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OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015 Something not rotten in Denmark Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager E Do a more rigorous job By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service N o doubt surprising many of the people watching the Democratic presidential debate, Bernie Sanders cited Denmark as a role model for how to help working people. Hillary Clinton demurred slightly, declaring that “we are not Denmark,” but agreed that Denmark is an inspir- ing example. Such an exchange would have been inconceivable among Republicans, who don’t seem able to talk about European welfare states without adding the word “collaps- ing.” Basically, on Planet GOP all of Europe is just a bigger version of Greece. But how great are the Danes, really? lected lawmakers sometimes develop such frustration with the internal processes of government institutions that they hope for some kind of end-run repair around situations they con- The answer is that the Danes get sider to be broken. a lot of things right, and in so doing An Oregon manifestation of this “prayer for a cure” comes from s tate Sen. Betsy Johnson. According to our Capital Bureau, Sen. Johnson plans to introduce a bill next year to create a citizen watchdog committee to hold state agencies accountable for meet- ing spending and policy goals. Johnson cites frustration with state of¿ cials who mislead law- makers about how agencies spend money and the progress of major projects, such as the state’s failed Cover Oregon insurance ex- change. She says that when agen- cy staff members “just À at ¿ b to the Legislature ... there ought to be consequences.” On this point, Johnson is cer- tainly correct: State personnel who lie to the Legislature or fail to ac- curately follow budgets and enact- ed laws should have their feet held to the ¿ re. Johnson is less convinc- ing when she says an entirely new body of citizen overseers should be responsible for insisting on ac- curacy and accountability. Such a citizens group already exists: It is called the Oregon Legislature. In addition, lawmakers already have their own staff of lawyers, accountants, economists and other experts. The Secretary of State’s Of¿ ce also ful¿ lls auditing func- tions. In theory, Johnson’s proposal would provide additional staf¿ ng by ¿ nding quali¿ ed volunteers to insist on accountability in ways that are beyond the Legislature’s capacities. In today’s busy world, recruiting and retaining such a cadre of citizen superheroes would be a daunting task. Finding objective and dedicated members without their own axes to grind — and then managing their over- sight activities — would by itself require considerable staf¿ ng and legislative involvement. The kinds of thorny issues that arise — problems like the Cover Oregon debacle — require deep study, long-term commitment, rapid response and fair-minded devotion to compromise. The kind of volunteer system Johnson appears to envision — a sort of old-fashioned New England town hall meeting applied to statewide issues — is pleasantly idealistic but unlikely to work in today’s fractured and divisive political environment. Although the Legislature’s power to discipline lying, lazy and unresponsive state employees has limits, it is certainly within law- makers’ purview to investigate, publicly rebuke and cut funds to agencies that permit such misbe- havior. If current laws are inade- quate or punishments are insuf¿ - cient, legislators are speci¿ cally empowered to strengthen them. Johnson said, “I don’t think that we do nearly as rigorous a job as we should in tracking where those ( agency) dollars go and how they’re spent.” The answer is for legislators to do a more rigorous job. Two good things come to an end ... for now T he Astoria Sunday Market had a good run this summer. Its ¿ nal day was Oct. . The mar- ket is bounded by seasonality — starting in late spring and ending in mid autumn. Astoria’s cruise ship traf¿ c — which is linked to the Alaskan route — respects the same seasonal boundaries. It would be nice if some na- tional ¿ xtures could return to the boundaries they once respect- ed. Watching baseball players in northern latitudes wear neck gaiters like football players on a 45 degree night with wind chill is perverse. In the words of the former editor of this newspaper, “That’s not baseball.” Major League Baseball’s sea- son extends into the ¿ rst week of November, which could become problematic this year. As with all professional sports, it’s about television revenues. In its 5th season, the Sunday Market had a very good run. Director Cyndi Mudge says this year’s vendor sales rivaled those of 2007, which was the market’s banner year. And vendors en- joyed excellent weather. As we say goodbye to the Sunday Market and cruise ship visitors, it is important to recog- nize the economic value of both. By that we do not mean the im- mediate revenues — in dock rentals to the Port of Astoria or to downtown retailers on Sundays. There are longer term gains from both of these activities. Cruisers who visit Astoria help put the town on the map. In some cases, cruise visitors return. It’s like the economic signi¿ cance of our two boutique hotels — the Elliott and Cannery Pier. Their singularity