The Netherlands is more equal than many people think, but there are still big problems
Although the agreement on equality in the Netherlands is increasingly discussed, a different story: from 1990 inequality is even longer, after a slight increase in the 1980s. It seems that the Netherlands is doing quite well. But the ‘optimistic’ report does not tell the whole story.
One of the researchers is Koen Caminada, professor of empirical analysis at Leiden University. He himself was not about the results.
“I don’t know why people think the income differentials are,” Caminada says. “International reports and our own derivative agencies are already suggesting that we have a weighty, stable income distribution. It’s a puzzle why the US doesn’t want to know.”
Not the whole story
Economist Mathijs Bouman called the result “remarkable”, precisely in view of the time when inequality did not take place. “Precisely from 1990, when Purple I and II were working on market forces and globalization.”
The staying the same, according to the report, is a result of corrections from the government, which redistributes the money to keep purchasing power the same. “Those discussions about purchasing power always cause a lot of hassle in The Hague,” says Bouman. “But if you see how that has been managed over a long period of time, then we have at least prevented that purchasing power from diverging sharply.”
Researcher Caminada also recognizes that politics plays a role. “But also from politics, buttons have to be turned, and many buttons have been added in recent times to distribute income fairly.” But demographics are also cooperating, he says. “If more people are retired, more people will also receive AOW.”
Many people on the street, too, who were not yet aware of the report, think that the differences have actually become greater:
“Then what are we going to fuss about, huh?”
However, the income report does not tell the whole story. “In terms of wealth, we see that house prices and stocks have risen over the past ten years,” says Bouman. “So people who own a house and have stocks have clearly increased their wealth.”
Many more important tips Bouman bridge the gap in the labor market. “So not in terms of income, but whether you have a permanent contract of work, you have to go from flex job to flex job. The real injustice is that of people who are given every opportunity and have to rush for work there again and again.”
According to Caminada, there are still big, problematic problems. One of these is child poverty. “That is not an achievement that you as a country are proud of.”
Child poverty remains a major problem
One million people in the Netherlands still live in poverty. According to Caminada, this concerns people who spend less than 1000 euros per month with their disposable income as a single person, of 2000 per month with a family. A large group, namely 250,000, consists of children. “Seventy percent of that group are children with parents with a migration background,” Caminada says.
That less attention has been paid to child poverty, according to Caminada, the policy in recent years has mainly focused on combating poverty among the elderly. And with success. “There are hardly any retired people who live below the poverty line. Forty years ago it was a quarter, now it is still three percent. That problem hardly exists anymore.”