Social Welfare Systems and Taxes Analysis

In this unit we learned about the US social welfare systems and all about the taxes, we also had guests from Denmark come into our class and tell us about their systems. I would like to start off by talking about the US systems. In the US we have a lot of people in welfare, and they actually don’t know much about what we offer. For example we went on the NYC website and entered in some fake information for a poor person who was pregnant with a son and no job. When we went to see what was available for her, there were so many options to choose from , but the problem is that no one even know about them. There’s also the factor that a lot of poor people are embarrassed and ashamed to ask for the services because here in America everyone judges. Really quick to tie it the Denmark, everyone gets help from the government no matter how much you make, and the community in Denmark isn’t afraid to take advantage of those services! We also as a class called up 311 and pretended that we were the “family” in need of welfare, and the operator helped us out. It was actually interesting because we mentioned that she was homeless and pregnant, but the first thing she offered to us was health care for her child, but did not mention anything about housing or food stamps. So as a class we concluded that they should change the system of the “over the phone” 311 system and improve it. Another problem that there is, is that the poverty line is 14,000$ which is hard because when we calculated all the expenses for a woman with a child and is pregnant, it came up to 32,000$ a year, which is hard for her because if you want to get welfare, you have to stoop your self low to only make 14,000$ because if you make over, you wont get any benefits.
What I learned about taxes in this unit is that flat taxes is when everyone pays the same amount of taxes on things. This is applied to food, clothing, etc. then there is regressive tax, which is where poor people pay a way higher percentage of taxes then their income then the rich people. Then progressive tax is the opposite, what rich people pay a high percentage of taxes of their income then poor people. An example of regressive taxes is on sales tax because poor people may have to pay 20$ taxes on their groceries which is a lot for them while the rich man pays the same taxes and a 20$ dollar bill is like a penny to him. An example of progressive taxes is income tax, because the rich man ends up paying a lot of taxes because he makes so much, while the poor person pays none to nothing taxes because they don’t make anything. Effective tax is when you’re given all the tax brackets and how much you end up actually paying.
Now to move on to Denmark, what I learned from the students was that life sounds WAY better in Denmark! First off they offer a lot of services to everyone and they aren’t selective. This is called social democracy where is universal and not selective. One thing that they have is that they have free education after high school and actually get paid each month to go to college. Free day care is also provided in Denmark, no matter how much you make there is free day care all over the country. The Denmark community ensures equal rights and everyone has equal rights and access to public services as well. They also have a good health insurance policy; the government tries to pay for as much as it can when it comes to medication and visits, etc. another thing I learned that interested me was that if you were unemployed or laid off, they were subjected to place you in another job right away. So it’s impossible to get fired and not have a job in Denmark. It’s funny because Danish people are known to be one of the happiest people in the world. Shows how much a government and welfare system means to a country!
After making this conclusion about the Danish government, I beielve that the US should adapt to their type of government because I believe that the government has a whole lot to do with how the people in our country turn out, I think that we would be a way more happier country and everyone would be equal, there would not be “rich or poor”. And I think just having that not exists in a country is amazing! I think everyone should have that!