Novia News

“You cannot preach self-government and liberty to people in a starving land. Only a well-fed, well-housed, well-schooled people can enjoy the blessings of liberty.” — Fiorello La Guardia, former mayor of New York La Guardia was making a simple argument: people cannot fully enjoy liberty if they lack the basic conditions that make independence possible. That should make Danes stop and think. Denmark is not a starving land. We are wealthy, highly educated and protected by one of the world’s most extensive welfare states. And yet, look at the direction of travel. The cost of living and housing have become increasingly burdensome. Educational performance has deteriorated. And more and more decisions about how we live, work, raise our children, run our businesses and spend our own money are made through an ever-growing web of rules and regulations. So perhaps Denmark faces a different version of La Guardia’s warning. The question is no longer simply: Are Danes well-fed, well-housed and well-schooled? It is: Are Danes still being made capable of governing themselves? Because there is a difference between being provided for and being free. A prosperous welfare state can give people security. It can provide housing, education, healthcare and income protection. But it cannot manufacture the habits that liberty requires: independent thought, personal responsibility, courage, competence and a willingness to govern ourselves rather than continually asking the state to govern us. La Guardia warned that you cannot build liberty on hunger. Perhaps Denmark should ask whether security without sufficient independence can preserve it. A free society needs more than citizens who are taken care of. It needs citizens capable of taking responsibility for themselves. That is the real meaning of self-government” - ChatGPT