What happens when you let prices of services float in a free market fashion?
That those who have interest in prices going up will inevitably push the prices up, until common people can no longer afford those services.
It’s been happening in the Netherlands for housing (median income can’t afford a house in any of the major cities, as most of housing supply in Amsterdam and The Hague is controlled by private businesses that have interest in pushing prices up), it already happened with childcare (the scandal that brought down the previous Rutte government), it’s happening with healthcare (the cartel of insurances increases prices every year in a synchronized way at rates that are much higher than the average salary increase), and it’s now happening for public transport too.
The “americanization” of the Dutch economy is doing permanent damage to the fabric of our society.
When you have people in a supposedly advanced country who can no longer afford housing, nor childcare, nor healthcare, nor transport, all while inflation remains higher than the EU average and many can’t even afford food, all while you get more and more aggressive homeless people on the street who have been kicked out from the economy, you have the perfect recipe for political grudge, polarization, extremism and chaos.
And we know already how it ends up. When you start those races to the bottom, it’s rarely the progressive left that wants to boost equal opportunities for everyone that gets a shot at running things. It’s usually the ugliest identity politics that wins on the promise of giving you the things you need by taking them away from someone else - me-first, me-vs-them, urban-vs-rural, local-vs-migrant etc.
The triumph of a populist imbecile like Wilders at the past elections is probably just the beginning of a long-standing trend.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/10/middle-incomes-also-struggling-to-pay-for-transport/
Fabio Manganiello /
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2024-10-02 08:34:16
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2024-10-02 08:34:16Event JSON
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"content": "What happens when you let prices of services float in a free market fashion?\n\nThat those who have interest in prices going up will inevitably push the prices up, until common people can no longer afford those services.\n\nIt’s been happening in the Netherlands for housing (median income can’t afford a house in any of the major cities, as most of housing supply in Amsterdam and The Hague is controlled by private businesses that have interest in pushing prices up), it already happened with childcare (the scandal that brought down the previous Rutte government), it’s happening with healthcare (the cartel of insurances increases prices every year in a synchronized way at rates that are much higher than the average salary increase), and it’s now happening for public transport too.\n\nThe “americanization” of the Dutch economy is doing permanent damage to the fabric of our society.\n\nWhen you have people in a supposedly advanced country who can no longer afford housing, nor childcare, nor healthcare, nor transport, all while inflation remains higher than the EU average and many can’t even afford food, all while you get more and more aggressive homeless people on the street who have been kicked out from the economy, you have the perfect recipe for political grudge, polarization, extremism and chaos.\n\nAnd we know already how it ends up. When you start those races to the bottom, it’s rarely the progressive left that wants to boost equal opportunities for everyone that gets a shot at running things. It’s usually the ugliest identity politics that wins on the promise of giving you the things you need by taking them away from someone else - me-first, me-vs-them, urban-vs-rural, local-vs-migrant etc.\n\nThe triumph of a populist imbecile like Wilders at the past elections is probably just the beginning of a long-standing trend.\n\nhttps://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/10/middle-incomes-also-struggling-to-pay-for-transport/",
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