wealth. Union membership is falling. The ranks of the poor are growing.
Sounds like the United States? Actually, it’s Denmark.
Read the whole thing.
IIRC, this is true of much of Western Europe. The wealthy are getting wealthier at the same that their economies have become weaker, just like ours. Yet somehow, if we cut the taxes of those very wealthier people, making them richer, they will suddenly make everyone else richer.
Steve
As I observed in a comment to a nearby post, I’m a tax cut skeptic. I don’t think our problems can be solved by tax cuts or increasing the minimum wage or unions or infrastructure spending or any of the other shibboleths of either political party.
I posted the stats a couple of years ago, but income equality is worse in most of Europe than the US before accounting for taxes and transfers. In short, Europeans have more gross inequality but less net inequality. Given Europe’s history, it could be unpleasant when and if the transfers can no longer be sustained.
I would add that it is my belief that high social cohesion supports the political acceptance of the European countries’ higher taxes and transfers and as cohesion break down both will become increasingly difficult to support politically. Social cohesion and trust in government in the U. S. are notoriously low.