This week, Hillary Clinton will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to accept her party's presidential nomination and present its platform. When she does, she will define her vision of, among other things, the social contract in America. It will be a crucial moment. The relationship between Americans and their government is a burning issue today, and two of Clinton's fellow candidates — Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Bernie Sanders — have, each in his own way, challenged her on it.
When Sanders defended Denmark's social-welfare state during a Democratic primary debate in October 2015, Clinton scoffed, "We are not Denmark." True, the United States is not Denmark. But Sanders was not wrong in asking what makes Scandinavian welfare economies so successful, and what Americans learn from them.
The short answer is that Scandinavian countries provide their people with work that pays a decent enough wage to sustain healthy and happy lives. One need not be an economist to understand that a country's wealth depends, to a large extent, on the proportion of the population that is doing productive work in high-value jobs.