I hope you don't mind, the language of your screen caught my attention and it made me curious. How many languages do you speak or study? I see you're from Brazil, with a computer apparently using Dutch, while using English on a forum. That's really cool.
This but unironically. They've given up on happiness and their only remaining life goal is to ensure everyone they have the ability to punch down on suffers worse than they do.
I'm not being clever either, Innuendo Studios literally has an Alt-Right Playbook video on this.
I did the math in the USA. When I was married with kids my effective rate for a the highest year was 52%. My last year as a single male and all kids over 26, it was 46%. Effective, not marginal, because that matters in the USA as we don’t track those “other salary deductions” for taxes. Effective for those ready to argue include stupid shit like deductibles, copays, uncovered care, out of network care (that happens more than you think with kids). one year we spent 40k (max. In network deductible) because one of my kids had a spiral fracture of his leg on a growth section that had he not endured 3 (THREE) surgeries, he would be left side shorter. That was 190k for all surgeries and 40k out of pocket. Dental, HSA, FSA, Vision, Medical… People need to realize that even though its pre tax, you’re still paying for it and that needs to be considered for effective rate.
I was offered a job in Denmark, so I know this for fact: Denmark was a near match at marginal rate to USA effective rate assuming I never needed critical care in the USA (i would be in debt). BUT, Denmark has effective tax rates in the 40% for those making less than 85k (USD). I think there’s a rich person tax above that at 49%, but I never accepted the job because my Ex wife was a shithead so I didn’t find out.
I’m now in spain paying around 47% effective, but get Beckhams law will make that be 24% at tax time for the next 10 years. After that I need to pay like everyone else and at 10 years I get a pension (small one) for spain.
Also wages might be higher in well paying jobs that people on Lemmy seem to have, but plenty of people in the US are dirt poor even with jobs. In Europe that happens as well but I feel like they often have more stability though tenant and worker rights and things like that. So at least you won't be fired on the spot from your lousy job or have to renegotiate rent every few months.
Yeah, here in the UK if you've worked somewhere for longer than three months then your employer has to have good cause to let you go. Thanks to the Tories, we don't get full employee rights until two years, so if, after two years we're made redundant, we can claim redundancy pay. But in the meantime, if you feel you've been treated unfairly you can claim unfair dismissal. You might have some success at getting some lost earnings, but you'll have to represent yourself because there's no hope of getting legal aid for that. However, the tribunals who hear the cases often tend to lean towards the employee. Or at least, that was the case when I went through it some years ago.
And if you are let go, then you can immediately claim unemployment benefits, which really aren't great, but they do come with the added benefit of free prescriptions.
190k is a very large amount, I'm not sure if by 40k out of pocket you mean the insurance covered the rest.
Still, 40k is a lot of money and 190k is pretty much my salary for the next 10 years. I'm sure jobs are a bit better paid in the US; but I'm also quite convinced it is not that common to have that amount of money laying around.
An expense like that falling on you can definitely ruin your life.
It's already the false assumption that universal healthcare is a luxury you have to afford, while it is much cheaper than for-profit -healthcare.
Leaving more ressources available for the military.
America isn't about "the people", it's just a business. The people are basically products that get sold as a service for the companies anyone wealthy enough.
It's like a nation of human trafficking. Marketed and disguised as freedom. Instead of drugs, the "pimp" markets lifestyles to them that hook them into working for less than they are worth or for less honest freedom than a human deserves. The "lifestyles" make the different groups easier to control. Like each lifestyle is a demographic and they get psychologically marketed to.
Typically if you don't fit one of their demographics you are an outcast and life is made harder for you on purpose because you are seen as someone that doesn't contribute to their system. These "outcasts" get "gangstalked" and pressured into fitting into their set demographics. If the person is unable to do that the person is systematically pressured into the prison system, psychiatric system, homelessness, or suicide.
Part of this psychological idea is that one will hit this man-made manufactured rock bottom and run to the system as a saviour IF they are strong enough to survive it. Oddly enough this aligns with Freemasonry ideology. Being rebuilt from nothing into the ashler, but it's not something everyone is capable of doing and those that can't are basically disposable.
