For 5 years I had an online semi-girlfriend who lived in Denmark, the things we told each other about life in our respective countries was mind-blowing and a shock to both of us.

Denmark...universal health care including mental health care, no college tuition. No medical debt. No student loan debt. Minimum wage there is twice what it is in the US, and labor laws are a LOT stronger than here. You can't just fire people on a whim there, like you can in the US--you actually have to involve a government mediator. There isn't an adversarial relationship between management and labor/unions in Denmark like there is here.

The attitude there is, "our own long term profits depend on keeping our workers happy. Secure, happy, well-treated workers makes for a more profitable company in the long run."

Crime there is 1/10th ours. So is the rate of incarceration, and their prisons are like luxury hotels compared to US prisons. The focus there is on rehabbing, not on punishment. People aren't afraid of police over there. Police tend to be friendly, not on power trips.

I never knew such a society was even POSSIBLE. Damn...my life would've been SO different had I been born there, instead of here. Really opened my eyes to what a lying shithole country the US really is.

I recall the conservatives predicting for decades that Denmark would collapse because of it's overly generous welfare system. Yet it was the US that did, in 2008, not Denmark. All the Scandinavian countries weathered that crisis far better than the US did.

The kind of squalid poverty I've seen all over the US, the growing hordes of homeless in every large city, just doesn't exist in Denmark. You don't see entire towns falling into ruins over there as I've seen here.

I'd move permanently to Western Europe, or even Canada, if I could afford a legal way to do it. The US scares me now. Feels too much like the last days of the Weimar Republic of Germany.