attracts high-end travelers, who discover Astoria and sometimes set down roots. Likewise, the Sunday Market shows off the new vitality of Astoria’s downtown, while also contributing to it. The market also is a symbiotic partner of the bur- geoning local foods movement. Unlike the Hood to Coast r e- lay, which strangles Seaside on an August weekend, the Sunday Market and the cruise ship visi- tor population are manageable. They do not overwhelm the town. As we prepare for winter, fall leaves us with pleasant memories. Next June, they will return. That’s a good thing. refute just about everything U.S. con- servatives say about economics. And we can also learn a lot from the things Denmark has gotten wrong. Denmark maintains a welfare state — a set of government programs de- signed to provide economic security — that is beyond the wildest dreams of American liberals. Denmark pro- vides universal health care; college ed- ucation is free, and students receive a stipend; day care is heavily subsidized. Overall, working-age families receive more than three times as much aid, as a share of GDP, as their U.S. counter- parts. To pay for these programs, Den- mark collects a lot of taxes. The top income tax rate is 60.3 percent; there’s also a 25 percent national sales tax. Overall, Denmark’s tax take is almost half of national income, compared with 25 percent in the United States. Describe these policies to any American conservative, and he would predict ruin. Surely those generous bene¿ ts must destroy the incentive to work, while those high taxes drive job creators into hiding or exile. Strange to say, however, Denmark doesn’t look like a set from “Mad Max.” On the contrary, it’s a prosper- be employed during their ous nation that does quite prime working years. Taxes well on job creation. In fact, and bene¿ ts just aren’t the adults in their prime work- job killers right-wing leg- ing years are substantially end asserts. more likely to be employed Going back to Denmark, in Denmark than they are in is everything copacetic in America. Labor productiv- Copenhagen? Actually, no. ity in Denmark is roughly Denmark is very rich, but the same as it is here, al- its economy has taken a hit though GDP per capita is in recent years, because its lower, mainly because the Paul recovery from the global ¿ - Danes take a lot more va- Krugman nancial crisis has been slow cation. Nor are the Danes melancholy: and incomplete. In fact, Denmark’s Denmark ranks at or near the top on 5.5 percent decline in real GDP per international comparisons of “life sat- capita since 2007 is comparable to the declines in debt-crisis countries like isfaction.” It’s hard to imagine a better ref- Portugal or Spain, even though Den- mark has never lost the con¿ dence of investors. Denmark What explains this poor recent per- formance? The answer, mainly, is bad maintains a monetary and ¿ scal policy. Denmark welfare state hasn’t adopted the euro, but it manages its currency as if it had, which means — a set of that it has shared the consequences of monetary mistakes like the European government Central Bank’s 20 interest rate hike. And while the country has faced no programs market pressure to slash spending — designed Denmark can borrow long-term at an interest rate of only 0.84 percent — it to provide has adopted ¿ scal austerity anyway. The result is a sharp contrast with economic neighboring Sweden, which doesn’t shadow the euro (although it has made security — some mistakes on its own), hasn’t done that is beyond much austerity, and has seen real GDP per capita rise while Denmark’s falls. the wildest But Denmark’s monetary and ¿ s- cal errors don’t say anything about dreams of the sustainability of a strong welfare state. In fact, people who denounce American things like universal health coverage liberals. and subsidized child care tend also to be people who demand higher interest utation of anti-tax, anti-government rates and spending cuts in a depressed economic doctrine, which insists that a economy. (Remember all the talk system like Denmark’s would be com- about “debasing” the dollar?) That is, U.S. conservatives actually approve pletely unworkable. But would Denmark’s model of some Danish policies — but only be impossible to reproduce in other the ones that have proved to be badly countries? Consider France, another misguided. So yes, we can learn a lot from Den- country that is much bigger and more diverse than Denmark, but also main- mark, both its successes and its failures. tains a highly generous welfare state And let me say that it was both a plea- paid for with high taxes. You might sure and a relief to hear people who not know this from the extremely bad might become president talk seriously press France gets, but the French, too, about how we can learn from the expe- roughly match U.S. productivity, and rience of other countries, as opposed to are more likely than Americans to just chanting “USA! USA! USA!” India’s Bitiya is a rapist’s nightmare By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service L UCKNOW, India — For as long as anyone can remem- ber, upper-caste men in a village here in northern India preyed on young girls. The rapes continued because there was no risk: The girls were destroyed, but the men faced no repercussions. Now that may be changing in