It's a system that hides in plain sight. If you detox from American culture it becomes more visible but then you also risk getting fucked over for life. That's why it's like human trafficking. And once you really see it and understand, you can't hide from the reality. And the reality is gut wrenchingly surreal.
He would have been the first billionaire adjusted for a inflation if he had not died so young. He was a murderous land hoarder who used slavery and death to turn a profit. The rot was always there.
The government is an abusive partner you can't escape from and if you do they will try and kill you. It is even worse than being trafficked because there is no escape.
Why anyone would accept being hostage to this type of lunacy is beyond me yet it appears the entire county does. We deserve better than constant psychological torture and death.
No, Denmark is not socialist. Socialized services under capitalism and literally collectivizing ownership of industry under socialism are very different regimes, even though they stem from a common conceptual foundation and share a linguistic root. Neither are bad ideas! But the former is still literally capitalism.
Nordic counties are social democracies (which is what you explained) not socialist
They still operate within the boundaries of capitalism with a free market except with a strong welfare state. The means of production aren’t l owned by the workers.
I'm reminded of the 1/3rd pound hamburger thing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-pound_burger ) . People, and it feels like especially americans, are kind of stupid with money, math, and value.
The USA has an incredibly stupid populace very much on purpose. The billionaires that own them have spent the last 40 years killing education because stupid people are so much easier to control. You get a better education at a European high school than most USA colleges.
Americans are also obsessed with the notion their taxes would benefit anyone but themselves.
I don't understand why no one can grasp the concept. If your taxes benefit you, and the homeless guy on the corner, that means you're getting more value from your taxes.
I argued at length with an American who used to hang out in my friend group for a while. He couldn't stand the idea that his taxes would pay for anything other than his own problems. He called it "giving free handouts".
He'd repeatedly use arguments like "but if my taxes pay for healthcare, I'd be wasting my money on morbidly obese people who created their own problems".
The guy is really well off. Works a desk job pushing finance papers for the American military. He believes his well paid job secures him from relying on anything at all.
It's a cultural thing that's hard to even push back against. Like, I want people to be helped, I want nobody to have to go hungry or have to live on the streets or go broke from medical bills, regardless of how they live, and I know that taxes are the most effective way to do that, but still I find myself instinctively framing it as "taxes are the cheapest way for me to ensure I don't have to deal with a homeless person begging outside my apartment"
Also I think the idea that we're each personally entitled to approve of everything the government spends tax money on is a long game from the right to combat things like pushes for universal health care, government assistance of reproductive healthcare (I first saw this about abortion), and really any form of the government actually helping people instead of demanding charity make up the difference
I think the problem arises when you pay a crapton on taxes, and then comes a billionaire that makes millions of profits and pays zero.
So then the average person gets angry about inequality but instead of demanding that everyone pay their share they think "who knows how many other cheaters are out there. If we can't hold them accountable, then I want to pay less too!".
Which of course is the wrong way to go about it but alas
I'm wondering if that could have ANY relation with oligarchs controlled medias repeating all day long how bad taxes are and how inefficient public anything is.
Edit: and adding this: conservatives (not MAGA, racists, etc. I mean genuine conservatives) are generally not against the idea of paying to help homeless, poors, etc. They are against the idea to defer that to the government. They want to make donations themselves. That boosts the ego, and that also allows them to cherry pick who deserves their help, and government is inefficient-blablabla. The irony of the logic is non-profit typically spend 20--40% of their budget on fund raising and administration. This is not a very efficient system from an economic standpoint. As for choosing who to help, they end up rewarding marketing skills rather than ranking who needs the most their help.
I also live in a country with very high tax and I'd need to make more than 120k USD per year to have the same standard of living if I lived in the USA. It's impossible to make that much driving trains and also working 40 hours a week in the US as far as I know. Lower tier blue collar work is even worse.
america is obsessed with taxes of other countries yet they dont like paying taxes in thier own countries, probably projecting and living vacariously through what high taxes can benefit people.
