thanks to their stance on healthcare, welfare, education and government protection. Combination of all of these factors leads to a healthy and properly working society. It is no secret that Denmark ranks as one of the highest-ranking countries in the world when it comes to happiness, wealth redistribution and even wealth itself. We got to see this system, called social democracy, working in our trip to Denmark.

Danes on the whole enjoy excellent healthcare. Due to health programs directed at saving every single life they can and making life comfortable for everyone, Danes enjoy one of the longest expected life spans in Europe. They can also expect many benefits such as public health nurses who provide free advice and assistance. The vast majority of the health care system is paid by employers and state. Unlike in Slovakia much more money is given to the hospitals and their staff. Danish hospitals are generally taken care of on more professional level and nurses do not have to fear if they make enough money for the next month.

Denmark’s comprehensive welfare system aims to support everyone in need. This includes people with disability, unemployed, seniors and many other marginated groups. Thanks to this reason we haven’t seen more than 2 homeless people during whole our trip. This is absolutely crazy when we compare Bratislava’s and Copenhagen’s size and number of people without a shelter. Even Denmark’s own constitution guarantees necessary good life standard. This is why Danish people are also generally more willing to pay high taxes. It is because of their trust in own government and willingness to help each other. This was confirmed to us by Christian (our guide) himself.

Education in Denmark is considered as one of the best in the world. 99,9% of population is literate which is more than for example in the United States or Slovakia. The program in Danish schools aims to raise independent and practical people. While in Slovakia the main focus is on theory in Denmark it is both on theory and practicality. Thanks to the huge amount of state budget going to education, schools can afford laboratories, workshops and many other work stations. Students often test what they learned in real life. As we saw in Denmark this goes from creating cars to growing their own plants with modified bacteria in soil. Students also have much more comfort in school than us thanks to their modern equipment and better conditions such as actually eatable school lunches.

Denmark is also very accepting, both people and government. Minorities enjoy comprehensive protection from discrimination and hate crime. Denmark is in top 10 countries for LGBTQ+ folk. People of other religions are even protected by constitution. As a matter-of-fact Denmark was one of the first countries to change constitution to protect its religious minority and was the first to introduce registered partnerships for same sex couples. But this protection also includes people with mental and physical disabilities. And Denmark does not only want to protect disabled people but also include them in normal life. This is why mainstream schools do not separate students with less serious problems and are trying to be open for everyone. We saw that every school had an elevator for people who cannot walk and extra teachers for those who need some help because of their disability. Slovakia has extreme problems with discrimination, exclusivity and even segregation. We really should take a lesson from the countries like Denmark.

All these benefits and protections were brought to Denmark by social democracy. The ideology which aims to improve the quality of life of everyone by redistributing the wealth of the rich and high taxes which are worth it. We can hope that one day Slovakia gets an actual social democratic party which will work for betterment of people’s lives and for development of Slovakia without corruption.