An Analysis into the volunteering motivations of individuals in Denmark. Even though volunteering is amongst the most common pro-social activities, there are many uncertainties and discrepancies in regard to specific motivations that lead to undertaking voluntary work. Dark contrasts: The paradox of high rates of suicide in happy places. Suicide kills more Americans each year than die in motor accidents. Yet its causes remain poorly understood.
Highly Influenced. View 3 excerpts, cites background. Cross-national comparison of sex differences in health and mortality in Denmark, Japan and the US. View 1 excerpt. Comparing self-assessed indicators of subjective outcomes such as health, work disability, political efficacy, job satisfaction, etc. View 4 excerpts, cites methods and background. Women's death in Scandinavia — what makes Denmark different? A matter of life and death: population mortality and football results. Explaining happiness.
Factors predicting the subjective well-being of nations. Cardiovascular mortality in Dutch men during European football championship: longitudinal population study. Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. Addressing the question of why some people are happier than others is important for both theoretical and practical reasons and should be a central goal of a comprehensive positive psychology.
Economic and rational-choice theories suggest that individuals form unions or have children because these decisions increase their subjective well-being or "happiness. Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon.
Happiness, or subjective well-being, was measured on a birth-record-based sample of several thousand middle-aged twins using the Well-Being WB scale of the Multidimensional Personality … Expand.
Hair colour in the Faroe and Orkney Islands. What happens when you develop a genuinely almost nearly perfect society in which there is nothing left to achieve, nothing to kick against, or work for? But I had one other question I always asked, which, in its way, was even more revealing.
Whenever I asked my Danish interviewees whether they could think of a better country to live in, the answer was invariably a thoughtful silence. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. You shall not believe that you are someone. You shall not believe that you are as good as we are.
You shall not believe that you are any wiser than we are. You shall never indulge in the conceit of imagining that you are better than we are. You shall not believe that you know more than we do.
You shall not believe that you are more important than we are. You shall not believe that you are going to amount to anything. You shall not laugh at us. You shall not believe that anyone cares about you. The American system has a bicameral congress and an independently elected president. It is often the case that neither party has the votes to pass legislation, and the president can veto bills with which he disagrees. The current congress, senate, and president illustrate this prime example of gridlock.
The philosophical divide in America has hardened in recent years. There is less collaboration, and our governing system has no way of changing electorate behavior. Just look at the last 40 years. Better yet, look at the previous presidential election. It includes a comprehensive social welfare system. Having a robust social welfare system with the regulation of capitalism is expected in the Nordic model. Notice that health insurance is not a benefit since the state provides universal health coverage.
There is no minimum wage, but the country invests heavily in human capital and has strong union bargaining contracts. Danish workers are more productive than their American counterparts, according to Harvard labor economist Lawrence Katz.
Negotiations and collective expectations result in higher wages and higher taxes. As a democracy, the Danes have decided that every citizen should have a true living wage and that high taxation contributes to the public good and a robust welfare state. The Danish government even has a simple, page document outlining their taxation and economic philosophy for newcomers to Denmark.
The following excerpt is directly from the paper-. Primarily, it means that those of us who have a job contributes to the welfare of children, young people, and pensioners via our tax payments. In the Danish welfare model, we also pay towards those of us in the working-age who are unable to work for short or long periods of time due to illness or unemployment.
Consequently, the majority of us are guaranteed a certain income throughout our lives, and the welfare model enables a certain redistribution of wealth from the more affluent to the less affluent in society.
The philosophical approach is fundamentally different than the US approach. In the US, it is just not counted as a tax. The economic downturn across the world due to COVID19 presents a real-life experiment showing how different governing philosophies are playing out. Small businesses can apply for up to 8 weeks of payroll protection. Even with payroll protection, there are now nearly 34 million filings for unemployment in the US.
The duration of unemployment assistance is state-dependent, but most states have benefits for up to 26 weeks. What happens next? How do the unemployed find work when few, if any, business are hiring? According to the Pew Research Center , less than half of Americans have an emergency fund to cover three months of expenses. The Danish Business Authority stepped in to offer salary compensation for employees of businesses whether they worked full time 37 hours or part-time.
The salary compensation is not available if the company elected to send employees home without pay. This policy makes sense, as hourly workers tend to earn less than salaried workers. Supporting businesses with assistance for fixed costs like rent and keeping employees on the payroll will also help Danish business bounce back quickly when a recovery does occur.
Keeping workers, especially skilled ones, is more cost-effective than rehiring. Morale is also higher if staffs feel valued and retained. I think the American approach during an economic crisis far too often harms those least likely to weather the challenge.
Total compensation could be a lot higher bonus, housing allowance, car allowance etc. In my own clinic, a medical assistant and two nurse practitioners have been laid off. Meanwhile, highly paid executives have all kept their jobs and just recently accepted small pay reductions.
The wealthy in America seem to survive economic downturns, and the most economically vulnerable suffer. The concentration of wealth moving forward will only make this worse. The charts below show the US and Danish income inequality. Notice what happens to wealth concentration in the US after the Reagan administration in and cuts in marginal income tax rates.
The fall in wealth is not a coincidence, and rapid growth occurred in America while having high marginal income tax rates and a robust middle class. The economic differences I have pointed out so far also extend to philosophical differences in health systems. The Danish healthcare system has high public satisfaction, universal coverage, and virtually no cost-sharing for patients.
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