That's why the article covered this view point but ultimately concluded that when those Danes were asked which other country they would rather live in, the response was silence.
I live in the US and pay an enormous amount of taxes that do not go towards improving society the way they would in Denmark. Close to 80% of people routinely vote in general elections in Denmark. This means that by and large Danes have the government and the polices they want.
And I guess you can dismiss what I as say as merely a political view.
But Denmark is an extreme with the biggest welfare state and the highest level of taxation of any country plus having a "small open economy".
That makes the mechanisms I listed much stronger here than anywhere else.
The comment about beggars & hookers being foreigners also rings true with my experience of CPH. I'd been led to believe that everyone has access to welfare in DK, but it would make sense if non-citizen non-EU immigrants do not.
1. The happiness study is flawed: We are not happy; and if happiness was a one-dimensional measure that was comparable across countries and cultures we would not be number one, nowhere near.
2. We are overtaxed, our welfare system is too big and bureaucratic: Filled with freeloaders, unmotivated cival servants, unsustainable rising pension costs, ill incentives that are destroying innovation and initiative.
3. Globalization is killing us: Our industries are being outcompeted, our welfare system is being exploited thru an influx of poor immigrants, our internal solidarity is gone; the beggars, petty thieves and hookers you see on the street are foreigners (though they live here for years) with no entitlements to any social support and no one is helping them since everyone thinks it is the job of the state.