Holland pays out incredible benefits to retired people and I guess this must be the sign that they’re feeling the pinch.
Things started changing in Holland when they started letting in the immigrants.
I suspect it has to do with falling away from religious faith and not bothering to produce a next generation to speak of. When you have no stake in the future and nothing much matters but idle comfort, then life itself becomes cheap.
“Holland pays out incredible benefits to retired people and I guess this must be the sign that they’re feeling the pinch.”
I saw a list recently showing Netherlands at or near the top of the list of countries ranked by total debt as a percent of GDP. They were at about 400% (US was at 90% IIRC). Virtually all the European countries were above the U.S. on this list. Thus, not only do we enjoy lower taxes in the U.S. (government share of economy is about 10 percentage points lower in the U.S. compared to OECD), but so far, we have much lower debt levels. As well, they are way ahead of us when it comes to the “graying” of their population, resulting in a lower ratio of workers to retirees compared to us.
Obama appears bound and determined to eradicate every single one of those competitive advantages by turning us into a European welfare state in which work is penalized and living off the government dime encouraged.