My favorite travel guru has finally done it. He has been creeping toward the edge of the cliff for some time now but now he has taken the plunge.  He has just published Travel as a Political Act.  Who did he get to publish his book?  Nation Books.  You know, the folks at The Nation magazine.  Now that sends a very powerful message about the bias in the book?

 Here is how he describes his book:

I’ve written a new book ? Travel as a Political Act ? that has given me the chance to share what has made my travels most rewarding, and how my travels have helped shape my worldview and inspired my activism.

His current online newsletter features an excerpt from his chapter on socialism in Denmark.  Here he offers the travel guru lesson in political theory.

Other countries have struggled to become more ‘social-istic’…and
failed. So how do the Danes pull it off? I think their success relates
to their acceptance of their social contract. Any society needs to
subscribe to a social contract ? basically, what you agree to give up
in order to live together peacefully. Densely populated Europe
generally embraces Rousseau’s social contract: In order to get along
well, everyone will contribute a little more than their share and give
up a little more than their share. Then, together, we’ll all be fine….

In contrast, the United States subscribes to John Locke’s version of the
social contract: a “don’t fence me in” ideal of rugged individualism,
where you can do anything you like as long as you don’t hurt your
neighbor. Just keep the government off our backs. In some ways, this
suits us: As we have always had more elbow room, we can get away with
our “rugged individualism.” Thanks to our wide-open spaces,
determination to be self-sufficient, and relative population sparsity,
it’s easier ? and arguably less disruptive ? for us to ignore the free
rider problem.

Of course, he recognizes that Danes pay very high taxes, but Danes love to pay high taxes because they get “free” health care and the “free” education through the college level. As he quotes one Dane, “and our taxes even provide university students with $800 a month for living expenses for up to six years.”

Apparently, he did not talk to people waiting in line for a medical procedure or taxpayers who would rather spend their own money or entrepreneurs frustrated with government regulation, or the current Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the leader of the center-right Venstre Party. (Venstre was founded as a classical liberal party.)

Earlier this year, Rasmussen negotiated a deal with the other parties that resulted in the largest reduction in the marginal income tax rate since the income tax was established in 1903. In 2002, he negotiated the health care policy reform that allowed patients who had been on a waiting list for two months to select a private hospital.

Imagine that Rick, high marginal tax rates produce slow economic growth and “free” health care creates long waiting lists.   Even before the current economic downturn, Denmark’s growth was declining. As noted here, GDP grew 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2006, fell to 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and declined to minus 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Yes Rick, there is more to the story of Denmark than, as you say, they are “happily social-istic.”