Although the growing inequality in the Netherlands is being discussed more and more, a new report a different story today: inequality has remained the same since 1990, 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 surprised by the results.
“I don’t know why people think income disparities have increased,” Caminada says. “International reports and our own statistical bureaus have shown for years that we have a weighty, stable income distribution. It’s a puzzle why society doesn’t want to know.”
Not the whole story
Economist Mathijs Bouman calls the result “remarkable”, precisely in view of the time when the lack of inequality took 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 time, then we have at least prevented that purchasing power from diverging sharply.”
Researcher Caminada also acknowledges that politics plays a role. “But also from politics, buttons have to be turned, and many buttons have been added in recent times to continue to distribute income fairly.” But demographics are also helping, he says. “If more people are retired, more people will also receive AOW.”
Many people on the street, who were not yet aware of the report, think that the differences have actually become greater:
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“What are we fussing about then, huh?”
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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 stocks have clearly increased in wealth.”
Bouman calls the gap in the labor market even more important. “So not in terms of income, but whether you have a permanent contract or have to work from flex job to flex job. That’s where the real injustice lies: people who are given every opportunity and people who have to haggle for work all the time.”
According to Caminada, there are still major, persistent 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, or 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 migrant background,” Caminada says.
According to Caminada, less attention has been paid to child poverty because the policy in recent years has mainly focused on combating poverty among the elderly. And with success. “There are hardly any people with a pension anymore who live below the poverty line. Forty years ago it was a quarter, now it is still three percent. That problem hardly exists anymore.”
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