Danes & Taxes
Hvidorve – 13th May
After a morning of rest and domestic chores we headed off to explore our neighbourhood on foot. Hvidovre has a population of 53,000; it is a district of greater Copenhagen which has a population of 1.3 million. Denmark has a population of 5.8 million compared to New Zealand which has 5.2 million. The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland with a population of 1.65 million; therefore the two countries are relatively similar population wise. And there it ends!
Where the two countries vary greatly is social housing. Denmark has over 600,000 social housing homes, New Zealand has 76,000. In Hvidovre 40% of the homes are social housing units. We may not be staying in an affluent area but it doesn’t mean it is a slum or a bad neighbourhood. Attached are two photos: one photo shows the multi story apartment blocks which have a lot of green space and features allowing plenty of light in the apartment. The second photo shows the 2 story units which are one apartment upstairs and one down; again they have green spaces, parking and gardens. All the houses looked well kept and weren’t surrounded by the inhabitants junk.
[Ed – long grass isn’t just in the social housing area – if you look closely you will see it is selectively mown which is quite normal in Denmark]
Denmark views social housing as a central part of the Danish welfare society and believes that it benefits both the individual and society.
But how can the Danish government afford all these social houses, simple, high taxes? Danes pay 12-15% national/state tax, 25% municipal tax, 8% labour market tax, plus others such as a church tax. The total taxes are normally capped at about 52%, and are based on personal earnings and capital income. There are also non income taxes such as 25% VAT (GST), property tax and vehicle tax.
Danes are happy to pay all this tax because they reap the benefits in free education including university and day care, free health care, Superannuation including personal home care, great roads, cycle paths and of course social housing. Even with high taxes and a high cost of living Danes are rated as living in the second happiest country in the world.
To show my allegiance to the happy nation I replaced my tissue makeshift curtain with a Danish flag bought from the local Red Cross store.
Today’s Abba tribute is a few lines from ‘Elaine’ (1980) for all those people living in small social housing units in NZ.
It’s a dead end street
They’ve tied your hands and tied your feet
You’re like a goldfish in a bowl
They have your mind, they’ll take your soul
Our day wasn’t totally consumed with housing, we did visit the Hvidovre Haven, found the rowing club, the sea, a geocache and a park with 6kms of nature walking trails based on planets for which we have no idea why.
