Why Denmark's Welfare Model Would Collapse the USA
An examination of why the Danish welfare model, despite its successes, would fail if implemented in the USA due to foundational differences in culture, institutions, and politics.
Introduction
Denmark's welfare model works. The US spends more on healthcare and gets worse results. Why not simply adopt the Danish system? The answer is not in the policy but in the fundamental differences between the two countries. A policy is only as good as the soil it is planted in. The American soil is simply not suited for the Danish system.1 Trying to transplant it wholesale would be like putting a coral reef in a desert—the ecosystem is all wrong. This is a story about different hardware and different software, and why one's program cannot run on the other's machine.
The United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation, yet its outcomes lag behind countries like Denmark. This paradox leads many to suggest a simple solution: adopt the successful Danish welfare model. However, this perspective ignores the deep-seated cultural, political, and institutional differences that make such a direct transfer impossible. Good policy doesn't exist in a vacuum; it is a product of its environment. To understand why a Danish-style system would fail in the US, one must look beyond the surface to the underlying mechanics of trust, taxation, and state capacity.
The Invisible Fuel of Welfare: Trust
Denmark’s welfare system is not just built on taxes; it is built on a high level of public trust.2 According to a May 2024 Pew Research study, only 22% of Americans trust their federal government to do the right thing most of the time, a sharp decline from nearly 77% in the 1960s. In contrast, 44% of Danes trust their national government, and a remarkable 75% trust their fellow citizens. This social capital is the grease that keeps the machine running. Without it, the gears grind. A welfare state requires citizens to believe their neighbors won't abuse the system, that bureaucrats won't waste funds, and that the safety net will be there for them. In the US, a country where distrust is rampant, this belief is in short supply.
Why Americans Don't Pay Like Danes
A high-tax welfare state depends on a high level of tax compliance, and here the cultural differences are stark. Denmark's top marginal tax rate is around 55%, a rate supported by two-thirds of its citizens who see it as a fair price for strong public services. Tax compliance in Denmark is approximately 96%. In the US, compliance is about 85%, a gap that results in hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue. This difference isn't just about rates; it's about attitude. Danes view taxes as a civic investment. Americans often see them as "legalized theft." The institutional capacity also differs greatly. The Danish tax authority is efficient, digital, and well-staffed. The IRS, meanwhile, operates with a budget that has been gutted for years, processing over 260 million returns annually with fewer than 85,000 employees.
The Challenge of Scale and Homogeneity
Denmark is a small, remarkably homogeneous country of 5.9 million people—fewer than the population of Minnesota. This homogeneity extends to ethnicity, language, and politics, making consensus-building a natural part of governance. Political parties occupy a narrow ideological spectrum, and civic trust means people assume the state acts in good faith. The US, with its 330 million people, 50 states, and thousands of ideological microclimates, is not a country but a federation of loosely aligned value systems. The constitutional design was built for fragmentation and friction, intentionally slowing down legislation to preserve liberty. As a result, a policy viewed as a basic right in Vermont might be seen as parasitic state overreach in Texas. A single blueprint cannot scale to such a diverse and fragmented nation without being interpreted and implemented unevenly.
Policy is Only as Good as Its Execution
A good policy can be ruined by bad bureaucracy. Denmark's government agencies are digital-first, service-oriented, and widely respected. An unemployed citizen can log in and receive support within days. In the US, navigating government services can be a months-long ordeal of paperwork, long hold times, and frustrating bureaucracy. State capacity in the US has been allowed to rot, with civil service budgets politicized and core systems neglected. The IRS, for instance, still processes millions of returns by paper. Even if the US passed a Danish-style healthcare bill, its current system lacks the operational capacity to deliver it effectively.
Consensus vs. Civil War
Denmark can pass major national reforms in months because its political culture is built on consensus. Even center-right parties support the welfare state, and debates focus on how best to fund and improve services, not whether to have them at all. This stands in stark contrast to the US, where welfare policy is a moral battlefield swept into the culture war. Every proposal is framed in ideological terms—"socialism," "government takeover," "nanny state." The American political cycle, with its mid-term swings and a system designed for friction, makes long-term, deliberate, and cumulative reform nearly impossible. A model that depends on long-term consensus cannot function in a country where the opposition's goal is often to burn it all down.
America Already Spends, But Badly
The US does not need to spend more on healthcare; it needs to spend smarter. It already spends around 18% of its GDP on healthcare, compared to Denmark's 10%. Yet, Denmark has a higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and faster hospital access times. The US healthcare system is fragmented and for-profit, optimized for billing, not outcomes. Billions are siphoned into private insurance overhead, hospital administration bloat, and pharmaceutical lobbying. It is a system designed to extract revenue at every step, making it a colander that leaks money. Throwing more money at it is pointless. To fix it, the US would have to rebuild the entire plumbing, not just change the water.
Conclusion
The Danish welfare model is not a simple policy to be copied and pasted. It is an intricate ecosystem built on a bedrock of social trust, civic responsibility, and institutional efficiency.3 The US, with its culture of distrust, low tax compliance, institutional fragmentation, and political polarization, lacks the fundamental infrastructure to support such a system.4 Attempting to implement Danish policies without first building the Danish foundation would lead to collapse, not reform.
This is not a statement of American doom, but a call for realism. If the US wants Danish outcomes, it must first become a different kind of country. It must build trust—in government and in each other. It must align political incentives towards long-term good rather than short-term ideological battles. It must improve its state capacity. The real warning is that simply passing a law is not enough. The US is a different machine, and it needs a different operating system. The challenge is not to copy the surface but to understand and rebuild the system from the ground up.
Takeaways
Trust is a prerequisite: Denmark’s model relies on high social and governmental trust, a currency in short supply in the US.5
Taxation as a civic duty: Danes view taxes as an investment, while many Americans view them as theft. This difference in attitude and compliance is a structural barrier.
Homogeneity vs. Fragmentation: Denmark’s small, homogeneous population and consensus-driven politics are not scalable to the US’s diverse and fragmented federal system.
Dysfunctional bureaucracy: The US lacks the state capacity and efficient bureaucracy needed to execute sweeping reforms effectively.
Political culture: Denmark's consensus-based politics allows for long-term policy implementation, while the US's adversarial, short-cycle politics undermines it.
Structural issues: The US healthcare system is built for profit and extraction, not care, making it structurally incapable of delivering Danish-level outcomes without a complete overhaul.
Source
House of El | Denmark’s Welfare Model Would DESTROY the USA