I would like to hear an argument where scale is unimportant and also an argument where lack of diversity doesn't help in a more unified perhaps focused decision making. Having lived in Copenhagen for over five years has given me insights that I did not have in my uncritical view of Scandinavia before getting there.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies Australia India Institute and School of Social & Political Sciences University of Melbourne, 147-149 Barry Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 3 9035 6161 Visit the Australia India Institute Website http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/ New: After-Development Dynamics (on South Korea) http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198729433.do Forthcoming Book: http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780415564953/ New Book Series (Dynamics of Asian Development) http://www.springer.com/series/13342 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent from my iPad > On Oct 23, 2015, at 11:55, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> wrote: > > First: I don't think the question should be, "can we be exactly like > Denmark." Obviously, the answer to that is no. And it should be no. Nobody > should try to be exactly like anybody else, whether persons or countries. I > think the question is: can we be more like Denmark, in ways that we'd like? > And there I'm sure the answer is yes. I think more free basic health care in > schools is a great example of something wonderful that we can do, that fits > well with Bernie's demand of expanding "Medicare for all." > > Second, it's far from obvious why the size of Denmark's population is > particularly relevant. > > Third, I think the "homogeneous" thing should be interrogated. When people > say we can't be like northern Europe because they're more homogeneous, aren't > they saying that we have black people and we're racist so we can't have as > much social solidarity as they have? Isn't that just the sort of thing that > we want to explode? > > Fourth: if we're not trying to be exactly like Denmark, at least as a > "transitional program," if you will, then we don't have to have their steeply > progressive taxation. Not that I'm against it, but we don't have to get to > Paradise in one jump. We could start by increasing taxes on the top 1% and > top 0.1% of the income distribution. As the New York Times pointed out, that > would raise a lot of money with which we could do a lot of things to get rid > of poverty and make the people on the bottom 60% of the income distribution a > lot better off. > > > > > > > > Robert Naiman > Policy Director > Just Foreign Policy > www.justforeignpolicy.org > [email protected] > (202) 448-2898 x1 > >> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 11:39 AM, Anthony D'Costa >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> Denmark is certainly an interesting case. Two things we liked were public >> transportation and dental care for kids. All schools in the basement or >> somewhere next to the school had dental facilities for all kids in the >> school based on your yearly appointments. It was mass service like a >> conveyor belt but efficient and effective. Healthcare was universal a real >> plus but never tested the system for serious stuff. That said will Americans >> be willing to pay 40 plus % average taxes with marginal rates 70%? And 5 >> million very homogeneous population may have some bearing on policy agenda. >> >> >> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies >> Australia India Institute and School of Social & Political Sciences >> University of Melbourne, 147-149 Barry Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AUSTRALIA >> Ph: +61 3 9035 6161 >> Visit the Australia India Institute Website http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/ >> New: After-Development Dynamics (on South Korea) >> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198729433.do >> >> Forthcoming Book: http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780415564953/ >> New Book Series (Dynamics of Asian Development) >> http://www.springer.com/series/13342 >> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> >> >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >>> On Oct 23, 2015, at 10:06, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> I'm not sure that I agree with the critique though, as a practical matter, >>> even though I think the dialogue is intrinsically very positive, and it's a >>> wonderful thing for people like Foner to take advantage of any opportunity >>> to talk about US radical history and insist that others do so. >>> >>> I think talking about Denmark might actually be more relevant to the matter >>> at hand than what happened in the US in the 1890s. >>> >>> It's more relevant, arguably, to talking about health care for all. It's >>> more relevant, arguably, to talking about family and medical leave. >>> >>> Western Europe made a choice after World War II to have capitalism without >>> having poverty. The United States made a different choice. We can revisit >>> that choice. The fact that Western Europe made that choice and lived to >>> tell the tale is a key fact that we should compel people in the US to >>> grapple with. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Robert Naiman >>> Policy Director >>> Just Foreign Policy >>> www.justforeignpolicy.org >>> [email protected] >>> (202) 448-2898 x1 >>> >>>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 4:26 PM, Robert Naiman >>>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> I love this. I hope it inspires a thousand more pieces like it. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Robert Naiman >>>> Policy Director >>>> Just Foreign Policy >>>> www.justforeignpolicy.org >>>> [email protected] >>>> (202) 448-2898 x1 >>>> >>>>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 4:18 PM, Marv Gandall <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> http://www.thenation.com/article/how-bernie-sanders-should-talk-about-democratic-socialism/ >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> pen-l mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> pen-l mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
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