US tax rate is only like 5% less too. We wouldn't even have to pay higher taxes to get most of what other countries get. We're just dumb fucks who see all our money going to the military and can't even be bothered to vote once every 4 years. It's pathetic
Ironically, the USA rank only 27th in the Global Social Mobility Index. The 1st is… Denmark, followed by other Northern Europe countries with high tax rates.
When I was a kid, this wasn't even something worth solving. "They pay more, but they're happy? Fuck it, would rather be there than here." I know I didn't pay taxes at the time, but does it really matter if everyone there is happy?
You can make fun of demark for legitimate shit. Like the little mermaid or putting people with long covid in psych wards or just being shittier Holland. That last one really bugs the Danes. Or Belgium if we're talking politics.
In Socialism, the means of production (aka the businesses) are owned by everybody. It is a completely different economical model to Capitalism, which is where the means of production are owned by individuals, like it currently is.
Just a couple of social policies do not make socialism.
Communism is considered the next step - a stateless and classless society without money.
Some will say it never existed since it would need to be worldwide, some will say its entirely possible within country borders. Many ways to interpret it and many more ways to disagree with what it means. However, most will agree that workers owning the means of production is part of it, but just workers owning the company they work for on its own generally isn't enough to say its communism. We have companies which operate that way even today. Its a more broader term for how a whole society functions.
Some will say it never existed since it would need to be worldwide, some will say its entirely possible within country borders.
I think everyone agrees that communism has not yet been reached anywhere. I’ve never heard anyone say that it’s possible in one country. What we say is that socialism is possible in one country. Capitalists will always try to destroy socialism, and that’s why communism can’t be reached until capitalism has been almost completely dismantled worldwide.
As I understand the terms (which may well be wrong), you're correct and Denmark would be socialist. There might be some distance between "full" socialism wherein all public services are owned and controlled by the public (= the state), but the direction of social policies seems about right.
However, particularly in the US, that distinction has been smudged into one collective "evil leftist" scarecrow. I'd assume the person in the OP either doesn't know or consciously accepts that fudging to make a case for why their system is beneficial rather than the "scary socialism". Deflecting from the label to a descriptor (particularly in the context of profit-oriented mentalities, where "good accounting" would be desirable) dodges the preconceptions and propaganda attached to the former.
And ultimately, I think that's more fruitful for explaining an ideology. Starting with a label that carries connotations primes expectations accordingly. Starting with and focusing on the benefits invites engaging with the topic and creates a different foundation for productive conversation.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he it not Romeo Socialism called,
Retain that dear perfection which he it owes
Without that title.
I'm not gonna suggest we stop calling socialism by that title, but I do see a case that aome discussions should be led with descriptions and arguments instead of terms that have been vilified to the point of stifling any reasonable discourse.
The end-goal of communism is that, but you can’t go from capitalism to communism overnight. Socialism is the transitional process from one to the other, beginning when the capitalist class is overthrown and ending when there is only one class, the working class.
To sum up my response to the other person further down the thread directly to you as well:
I don't think the difference is that significant.
I'd more consider this a rhetorical sleight of hand to lead away from the term and its perception as "evil bad scary socialism" (particularly in the US). Describing the benefits as a good thing (particularly in the context of profit-oriented mentalities, where "good accounting" would be desirable) dodges the propaganda directed at a specific label.
It isn't just taxes, Denmark pays for their social democracy with neocolonialist super profits including capitalist exploitation of Greenland and bank accounts that are still paying interest on profits from being the largest shareholder of the slave trade.
Made it more clear for everyone who couldn't find the info.
Doing the Lord's work. I missed half of OP due to lack of red outlines.
Eh? I still don't get it. Can you make it more clear?
The flag of my new socialist microstate.
The great nation of Taxmania.
If you dig under Texas, the nation of Taxes is on the reverse side.
Dollars, Taxes
How long have you waited to use this?
My Micronation of Tax Tex Mex Sex will never stand for this!
we like our chairs.
Taxmaxia was so close ...
Is there a /c/flagsthatgohard?
There should be.
https://youtu.be/S8SYQ1u2m7E?t=27
I think I got the important bits there
Much better. People like you are what keeps the world working.
