By Frank Thomas
The Netherlands
March 31, 2010
It was great to read how Americans are learning something from Steven Hill’s 10-year researched book just out entitled, “Europe’s Promise,” … although for over 30 years now this American from Maine has resided in Europe where I’ve lived Hill’s observations of Europe’s uniquely prudent and sensible human balance between government and market mechanisms to achieve a decent quality-of-life experience for the vast majority of its citizens. Of course there are problem countries here, as there are problem states in America. But the EU community, as a last resort, will not let those in trouble fall through the cracks. As I’ve said before, this career independent entrepreneur has been deeply taken in with the European philosophy, “We are all in this life together,” … where the common good and individual freedom are seen as inextricably linked.
It’s impressive to see how thoroughly the Dutch are evaluating hard pro-active fiscal policies and budgeting measures to keep their economic house in order – with the intention of taking appropriate actions
For years, I’ve watched the Dutch pragmatically, consistently adjust and refine their social-economic system to meet emerging environmental realities. They generally manage this without compromising a basic cultural goal of ensuring a broad, equitable sharing of their society’s progression in good and bad times. Details are being now formulated on a sensible, step-by-step phasing of the $41 billion annual budget cost reduction by 2020, starting with an initial reduction of $25 billion (€18 billion) by 2015. The general public is kept well-informed and represented in this critical process by multiple party debates, discussions, and studies of the required economizing tradeoffs and personal sacrifices that must be undetaken.
I’m confident the right mix of cost reduction/tax decisions will be achieved in a timely manner and equitably implemented by the Dutch – with the aim of keeping the middle class as secure and solid as possible and not reducing the living standard of lower income groups. Prudent by nature, the Dutch are NOT about to burden future generations with a crunching National Debt buildup necessitating economically punishing debt payments by taxpayers – especially in light of the far fewer number of people who will be working to support the much larger numbers of people retiring in coming years.
Enlightened conservatism and human consciousness confronting global changes and societal adjustments HEAD ON … this is where it happens! But America can’t get its act together on systemic social and economic breakdowns due to the mind-numbing Ideological blindness and corrupt political system bought-out-by Special Interests – paralyzing effective governance to a divisive, do-little paradigm of feeble compromise largely benefiting the top 10%. Another factor is unaffordable Defense spending at +5% of
Europe has not adopted America’s hyper-militarized model with all its negative financial and human effects … prefering multilateralism and change by patient dialogue over military posturing, “smart power over hard power,” as Steven Hill aptly says in his book. Our huge military spending is bankrupting us making it impossible to take better care of the Mess on our home front – made worse by more costly Medicare & Social Security programs as society ages. Profligate Defense spending is castrating America’s ability to invest more productively and profitably in its own people, in new more permanent job generation, and in a long-ignored obsolete social-infrastructure. We can learn much from Europe’s social-capitalist blend of values that give prime time attention to home-based priorities: affordable university education; inequality reduction; poverty alleviation; affordable quality health care for all; state-of-the-art efficient transportation, sewer, and water systems; a healthy, trained, and productive workforce.
Hill’s book is must reading for all U.S. media pundits, politicians and those interested in learning how much they participate in public lies, are lied to, and how little they know about the relatively stable, progressive, Social-Economic models at play in advanced European countries. An example of European social-capitalism successfully at work today is Holland with its current +-4 % unemployment rate and positive trade surplus – not bad in a time of severe economic crisis. Are there painful problems ahead? Of course! But it’s reassuring to see the Dutch addressing problems forthrightly and fairly to minimize personal risks to their people in a new age of globalized, insecure capitalism. Guiding Dutch themes are SOLIDARITY and SHARING … as they readjust the sensitive balance between free-enterprise and government controls to protect the mainstream and to stimulate dynamic market impulses … a balance of cultural values we Americans junked long ago.
Instead, we have gone down the path of societal polarization and pauperization … where failure to definanancialize and reindustrialize our economy in a way all citizens equitably benefit is excluding more and more people from what we once proudly called a middle class life. An out-of-control free-market fundamentalism is clearly destroying middle class security and solidity. This is embedded in the ruthless pursuit of maximizing profits by morally (often corrupt) non-productive financial gimmickry, by the export and permanent elimination of decent jobs under the corporate Stakeholders’creed of Shareholders FIRST, Consumers SECOND, and Employees THIRD … rather than the other way around as one of America’s truly great businessmen, Warren Buffet, has done in managing his companies so successfully the past 50 years.
For Americans stuck in the antiquated “trickle down”mentalities of the money-making, brainwashing Gingriches-Becks-Limbaughs-FoxNews – with their ultra-right repetitive fear-mongering rhetoric: “loss of freedom,” “government takeover,” and “creeping socialism”– opening the mind to new thinking and how social-capitalism elsewhere works and self-corrects to ensure wealth is broadly shared is obviously threatening to pre-conceived dogma. Result? A deadening of minds to any patience for creative, objective analysis, or all embracing “WE” reasoning … divorcing ourselves from the tried and true American Way of a fair playing field for all, support for the community and working families. Little wonder we’ve descended to a complete “ME”system, an extreme individualist “to-each-his-own culture” behaving like a parasitic cancer …. where, for example, basic affordable health care coverage for over 45 million Americans uninsured today is considered by many as being ‘too expensive,’ as being ‘big brother government’ sucking out the last breath of our Jeffersonian liberty! This of course assumes our uninsured poor classes get their last minute health care in hospital emergency rooms for no cost to society. Pure rubbish! … and a classic example of how distorted ideology triumphs over common sense in our national communication today.
What a shame! Because failure to open the brain’s more balanced, self-critical, self-learning channels will continue to carry us down the road to a socially and financially selfish stratification, a dangerously divided Have vs. Have Not oligarchical democracy … on the constant edge of chaos. If this happens, we will get what we deserve and will have only ourselves to blame.
