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And the winner is... a public concern and a strong government.
Translated from Dutch. View the original post
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Milton Friedman, the godfather of the #neoliberalisme , was quoted in agreement this week. By Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism) nota bene, the godmother of anti-neoliberalism: “Only a crisis brings real change. When that crisis occurs, the measures taken will depend on the ideas that lie around at that time.” Friedman is right, says Klein. Only she hopes that Friedman's economic ideas will no longer be lying around.I hope so. Take the number of homeless people in the Netherlands. Their number has doubled in the last ten years, to forty thousand. That is perfectly logical in a country that organizes care and public housing according to the whims of market forces. The need for a pandemic to show the human price of such policies — homeless people on the streets who can infect anyone, including the rich — is crude.
The profits of multinationals have become immense, including the relocation of production facilities to low-wage countries such as China. But now we are all, including the rich, with the baked pears, because there are hardly any factories that can make mouthcaps in Europe.Just before minister Bruins (Medical Care and Sport) became unwell, he continued to follow the old line during the coronadebat: the cabinet will not force companies in the Netherlands that still have mouthcaps, such as in construction, to donate them to the care. Only kindly requests. Laissez-faire. Small government. But after fierce interruptions by SP and GroenLinks something remarkable happened. You saw Bruins thinking: with friendly requests alone, you do not get there. And so there will be an emergency order, he promised.
A point for Naomi Klein — via Milton Friedman — against Milton Friedman.
A week ago, I saw it still gloomy. The occasion was the first press conference on the Corona crisis. I saw a jolly Rutte who said nothing, except “we are a sober people” and that the government can't solve it and that we can't shake hands anymore, after which he spontaneously broke that rule himself. “Sorry, haha, about, that is not allowed anymore!” , VVD'de Rutte still behind it.
I was eating myself up. During a serious pandemic, the Dutch Prime Minister gives the most hallucinatory press conference, I knelt. We're dead because Rutte is not going to do anything because he doesn't believe in a strong government!
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I was so wrong. Last Monday, the Prime Minister spoke to the country with peace, knowledge and skill. The next day there was a large emergency package of measures. It also moves internationally. The EU has abandoned its ultra-strict budgetary rules. A trend break: if the political will is there, neoliberal dogmas are easily overboard everywhere, it turns out.
According to the hopes of Naomi Klein, there are also two winners of the corona crisis. The first winner is a public, accessible care run by a strong government. Countries such as the Netherlands (but especially Trumps America) that have pinched their healthcare system with the dogmas of efficiency, low cost and market forces, run into the spotlight. Because of the lack of supplies, intensive care units and coronate kits, and because of underpaid, overworked nurses. The lesson: care should not be left to the market.
The second winner is the strength of expertise and calm politics. With his serious speech and clear, science-based measures, Rutte won the 2021 election, a huge contrast with Trump, who changes his daily course on the severity of corona every day. Or Wilders insinuating that Rutte deliberately lets people die. Or Baudet who, with vague websites in his hand, questions the advancing scientific knowledge about corona. Very nice. Let them scream themselves into the electoral grave. Because angry white men don't thirst unstable right-opulists during a pandemic.
The profits of multinationals have become immense, including the relocation of production facilities to low-wage countries such as China. But now we are all, including the rich, with the baked pears, because there are hardly any factories that can make mouthcaps in Europe.Just before minister Bruins (Medical Care and Sport) became unwell, he continued to follow the old line during the coronadebat: the cabinet will not force companies in the Netherlands that still have mouthcaps, such as in construction, to donate them to the care. Only kindly requests. Laissez-faire. Small government. But after fierce interruptions by SP and GroenLinks something remarkable happened. You saw Bruins thinking: with friendly requests alone, you do not get there. And so there will be an emergency order, he promised.
A point for Naomi Klein — via Milton Friedman — against Milton Friedman.
A week ago, I saw it still gloomy. The occasion was the first press conference on the Corona crisis. I saw a jolly Rutte who said nothing, except “we are a sober people” and that the government can't solve it and that we can't shake hands anymore, after which he spontaneously broke that rule himself. “Sorry, haha, about, that is not allowed anymore!” , VVD'de Rutte still behind it.
I was eating myself up. During a serious pandemic, the Dutch Prime Minister gives the most hallucinatory press conference, I knelt. We're dead because Rutte is not going to do anything because he doesn't believe in a strong government!
Talk with NRC
At the bottom of this article, subscribers can respond. Here you can read more about responding to NRC.nl - Yes.
I was so wrong. Last Monday, the Prime Minister spoke to the country with peace, knowledge and skill. The next day there was a large emergency package of measures. It also moves internationally. The EU has abandoned its ultra-strict budgetary rules. A trend break: if the political will is there, neoliberal dogmas are easily overboard everywhere, it turns out.
According to the hopes of Naomi Klein, there are also two winners of the corona crisis. The first winner is a public, accessible care run by a strong government. Countries such as the Netherlands (but especially Trumps America) that have pinched their healthcare system with the dogmas of efficiency, low cost and market forces, run into the spotlight. Because of the lack of supplies, intensive care units and coronate kits, and because of underpaid, overworked nurses. The lesson: care should not be left to the market.
The second winner is the strength of expertise and calm politics. With his serious speech and clear, science-based measures, Rutte won the 2021 election, a huge contrast with Trump, who changes his daily course on the severity of corona every day. Or Wilders insinuating that Rutte deliberately lets people die. Or Baudet who, with vague websites in his hand, questions the advancing scientific knowledge about corona. Very nice. Let them scream themselves into the electoral grave. Because angry white men don't thirst unstable right-opulists during a pandemic.
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