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A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

theguardian.com

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Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#81

Post by GardenLetter27 »

frantathefranta wrote: post #9

I'm fully aware that Sweden and Denmark are different countries (I lived in Denmark for 3 years), but this reminded me of the reel of Swedes playing every time I visit IKEA, where they talk about how corruption is absolutely unthinkable in Swedish society. And there's also this tidbit from the article: > Other Scandinavian nations also reeled upon watching The Black Swan. After the series premiered in Sweden, a crimi…

And yet every other Swede in Stockholm knows someone renting out their first-hand rental apartment illegally.

Or taking one class a year as a "student" to qualify for student housing with rent control, etc.

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#82

Post by tomp »

hnhg wrote: post #79
bufferoverflow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are the same everywhere That is absolutely not true. People aren't the same even in adjacent neighborhoods sometimes. Some create great environments, some create hells on earth. Source: I lived in 3 different countries + an isolated island. But you don't even need my biased opinion on the matter. We have cultures that throw gay people off the roofs, and cultures that celebrate them.

Some of those cultures that apparently celebrate gay people were also chemically castrating them not that long ago, and also have a lot of locals who still hate gay people and cannot wait to get back to the old ways. The rise of the far right in Europe and USA might challenge your idea of fixed regional cultures quite soon.

The main drive of who you call “far right” is precisely to import less people that want to throw gays off roofs.

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#83

Post by hnhg »

tomp wrote: post #82
hnhg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of those cultures that apparently celebrate gay people were also chemically castrating them not that long ago, and also have a lot of locals who still hate gay people and cannot wait to get back to the old ways. The rise of the far right in Europe and USA might challenge your idea of fixed regional cultures quite soon.

The main drive of who you call “far right” is precisely to import less people that want to throw gays off roofs.

Some of them, maybe. Some others are just not tolerant of LGBT lifestyles and equality at all.

Also, I don't think someone who wants limited immigration is necessarily far right.

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#85

Post by milesrout »

matwood wrote: post #41
arghwhat wrote: post #6

Black Swan was a big deal, but this article massively overstates the average Dane's faith in the system. The welfare state is certainly not reverred as a religion, and the current state of it is always a hot discussion topic with pulls in either direction. Unlike what this article suggests, tax fraud is also relatively common (one would have to be rather daft to assume that a country with such absurdly high taxation…

> one would have to be rather daft to assume that a country with such absurdly high taxation did not have tax evasion as a key pastime - although probably not as aggressively as in places like the US I think there is a distinction between avoidance (typically considered legal) and evasion (fraud and illegal). Everyone should practice avoidance, using the system as designed. IME, evasion is much higher in countries wi…

There are three categories: tax minimisation (structuring legitimately to minimise tax), tax avoidance (structuring legitimately but artificially to avoid taxes) and tax evasion (lying to evade tax).

Tax minimisation is fine. Tax avoidance is, in sensible countries, not illegal but ineffective: tax avoidance arrangements are void for tax purposes. Tax evasion is a serious crime.

Avoidance is not using the system as it was designed. It is using the system as it was not intended, creating totally artificial structures just for tax reasons. In a sensible society the taxman can just say "clearly artificial so I will ignore this" and if you disagree, well, see you in court.

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#86

Post by milesrout »

jsutter909 wrote: post #65
rambambram wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money that is not required to be paid cannot be called a tax. Taxes are not voluntary. Things like tax avoidance don't even exist, by definition of the word.

What would you call going out of your way to buy cigarettes in a lower tax jurisdiction? The word avoidance seems pretty fitting here. Taxes are as voluntary as the activity being taxed

Presumanly is tax evasion if you buy them elsewhere then import them into your country without paying the required import duties.

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#87

Post by ANewFormation »

only-one1701 wrote: post #80
bufferoverflow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are the same everywhere That is absolutely not true. People aren't the same even in adjacent neighborhoods sometimes. Some create great environments, some create hells on earth. Source: I lived in 3 different countries + an isolated island. But you don't even need my biased opinion on the matter. We have cultures that throw gay people off the roofs, and cultures that celebrate them.

Would love to know your thoughts on what differentiates people. Perhaps race?

Similar experience/perspective as the gp. People in different places are, in many if not most cases, just fundamentally different in countless ways.

I think both genetics (personality, among endless other characteristics is significantly to majority heritable and going to have different distributions in different areas) and environment/culture play significant roles.

But an interesting thing is that by the time people are adults, perhaps even before, the environmental factors have irreversibly changed them so marginalising cultural factors as "just" environmental doesn't really paint a fair picture.

For a person who's happy to travel/live just about anywhere this makes having children doubly fun, because you basically get to decide the 'cultural mold' for your children, which is really neat!

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#88

Post by vladms »

only-one1701 wrote: post #80
bufferoverflow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are the same everywhere That is absolutely not true. People aren't the same even in adjacent neighborhoods sometimes. Some create great environments, some create hells on earth. Source: I lived in 3 different countries + an isolated island. But you don't even need my biased opinion on the matter. We have cultures that throw gay people off the roofs, and cultures that celebrate them.

Would love to know your thoughts on what differentiates people. Perhaps race?

I would call it culture. How you are educated, what you see around since day 0 on. It is very hard to escape it and unless you travel and live in another country you will not even be aware of such things (and even then you need a certain level of introspection).

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#89

Post by [deleted] »

tomp wrote: post #82
hnhg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of those cultures that apparently celebrate gay people were also chemically castrating them not that long ago, and also have a lot of locals who still hate gay people and cannot wait to get back to the old ways. The rise of the far right in Europe and USA might challenge your idea of fixed regional cultures quite soon.

The main drive of who you call “far right” is precisely to import less people that want to throw gays off roofs.

[deleted]

Re: A filmmaker and a crooked lawyer shattered Denmark's self-image

#90

Post by jamiek88 »

only-one1701 wrote: post #80
bufferoverflow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are the same everywhere That is absolutely not true. People aren't the same even in adjacent neighborhoods sometimes. Some create great environments, some create hells on earth. Source: I lived in 3 different countries + an isolated island. But you don't even need my biased opinion on the matter. We have cultures that throw gay people off the roofs, and cultures that celebrate them.

Would love to know your thoughts on what differentiates people. Perhaps race?

Seeing how the concept of race is a social construct with absolutely zero science behind it then no.
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