While Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders holds up Denmark as a model for the U.S. to emulate, it looks like Hamlet was right: Something is rotting in the state of Denmark.  Thousands have been in the streets protesting 2% per year budget cuts in education, while a commission says they need to reduce jobless benefits; all this following moves to means-test recipients of their welfare largesse.

I could go on. Denmark’s budget deficit is soaring, now expected to be double earlier projections, and its levels of private debt are the highest in the world. With wealthier investors enjoying the growth of some businesses and stocks, income inequality is now on the rise. Want to own a car in Denmark?  Taxes on a car purchase are 180% and gasoline is around $10 per gallon. Electricity rates are 3-4 times the average in the United States.

Yet progressives continue their long love affair with Denmark. In the Democratic presidential debate, Bernie Sanders offered that we “should look to countries like Denmark … and learn what they have accomplished for their working people.” Hillary Clinton was quick to pile on, saying she loved Denmark, and that we need to “rein in the excesses of capitalism.” Scholar Francis Fukuyama has long described his goal for stable, prosperous democracies as “getting to Denmark.”

Read the full article at Forbes.com: Bernie And Hillary Beware: Something Is Rotting In Denmark