We’re getting close here. Can we add some dick drawings?
i dunno. the air force is still on discipline from the last time
OOP shoulda just edited the CSS to add
Ohhhhhh I'm supposed to laugh thank you for the emojis!
Shit, I thought it was a fight to the death what with all the bleeding going on. Or wait, is it a funny fight to the death?
No clue but the emojis mean you legally have to at least exhale through your nose slightly harder than normal once.
I hope you don't mind, the language of your screen caught my attention and it made me curious. How many languages do you speak or study? I see you're from Brazil, with a computer apparently using Dutch, while using English on a forum. That's really cool.
now I get it!
I’ve already added this to user CSS. Without it, the web is just unusable.
lol
Simple and effective. The same way I read my book. One day I might even finish it.
ftfy
It is red!
Point taken
⬆️
Unrelated: love your name
Thanks very much
Socialism is thinking about the impact on other people. Maga is about that too, but in a negative way.
Are you saying MAGA is antisocialism?
Not quite: in German we call it NAtionalsoZIalismus
This but unironically. They've given up on happiness and their only remaining life goal is to ensure everyone they have the ability to punch down on suffers worse than they do.
I'm not being clever either, Innuendo Studios literally has an Alt-Right Playbook video on this.
Yep, look up the book "Dying of Whitness" they'd literally rather die.
I'd be happy to let them, if they didn't insist on taking everyone else with them
Also I checked this book out of the library today and 10 pages in I'm extremely mad at conservatives.
That's a depressing book.
Those red boxes aren't nearly clear enough, here, I improved it!
Thanks for this, I wasn't sure where to look.
I got you!
Yeah, I don't understand why those red boxes were added in the first place.
The one asking about taxes and how they ruin your life is always the dum dum
thanks brother <3
Found a better version i think
I did the math in the USA. When I was married with kids my effective rate for a the highest year was 52%. My last year as a single male and all kids over 26, it was 46%. Effective, not marginal, because that matters in the USA as we don’t track those “other salary deductions” for taxes. Effective for those ready to argue include stupid shit like deductibles, copays, uncovered care, out of network care (that happens more than you think with kids). one year we spent 40k (max. In network deductible) because one of my kids had a spiral fracture of his leg on a growth section that had he not endured 3 (THREE) surgeries, he would be left side shorter. That was 190k for all surgeries and 40k out of pocket. Dental, HSA, FSA, Vision, Medical… People need to realize that even though its pre tax, you’re still paying for it and that needs to be considered for effective rate.
I was offered a job in Denmark, so I know this for fact: Denmark was a near match at marginal rate to USA effective rate assuming I never needed critical care in the USA (i would be in debt). BUT, Denmark has effective tax rates in the 40% for those making less than 85k (USD). I think there’s a rich person tax above that at 49%, but I never accepted the job because my Ex wife was a shithead so I didn’t find out.
I’m now in spain paying around 47% effective, but get Beckhams law will make that be 24% at tax time for the next 10 years. After that I need to pay like everyone else and at 10 years I get a pension (small one) for spain.
So yes, Americans pay more. Waaaaay more.
Also wages might be higher in well paying jobs that people on Lemmy seem to have, but plenty of people in the US are dirt poor even with jobs. In Europe that happens as well but I feel like they often have more stability though tenant and worker rights and things like that. So at least you won't be fired on the spot from your lousy job or have to renegotiate rent every few months.
Yeah, here in the UK if you've worked somewhere for longer than three months then your employer has to have good cause to let you go. Thanks to the Tories, we don't get full employee rights until two years, so if, after two years we're made redundant, we can claim redundancy pay. But in the meantime, if you feel you've been treated unfairly you can claim unfair dismissal. You might have some success at getting some lost earnings, but you'll have to represent yourself because there's no hope of getting legal aid for that. However, the tribunals who hear the cases often tend to lean towards the employee. Or at least, that was the case when I went through it some years ago.
And if you are let go, then you can immediately claim unemployment benefits, which really aren't great, but they do come with the added benefit of free prescriptions.