the area, partly because of the courage of one teenage girl who is ¿ ghting back. Indian law doesn’t permit naming rape victims, so she said to call her Bitiya — and she is a rapist’s nightmare. This isn’t one more tragedy of sexual vic- timization but rather a portrait of an in- domitable teenager whose willingness to take on the system inspires us and helps protect other local girls. I’m on my annual win-a-trip jour- ney, in which I take a university stu- dent along on a reporting trip to the developing world. The winner, Austin Meyer of Stanford University, and I see in Bitiya a lesson for the world about the importance of ending the impunity that so often surrounds sex- ual violence, including in the United States. Bitiya, who is from the bottom of the caste system, is fuzzy about her age but thinks she was 3 in 202 when four upper-caste village men grabbed her as she worked in a ¿ eld, stripped her and raped her. They ¿ lmed the as- sault and warned her that if she told anyone they would release the video and also kill her brother. So Bitiya initially kept quiet. Six weeks later Bitiya’s father saw a 5-year-old boy watching a por- nographic video — and was aghast to see his daughter in it. The men were selling the video in a local store for a dollar a copy. Bitiya is crying in the video and is held down by the men, so her family accepted that she was blameless. Her father went to the police to ¿ le a report. The police weren’t interested in following up, but the village elders were. They decided that Bitiya, an ex- cellent student, should be barred from “I want them in jail,” the local public school. Bitiya says. “Then every- “They said I was the one watching will know wrong kind of girl, and it that people can get pun- would affect other girls,” ished for this.” Bitiya said. “I felt very bad “I never felt tempted,” about that.” her grandfather adds. Eventually, public pres- Bitiya says she does not sure forced the school to feel disgraced, because the take her back, but the village dishonor lies in raping rath- elders continue to block the er than in being raped. And family from receiving gov- Nicholas the resolve that she and her ernment food rations, ap- Kristof family display is having an parently as punishment for impact. The rape suspects had to sell speaking out. In the background hovers caste. land to pay bail, and everybody in the Bitiya is a Dalit, once considered un- area now understands that raping girls touchable, at the bottom of the hierar- may actually carry consequences. So while there were many rapes in the vil- chy. lage before Bitiya’s, none are believed to have occurred since. The rape Madhavi Kuckreja, a longtime women’s activist who is helping Biti- suspects had ya, says the case reÀ ects a measure of progress against sexual violence. to sell land to “There has been a breaking of the pay bail, and silence,” Kuckreja said. “People are speaking up and ¿ ling cases.” everybody in Kuckreja notes that the cost of sexual violence is a paralyzing fear the area now that affects all women and girls. Fearful parents “protect” daughters understands from sexual violence and boys in that raping ways that impede the girls’ ability to get an education, use the Internet or girls may cellphones, or get a good job. For ev- ery girl who is raped, Kuckreja says, actually carry many thousands lose opportunities consequences. and mobility because of fear of such violence. That holds back women, but also Civil society scrutiny belatedly led to the arrest of four men, who were all of India. The International Mone- then released on bail. The case has tary Fund says that India’s economy been dragging on since, and Bitiya’s is stunted by the lack of women in the father died of a heart attack after one formal economy. In one village, I asked a large group particularly brutal court hearing. The family also fears that members of up- of men about rape. They insisted that per castes will kill Bitiya’s 6-year- they honor women and deplore rape old brother, so he mostly stays home — and then added that the best solu- — which means he can’t take jobs, tion after a rape is for the girl to be leaving the family struggling to afford married to the rapist, to smooth over upset feelings. food. “If he raped her, he probably likes The rape suspects offered a 5,000 settlement if Bitiya’s family would her,” explained Shiv Govind, an drop the case, bringing the money in 8-year-old. I’m rooting for Bitiya and strong cash to her home with its dirt À oor. Bitiya had never seen so much cash girls like her to change those attitudes — but scoffs that she wouldn’t accept and end the impunity that oppresses women and impoverishes nations. twice as much. Where to write • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- ton, D.C., 2055. Phone: 202- 225- 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District of¿ ce: 2725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Phone: 503-469-600. Fax 503-326- 5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 33 Hart Senate Of¿ ce Building, Washington, D.C. 2050. Phone: 202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley. senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 22 Dirksen Senate Of¿ ce Building, Washington, D.C., 2050. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden. senate.gov