What time is it? Fear not, dear readers, it is still summertime. However, as the beginning of school approaches, life is slowly flowing back into the streets. In terms of city life, Denmark lives against the seasons, with summer being the deadest period of the year. As soon as July rolls around, hundreds of thousands of Danes pack their bags, schedule the out-of-office automatic email, and disappear until the August winds arrive.
Nobody takes a holiday like a Dane. In that respect, a common sense of honesty is shared: when you are off work, work becomes irrelevant, and others are therefore forbidden from disturbing your annual leave. Funny interactions between Danes and their international business partners can often be found online. Naturally, the international business partners’ jaws drop when they come to understand that Lars won’t answer that urgent email for at least three weeks’ time. However, this phenomenon can also lead us to reflect on the biggest Danish luxury of all: safety. How does everyone stay safe when there is no one home to keep watch? The answer is trust.
In Denmark, it is estimated that 77% of Danes trust one another, ranking highest in the world. Aside from calm holidays and safe houses, the benefits of a society where people don’t fear strangers are also financial. Political scientist Gert Tinggaard Svendsen argues that trust accounts for 25% of Denmark’s otherwise inexplicable wealth.
Trust in the words and actions of others means people are less likely to sue one another or hire third parties for security purposes. It also means those extra kroner you put aside can go to an Aperol Spritz in Southern Italy instead of being invested in burglar alarms. As we come back from holidays and switch back to reality (one that can sometimes be daunting in the accelerated world we live in), let us have a moment of gratitude for this big privilege.
