Pay And Pay (PAP)

The irony will probably be lost on all but a few. But anyway this post is not political at all, rather it is a rant on certain things which have made me pretty unhappy on this otherwise fun exchange.

Denmark is expensive. That comes as no surprise, being a Scandinavian country with a welfare system, supported by a punishing 25% tax on all goods and services. How this translates - I had to pay an extra 25% for the crummy bike at the Police Auction on top of the price I bidded for. Should have just followed some people and quietly whisked an unlocked bike away. What sucked was after that I still needed to pay someone to break the lock on the bike. Only conclusion is that the police do NOT sell stolen bikes, more like unwanted/unnoticed bikes, belonging to owners who died or broke their legs. Most lucrative business ever, getting income with absolutely no capital needed whatsoever. Bet the morale at the police department must be really high ("quick find more bikes, we need a bigger bonus this year!!!!")

Next up, how do I benefit from this tax system? Free medical care, free education, no homeless/poor people to bother you. Its so obvious! Yeah right. I'm sure I should fall sick more often to get mileage out of the free medical care (which does not include dental. Apparently dentists are smarter than doctors and did not get subsumed under free state health care, go figure). As for education - while Danes get PAID an allowance for studying, I still have to pay school fees at my home university while I'm undergoing free state education over here. Hooray! As for hobos... well. I'm sure my doormat got stolen by a filthy rich billionaire. Plus my crummy bike caught someone's attention enough to try breaking my lock. And when I think I'm far enough away from home, the same people going round dustbins looking for bottles to recycle and get cash remind me that some things do not change.

Now for the finale. Telco. Yes I have a Danish number, a pre-paid one to be exact. How did I choose it? Went to a kiosk (convenience store), decided that it would be the best because then someone could explain all the unfathomable words to me. More than a month later, while surfing on the telco website, I found out that the amount you top-up each time affects how much you pay on your talktime. WOW. So had I bought a 100 DKK top-up, I pay 5 times more than the person with a 500 DKK top-up. Economic lesson: Perfect information is non-existent in a foreign country, especially when you're a newbie. And the Danish language barrier ensures you stay ignorant as you watch the dollar bills fly out the wallet. Just today when I decided to activate roaming after considering the roaming charges, I found out that they charge 200 DKK JUST TO ACTIVATE THE ROAMING. All for the tedious administrative labour of a mouse-click. Seriously, I swear this system makes me just want to screw it royally. I think the only reason the Danes are the happiest and most contented people is that they drink a lot and forget all their financial worries. And they do hire greedy Americans to formulate ways to rob money from you legally. Now you know.

Welcome to Denmark!