Page:Economic Development in Denmark Before and During the World War.djvu/60

44 has played a very important part in Danish social policy. The principle embodied in it is very simple; the only hint of a claim on the ground of former self-support lies in the condition that the person who receives help shall for some years have been independent of the poor relief system. The act entitles every one who has reached the age of sixty, and is incapable of supporting himself and his family, to a pension of sufficient amount to provide the necessaries of life, together with medical treatment and attendance in case of sickness. The support may be given either in money or in kind, the amount to be fixed by the municipality concerned, with the understanding that one-half shall be paid out of the state, but that this half shall not exceed a total of 2,000,000 kroner.

This act may be looked upon as an extremely bold step, since nobody could predict what heavy burdens it might impose upon the public. The enormous increase of expense gradually incurred in the years to come would perhaps have alarmed the proposers, had they realized at the time how much money this single measure was destined to cost. But the act contained two important advantages. In the first place, it avoided the costly and troublesome apparatus of insurance with its compulsory payments, which did not seem to offer any real return for all the trouble and pecuniary sacrifices involved. In the second place, it could enter into operation immediately, or upon very short notice, whereas an annuity started now would be payable only after a lapse of many years, and would, moreover, be far less satisfactory for the reason that its calculations would be based on the incomes of the present generation, which would perhaps not begin to receive its payments until nearly half a century later, when the exigencies of life and the purchasing power of money would probably have changed to such a degree that the amounts paid would be entirely insufficient. These two advantages of the Danish system are very apparent when the latter is compared with the German Klebegesetz with all its complicated apparatus.