Correction: We pay waaaay more for waaaay less.
That is a perfect Tl;dr. Heh
190k is a very large amount, I'm not sure if by 40k out of pocket you mean the insurance covered the rest.
Still, 40k is a lot of money and 190k is pretty much my salary for the next 10 years. I'm sure jobs are a bit better paid in the US; but I'm also quite convinced it is not that common to have that amount of money laying around.
An expense like that falling on you can definitely ruin your life.
I borrowed money to pay for it. I was lucky, very lucky.
THANK GOD for the red marker!
Needs more red -maga, probably
At first, all I could see was their profile pictures and the 4.2K likes, but because of the red lines, I now see the important part, the 185 likes.
Why pay for healthcare when you can pay for israeli genocide
Btw, Israel has universal healthcare.
Cause paying for all the genocide is being done by the West.
It's already the false assumption that universal healthcare is a luxury you have to afford, while it is much cheaper than for-profit -healthcare. Leaving more ressources available for the military.
Israel has healthcare paid with taxes. And our taxes fund 12-15% of their military.
Dems should introduce the same healthcare plan and if anyone votes against it call them antisemitic.
Many Dems don't care
Americans are dumb as shit and corporations know it
America isn't about "the people", it's just a business. The people are basically products that get sold as a service for the
companiesanyone wealthy enough.It's like a nation of human trafficking. Marketed and disguised as freedom. Instead of drugs, the "pimp" markets lifestyles to them that hook them into working for less than they are worth or for less honest freedom than a human deserves. The "lifestyles" make the different groups easier to control. Like each lifestyle is a demographic and they get psychologically marketed to.
Typically if you don't fit one of their demographics you are an outcast and life is made harder for you on purpose because you are seen as someone that doesn't contribute to their system. These "outcasts" get "gangstalked" and pressured into fitting into their set demographics. If the person is unable to do that the person is systematically pressured into the prison system, psychiatric system, homelessness, or suicide.
Part of this psychological idea is that one will hit this man-made manufactured rock bottom and run to the system as a saviour IF they are strong enough to survive it. Oddly enough this aligns with Freemasonry ideology. Being rebuilt from nothing into the ashler, but it's not something everyone is capable of doing and those that can't are basically disposable.
It's a system that hides in plain sight. If you detox from American culture it becomes more visible but then you also risk getting fucked over for life. That's why it's like human trafficking. And once you really see it and understand, you can't hide from the reality. And the reality is gut wrenchingly surreal.
He would have been the first billionaire adjusted for a inflation if he had not died so young. He was a murderous land hoarder who used slavery and death to turn a profit. The rot was always there.
The government is an abusive partner you can't escape from and if you do they will try and kill you. It is even worse than being trafficked because there is no escape.
Why anyone would accept being hostage to this type of lunacy is beyond me yet it appears the entire county does. We deserve better than constant psychological torture and death.
Knowdid it.Thank the Lord in heaven, in Jesus name and the holy Trinity there were two red boxes to show me what to read.
I'd like to thank my parents, my wife, and most importantly my coach. Without them I would be unable to find the red boxes.
Don’t mention the fact that 40% of premiums go to shareholders and admin fees
But…. Jackasses will tell you, I don’t have kids, why should I pay for education and daycare? Etc. etc.
Shit, if we had the government of Denmark I would have a kid.
Because someone needs to manage your health issues eventually for starters.
Fixed some typos
Socialism is just smart: organizing expensive stuff at really large scale, without greedy shareholders, just makes it more effective.
All it takes is an efficiently organized government and a voting system that works for the people, not the elites
No, Denmark is not socialist. Socialized services under capitalism and literally collectivizing ownership of industry under socialism are very different regimes, even though they stem from a common conceptual foundation and share a linguistic root. Neither are bad ideas! But the former is still literally capitalism.
Nordic counties are social democracies (which is what you explained) not socialist
They still operate within the boundaries of capitalism with a free market except with a strong welfare state. The means of production aren’t l owned by the workers.
Also in Europe strong welfare state means mediocre welfare state that 5/7 parties constantly try to get rid of...
democratic socialism is more of a liberal thing and not the same as socialism.
