Overseas Briefing If you want to be happy, it is great to be a Dane

Author: Alex Garlick

COPENHAGEN - "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." In my European travels I have tried to follow that mantra as much as possible. I ate pickled herring in Sweden, I tried currywurst in Berlin and I visited a coffee shop in Amsterdam. In Denmark, I was determined to become a part of the culture, but the method for this was unclear. I ruled out having a baby and getting divorced, although with a pre-marital birth rate of 45 percent and state-sponsored child support here in Denmark, I would have fit right in. Instead, I bought a bike, because everyone bikes here. It granted me a better perspective on the Danes, but I was not satisfied, for a bicycle is by no means cultural integration. I had to dig deeper.

On my first day in Denmark, I was told the Danes were recently named the world's happiest people. I found this to be an interesting claim. Denmark gets weather that is more Seattle than San Diego, the cost of living is through the roof and they have not had any significant military conquests in the last 800 years. So the label of happiest people in the world really surprised me. The speaker cited a study that named two factors for this seeming abundance of pleasure: First, the 1992 European Cup, a soccer championship that Denmark actually won. Second, Danes have low expectations about pretty much everything. That way, even if things do not end up as well as they could be, as long as they end up better than expected, the Danes are happy.

Is this really how I need to integrate myself into the society? By simply having low hopes for my life? This did not line up with my American upbringing. We are raised to believe that we should dream to be the best! We should drive the biggest cars! We should conquer the world, er, I mean, spread democracy all around the world! I was told I was special and unique, just like everyone else. Yet the Danes are content to just mind their own business up here in Scandinavia and focus on making the best breakfast pastries in the world.

The mentality of low expectations is evident in the Danish political structure as well. Denmark is a welfare state, with the most equality of any developed state in the world. This could also contribute to the aforementioned happiness. Since they are not striving to be the richest country in the world, the Danes have worked to pull the lowest members of society up in the economy. One of their favorite sayings is, "Where few have too much, and fewer have too little," and it fits perfectly. There are hardly any homeless, and the ones that I see usually have new shoes and jeans.

This statement of happiness is more complex than it would seem. Denmark also has a dark side. The suicide rate here is alarmingly high, there is a nationwide drinking problem and there have been youth riots in the streets. Therefore I cannot put a full endorsement behind a welfare state mentality to make a country happier.

Regardless, while I was riding my bike through bone-chilling cold and driving rain this afternoon, I thought to myself, "Hey, at least its not snowing." I was strangely content. Maybe I am making a better Dane than I thought. When in Rome...