Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 122 posts

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#41

Post by wearen0tsame »

spython wrote: post #32
mensetmanusman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany you are arrested for home schooling. Different cultures have their flaws.

Why would that be considered a flaw? The rationale behind it is the same as behind the inability to name your child XAe or any random assortment of letters – to not make the future difficult for your child, even if you as a parent might want it. It is also one of the last tools that prevents parallel societies from forming. Not that German schools are ideal - they are a bit stuck in the past - but the common experien…

Because my children are likely going to have ADHD like I do, and public schools are hell for us. When I was a child I cried every day, hated my parents and didn't understand what did I do that I deserved to be forced into that prison. I am not going to put my children through that. I don't care about your social engineering goals, I care about happy childhood for my children.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#42

Post by admissionsguy »

trelane wrote: post #26

This sounds a lot like small midwestern towns, at least a few decades ago.

Has it changed? My medium term goal is to move to a small town in a state like Nebraska. In my limited experience, I found the region as cozy as my current place in the far north of Sweden but without the humongous government.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#43

Post by intunderflow »

tossandthrow wrote: post #33
coreyh14444 wrote: post #2

American in Denmark here: Yes, this is exactly right. The article covers a lot of topics but does a good job for the most part. The only thing not mentioned from HN point of view is that for tech workers, salaries are MUCH lower than in the US. My family's quality of life quotient though is very high. My kids (12, 14) have basically free reign of the city and we don't worry about them at all.

The salary component is interesting. While Denmark definitely has lower salaries than the US, it still has higher salaries than other European countries. I considered moving to France or the UK, but in both cases I would have to take serious salary reductions. Anecdotally, I know that Tesla Berlin hire SWEs at around 60k EUR. Offers from Norway and Sweden have been considerably below what the Danish unions report as…

Danish salaries, especially at US companies, aren't even that low, to take an example: https://levels.fyi/companies/uber/salaries/software-engineer...

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#44

Post by shiftright »

admissionsguy wrote: post #34
throwaway22032 wrote: post #9

The common factor in all high trust societies seems to be that they are culturally homogenous.

It cannot by homogeneity by itself. Poland, my home country, is homogeneous, but in a shitty way.

There's a different type of homogeneity I think people are referring to.

My experience is not proof of anything, I get that. But I've worked closely with both danish and polish people and there's something to be said about a certain type of "danishness". I can't really articulate it, however it's the largest complain I hear. I would compare it to being in a cult (having never been in a cult though). Personally I find it very weird.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#45

Post by rayiner »

krona wrote: post #5
NotGMan wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Denmark is one of the few countries that actually has targets for integration, not just immigration. It's extremely draconian and I'm surprised (actually, not surprised) the article doesn't mention it. See, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerable_residential_area_(D...

I’m persuaded integration isn’t possible: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594

There’s studies that show that half the variation between European countries in levels of social trust is still displayed by descendants of various European immigrants in the U.S. generations later.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#46

Post by trelane »

admissionsguy wrote: post #42
trelane wrote: post #26

This sounds a lot like small midwestern towns, at least a few decades ago.

Has it changed? My medium term goal is to move to a small town in a state like Nebraska. In my limited experience, I found the region as cozy as my current place in the far north of Sweden but without the humongous government.

I don't know. I phrased it like that due to lack of data.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#47

Post by snowpid »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #18
GJim wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem due to the American peoples acceptance of authoritarian policing; something that would be inconceivable in more enlightened countries.

In Germany you are arrested for home schooling. Different cultures have their flaws.

Home schooling is linked to religious extremism

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#48

Post by rayiner »

dojitza1 wrote: post #14
krona wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denmark is one of the few countries that actually has targets for integration, not just immigration. It's extremely draconian and I'm surprised (actually, not surprised) the article doesn't mention it. See, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerable_residential_area_(D...

Slow integration actually being enforced by uncomfortable laws is the only way we get to enjoy diversity and multiculturalism. The friction is otherwise too large. I would personally like an utopia where we all magically get along no matter the culture, race, ethnicity etc. but the real world is a different pair of shoes.

It needs to be much slower than anyone thinks. America is pretty good at integration, for example. But every high trust place in the country is homogenous. And the diverse places are uniformly low trust and have low levels of social order.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#49

Post by shiftright »

intunderflow wrote: post #43
tossandthrow wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The salary component is interesting. While Denmark definitely has lower salaries than the US, it still has higher salaries than other European countries. I considered moving to France or the UK, but in both cases I would have to take serious salary reductions. Anecdotally, I know that Tesla Berlin hire SWEs at around 60k EUR. Offers from Norway and Sweden have been considerably below what the Danish unions report as…

Danish salaries, especially at US companies, aren't even that low, to take an example: https://levels.fyi/companies/uber/salaries/software-engineer...

That's more than double what the average company pays a senior dev in Denmark.

Re: The Denmark secret: how it became the most trusting country

#50

Post by ronjouch »

Interesting, will read Gert Tinggaard Svendsen's research.

French passerbys: for a similar study on why France is particularly lacking trust, see CEPREMAP / Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc (2007) La société de défiance - Comment le modèle social français s’autodétruit. It's been too long since I last read it for me to be able to summarize it in English, so I won't. Here's the free PDF, in French: https://www.cepremap.fr/depot/opus/OPUS09.pdf .

Post reply on HN