The United States ranked #12 in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, just behind Denmark. On radio Wednesday, Glenn and radio co-hosts Pat and Stu explained why comparing ourselves to Denmark is pointless.
"Denmark doesn't work. And the Denmarkians know it," Glenn said.
Pat added, "Their lifestyle is not like ours."
To illustrate, Stu pointed out the average dwelling space in Denmark is about 900 square feet.
Glenn explained further.
"Denmark pays for a large and expensive welfare state. The only way you can with relative high taxes on the middle class, whose members pay both high income taxes and a VAT tax," Glenn said. "If Sanders were intelligently honest, he would acknowledge forthrightly that the only way to pay for generous benefits for the middle class is to tax the middle class, where most the income earners are. But Senator Sanders doesn't seem to think a great deal about these things."
Listen to the segment or read the full transcript below.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
GLENN: The United States is currently the 12th freest economy in the world.
So when Bernie says, we're going to be like Denmark, he's lying to you. He has to know. But everybody thinks, "Well, Denmark is good."
PAT: No, it's not.
GLENN: Denmark doesn't work. And the Denmarkians know it.
PAT: The Danes know it. The Swedes know it. The Finns know it. The Norwegians know it. They all know it doesn't work. Their lifestyle is not like ours. It's just not.
GLENN: Pat, have you done -- have you done your heritage? Have you done your genealogy?
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: Do you have any Denmarkian in you?
PAT: I don't. Not a lick of Denmarkian.
GLENN: I do. I have Denmarkian. Please don't play around with the Dane thing. Us Denmarkians find that offensive. I have royal Denmarkian blood in me. I just want you to know that.
STU: I think the average dwelling -- because I was looking this up because Pat had mentioned earlier. Something like 900 square feet.
PAT: Yeah, it's right around there. 900 square feet. Now, the average in the United States is about 38 square feet. Is that right?
STU: Yeah, no, no. The average new home in the United States is over 2500 square feet. So three times basically as big.
PAT: It's pretty amazing.
GLENN: Denmark has strong property rights, relative freedom from corruption, low public debt, freedom of trade and investment, and their corporate tax is currently lower than ours.
PAT: Lower. By quite a bit.
GLENN: Is that a problem for anybody?
PAT: I like the bank situation too. Because he loves to talk about the banks and how evil they are.
GLENN: Denmark pays for a large and expensive welfare state. The only way you can with relative high taxes on the middle class, whose members pay both high income taxes and a VAT tax. If Sanders were intelligently honest, he would acknowledge forthrightly that the only way to pay for generous benefits for the middle class is to tax the middle class, where most the income earners are. But Senator Sanders doesn't seem to think a great deal about these things. He worries about the size of the holdings of our largest banks. And fret that six banks have assets equal to 65 percent of the US GDP. He doesn't consider that, in Switzerland, there are two banks whose combined assets are more than twice the GDP of Switzerland.
STU: Not 65 percent. But more than twice.
PAT: Okay. Double the GDP. It's 1.6 times as much in Denmark.
GLENN: Here's the thing, everything we're doing, including the big bailouts went to -- to make the banks bigger. I'm not for bigger banks, quite honestly. I'm for -- monopolies never work. Socialism is a monopoly, through the government. It doesn't work.
Never mind that Denmark's largest banking assets has 1.6 times Denmark's GDP. A lot more than 65 percent split among the six banks that troubles Mr. Sanders. It goes on and on and on. But Bernie Sanders apparently doesn't understand what us Denmarkians know.
(laughter)
STU: You just sound so native to Denmark.
PAT: You really do.
GLENN: You can't fake it. Ya sure.
STU: Wow, did you hear that?
GLENN: Oh, my gosh, I just slipped -- it's like when Hillary Clinton goes to the South, and she slips right into it. When I'm talking about Denmark as a Denmarkian and I just start to slip into, well, quite honestly, my wooden shoes.
STU: Yeah. You're big on the wooden shoes.
GLENN: Yeah. Which may be Holland. But I say, ya, damn Holland. You know what I mean?
PAT: I do.
STU: That's a good stance.
PAT: Yeah, it's powerful.
GLENN: If I were the king of Denmark, Holland would pay for its crimes.
PAT: Well, and it's so confusing to the rest of the world because a lot of people mix up Holland and Denmark.
GLENN: Right. Right. They're like, "Oh, you're from the -- you're from the Netherlands."
PAT: That's how confused they are. They don't even call it that anymore.
GLENN: No, I'm from Netherland. I don't know who these Netherlanders are.
STU: Netherlanders.
GLENN: Yes. I don't know who they are. But it's probably a plot by Holland.
STU: Ah.
GLENN: And the Swedes give us that boxy car. And then what? Nothing else.
STU: IKEA.
PAT: Jeez.
GLENN: No, that's the Swiss.
PAT: Oh, yeah. Dang it.
STU: But IKEA are the Swiss. And they come with the Swedish meatballs and lingonberry juice. Whatever that is. I don't know what it is, but it's available at every IKEA.
GLENN: Well, because you're not Denmarkian. Lingonberry juice is the -- was the official drink of the Denmarkians, until the great Lingonberry War of 1761.
STU: 1761. Lingonberry War.
PAT: Should I Google that?
GLENN: Oh, it was awful. No. It's not up there. You know why? Holland.
PAT: Bastards.
GLENN: The people that make hollandaise sauce. Piss me off every time. They covered up the great Lingonberry War.
PAT: Did they commit genocide on the lingonberries?
STU: You're right. It's been deleted by Holland. You were actually right on it. I didn't think --
PAT: You were skeptical.
STU: I was skeptical at first.
PAT: Man. He's Denmarkian. Never doubt him.
GLENN: So I'm just coming to you and saying, Bernie Sanders doesn't know a damn thing about Denmark. You know, ask him about the Lingonberry War. He won't know.
PAT: He won't know. He won't know. He won't know.