Observations

It's raining today.

Just a few observations.

Always stand on the right side of the escalator. The left side is left open for people walking up. From what I understand, Danes don't really have a phrase for excuse me. So, if you are standing on the left side where you shouldn't be, they will just come up behind you and lightly push you. I think this is just meant as a reminder that you shouldn't be standing there and to get out of the way.

There are many young kids that I see riding mass transit alone. Kids of the age that I would expect their parents to be with them, but they are riding the subway by themselves. Also in central Copenhagen there are younger kids wondering about on their own. I guess they have been using public transportation from a young age, and Copenhagen doesn't have any bad neighborhoods or other reasons that would necessitate parents always watching over them. A Dane might say I'm overexaggerating this, but I don't think you'd see a younger kid riding the subway in New York City by themselves.

The taxes are very high in Denmark, although this hasn't prevented them from having one of the best economies in Europe. Our Danish politics professor frequently says the phrase, "the bumblebee can fly!". Apparently if you look at the size of a bumblebee and its feeble wings, it really shouldn't be able to fly but it does. Denmark's economy is the same way.

For wages up to about 25,000 kroner a month, the income tax rate is 40%. Over that rate, the income tax rate is about 70%. It is very difficult to become rich in Danish society. On the other hand, there is a social safety net from "the cradle to the grave". Denmark funds a comprehensive health care system, a great transportation system, aid for the unemployed, and other social programs. Danish college students are actually paid a stipend while they attend school. They certainly don't make money, but it is enough that they can get by with little debt when they graduate from school.

Perhaps one of the reasons that Denmark's economy is competitive is because they have a very mobile labor market. Unlike France and Germany, Danish companies can hire and fire workers very easily. This is similar to the United States, where workers can be fired and laid off relatively easily. Once out of a job, Denmark gives the person unemployment aid with conditions applied to it. Part of that is job training programs, so that if the unemployed can't find a job with their current skill set they need to get retrained to be able to fit into a new job in an area that needs workers.

Denmark is also different from France/Germany in that their economy is comprised mostly of small companies. There are few companies in Denmark with over 100 employees. A small company is probably able to shift their momentum to changing market conditions easier than a large company, so that is perhaps another reason why their economy does well. France and Germany have many large companies.

Most fast food places do not have free refills. The Coke 1.5 liter bottle was about 3 times the price of the generic cola in the grocery store.

Copenhagen has weather that flucuates more frequently than in Minnesota. I think we can generally predict our weather very well, and if it is sunny in the morning then odds are it will be sunny for the majority of the day. Copenhagen's weather is much more unpredictable I think. It might be nice in the morning, but the wind shifts in the afternoon and it is snowing. Mogens Been told me that it depends which direction the wind is coming from. If it comes from the east, you are going to get weather effects from the ocean. If it comes from the west, then there is land over there and you'll have different weather.

Copenhagen has no skyscrapers. Nearly every building is 5 stories tall. No exceptions for the most part. They all have similar architecture, and they all rise to the same height. I should ask someone about it, but I'm guessing there is some sort of city ordinance prohibiting different building in Copenhagen. The many church steeples are the obvious exception.

Copenhagen is a very "organically" laid out city. I would contrast it with New York maybe, which has regular city blocks. If you know the street in Manhatten, it isn't very difficult to find it. Central Copenhagen was once a fortified medieval city, completely walled off from the outside. All of those original roads and city organization are still there. The effect is lots of small winding streets and no rigid organization. Very few cars as well, because there simply isn't room to drive them, nor parking spaces to park them. Not to mention the 200%+ tax on cars. You must be 180% tax to register your car in Denmark. Then you must also pay the 25% sales tax. This isn't very popular in Denmark, but it generates billions and billions of krones in revenue. Removing it would be very difficult, because you'd have to either find some other way to generate that revenue or you'd have to drastically cut the social programs.

There are certainly parties in Denmark who would like to do that. Maybe I will make a post later about Denmark's politics.

I usually run into someone every day trying to sell me something on the street (a newspaper, magazine, etc). Or sign some petition, etc. They are always very well dressed and polite, and will start walking along side you and say "excuse me, can I ask you a question?", or "excuse me, do you have a minute?". I just keep walking. Most of the time they'll try starting a conversation in Danish, but I think that has even less chance of success. :)