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