Sustaining a benevolent nanny state is proving to be challenging even for the notably generous Danes

…sustaining a benevolent nanny state is proving to be challenging even for the notably generous Danes.

For years, Denmark was held out as a model to countries with high unemployment and as a progressive touchstone to liberals in the United States

writes Liz Alderman in a New York Times article that appeared on the front page of the International Herald Tribune.

But now Denmark, which allows employers to hire and fire at will while relying on an elaborate system of training, subsidies for those between jobs and aggressive measures to press the unemployed into available openings, is facing its own strains. As a result, it is beginning to tighten up.

…“We have a famous flexicurity model, but now it’s all flex and no security,” complained Kim Simonsen, chairman of HK, one of Denmark’s largest trade unions.