Communism and National Socialism

It is doing fine, if you look past what the rightist parties' propaganda will tell you. They will say, "oh look at the proportion of immigrants recieving welfare", while ignoring the obvious fact that this is a share of a minority. They will say "oh, look at the amount of people recieving welfare", while ignoring the amount of fluctuation within this group, or the growth rate of this group. It is true that an astonishing amount of people in Dutch society recieve welfare funding from the state, however this number is almost permanently decreasing through reinforced legislation, more frequent checks on people's actual status, and the fact that much has to do with the changes within the economy (of course in the middle of a depression it's easy to yell that so many people are unemployed).

What the right wing tells us is that if we don't cut back on social legislation we will in the end be paying taxes up the wazoo to pay for it. However, this is counterspoken by the reality that the previous cabinet, while only marginally cutting back on social legislation, had a positive budget result whereas the present one with its extensive cutbacks has a considerable deficit. Neither have raised taxes, but only the latter which has decreased taxes to favour the upper layers seem to need to do so.

 

We seem to be starting the discussion along the lines of that with Grieg.
I would suggest - let´s bury it. My opinion being that in some circumstances the state intervention is desirable and - that Europe will have to cut its welfare and living standards voluntarily or by way of an implosion. I know your opinions and respect but remain with mine.