You mean social democracy instead of democratic socialism
probably.
but this feels like that life of Brian sketch
Could you direct me to the judean people's front ?
I know what you mean. The names are similar but they mean vastly different things
I'm not disagreeing, I'll admit I it wrong, and a bit funny
I'm reminded of the 1/3rd pound hamburger thing ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-pound_burger ) . People, and it feels like especially americans, are kind of stupid with money, math, and value.
Shoutout to the one idiot American who downvoted you.
The USA has an incredibly stupid populace very much on purpose. The billionaires that own them have spent the last 40 years killing education because stupid people are so much easier to control. You get a better education at a European high school than most USA colleges.
Americans are also obsessed with the notion their taxes would benefit anyone but themselves.
I don't understand why no one can grasp the concept. If your taxes benefit you, and the homeless guy on the corner, that means you're getting more value from your taxes.
I argued at length with an American who used to hang out in my friend group for a while. He couldn't stand the idea that his taxes would pay for anything other than his own problems. He called it "giving free handouts".
He'd repeatedly use arguments like "but if my taxes pay for healthcare, I'd be wasting my money on morbidly obese people who created their own problems".
He also loved status and exclusivity.
...and he also fails to note how miserable his life would be if not for taxes from others.
The guy is really well off. Works a desk job pushing finance papers for the American military. He believes his well paid job secures him from relying on anything at all.
It's a cultural thing that's hard to even push back against. Like, I want people to be helped, I want nobody to have to go hungry or have to live on the streets or go broke from medical bills, regardless of how they live, and I know that taxes are the most effective way to do that, but still I find myself instinctively framing it as "taxes are the cheapest way for me to ensure I don't have to deal with a homeless person begging outside my apartment"
Also I think the idea that we're each personally entitled to approve of everything the government spends tax money on is a long game from the right to combat things like pushes for universal health care, government assistance of reproductive healthcare (I first saw this about abortion), and really any form of the government actually helping people instead of demanding charity make up the difference
I think the problem arises when you pay a crapton on taxes, and then comes a billionaire that makes millions of profits and pays zero.
So then the average person gets angry about inequality but instead of demanding that everyone pay their share they think "who knows how many other cheaters are out there. If we can't hold them accountable, then I want to pay less too!".
Which of course is the wrong way to go about it but alas
I'm wondering if that could have ANY relation with oligarchs controlled medias repeating all day long how bad taxes are and how inefficient public anything is.
Edit: and adding this: conservatives (not MAGA, racists, etc. I mean genuine conservatives) are generally not against the idea of paying to help homeless, poors, etc. They are against the idea to defer that to the government. They want to make donations themselves. That boosts the ego, and that also allows them to cherry pick who deserves their help, and government is inefficient-blablabla. The irony of the logic is non-profit typically spend 20--40% of their budget on fund raising and administration. This is not a very efficient system from an economic standpoint. As for choosing who to help, they end up rewarding marketing skills rather than ranking who needs the most their help.
Considering the rising National debt due to the insane "Proclaimed Defence" cost and the US Aid ti israel and starting wars on its behalf
I think they are right!
Yeah but all those payments mean we have a bigger GDP so take that, Danes.
I mean the Dow isn’t even over 50k. What are we even doing? #sadge #prayforbillionaires #MAGA #
thesoundofgarglingGOPballs#voatI also live in a country with very high tax and I'd need to make more than 120k USD per year to have the same standard of living if I lived in the USA. It's impossible to make that much driving trains and also working 40 hours a week in the US as far as I know. Lower tier blue collar work is even worse.
Low tax is for billionaires.
Yeah exactly, we don't pay our workers a living wage in the USA, it's very well documented at this point. It's a pay problem.
It's also because they pay their workers a living wage, which we don't in the USA.
america is obsessed with taxes of other countries yet they dont like paying taxes in thier own countries, probably projecting and living vacariously through what high taxes can benefit people.
US tax rate is only like 5% less too. We wouldn't even have to pay higher taxes to get most of what other countries get. We're just dumb fucks who see all our money going to the military and can't even be bothered to vote once every 4 years. It's pathetic
You really sabotaged your post with the red.
I didn't make this meme, but realize my mistake
Because we've been lied to so well that we can "Make it!" that we never accept the idea we'll never make it in the USA.
Ironically, the USA rank only 27th in the Global Social Mobility Index. The 1st is… Denmark, followed by other Northern Europe countries with high tax rates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index
You have more chance of "making it" in Denmark, providing you accept "making it" means getting a cozy comfortable life and not becoming filthy rich.
When I was a kid, this wasn't even something worth solving. "They pay more, but they're happy? Fuck it, would rather be there than here." I know I didn't pay taxes at the time, but does it really matter if everyone there is happy?
You can make fun of demark for legitimate shit. Like the little mermaid or putting people with long covid in psych wards or just being shittier Holland. That last one really bugs the Danes. Or Belgium if we're talking politics.
Now accepting tolls in crypto and euros
The logical conclusion is that tax rate directly correlates with happiness.
Denmark has LEGO
Jokes on you, I cost taxes!
Can someone explain what is the difference between that and socialism?
In Socialism, the means of production (aka the businesses) are owned by everybody. It is a completely different economical model to Capitalism, which is where the means of production are owned by individuals, like it currently is.
Just a couple of social policies do not make socialism.
I think workers owning the means of production is communism, not necessarily socialism. I'm not an expert though.
Communism is considered the next step - a stateless and classless society without money.
Some will say it never existed since it would need to be worldwide, some will say its entirely possible within country borders. Many ways to interpret it and many more ways to disagree with what it means. However, most will agree that workers owning the means of production is part of it, but just workers owning the company they work for on its own generally isn't enough to say its communism. We have companies which operate that way even today. Its a more broader term for how a whole society functions.
I think everyone agrees that communism has not yet been reached anywhere. I’ve never heard anyone say that it’s possible in one country. What we say is that socialism is possible in one country. Capitalists will always try to destroy socialism, and that’s why communism can’t be reached until capitalism has been almost completely dismantled worldwide.
As I understand the terms (which may well be wrong), you're correct and Denmark would be socialist. There might be some distance between "full" socialism wherein all public services are owned and controlled by the public (= the state), but the direction of social policies seems about right.
However, particularly in the US, that distinction has been smudged into one collective "evil leftist" scarecrow. I'd assume the person in the OP either doesn't know or consciously accepts that fudging to make a case for why their system is beneficial rather than the "scary socialism". Deflecting from the label to a descriptor (particularly in the context of profit-oriented mentalities, where "good accounting" would be desirable) dodges the preconceptions and propaganda attached to the former.
And ultimately, I think that's more fruitful for explaining an ideology. Starting with a label that carries connotations primes expectations accordingly. Starting with and focusing on the benefits invites engaging with the topic and creates a different foundation for productive conversation.
I'm not gonna suggest we stop calling socialism by that title, but I do see a case that aome discussions should be led with descriptions and arguments instead of terms that have been vilified to the point of stifling any reasonable discourse.
Denmark and most of Europe are social market economies i.e. capitalism + welfare state.
Gotcha. So comparatively closer to socialism than to communism, but not really socialism either.
Just capitalism with safety net.
The end-goal of communism is that, but you can’t go from capitalism to communism overnight. Socialism is the transitional process from one to the other, beginning when the capitalist class is overthrown and ending when there is only one class, the working class.
To sum up my response to the other person further down the thread directly to you as well:
I don't think the difference is that significant.
I'd more consider this a rhetorical sleight of hand to lead away from the term and its perception as "evil bad scary socialism" (particularly in the US). Describing the benefits as a good thing (particularly in the context of profit-oriented mentalities, where "good accounting" would be desirable) dodges the propaganda directed at a specific label.
It isn't just taxes, Denmark pays for their social democracy with neocolonialist super profits including capitalist exploitation of Greenland and bank accounts that are still paying interest on profits from being the largest shareholder of the slave trade.
I'm pretty sure Greenland is a massive financial sink for Denmark...