Little Dutch Boy's Finger In Welfare State Dike With A Hole In It

Common Sense Commentary: How strange it is for an old man, who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930's, to hear a King read a gently worded speech written by a Politician to an entire generation of Dutch citizens, that there is a hole in their dyke..... And the government must discontinue printing out free money for everybody, and that they are all going to have to start "participating" in their own upkeep by getting a job. He calls this "new idea", of the Dutch government, a "participation society", as if it is some new invention which has never been tried before, and "people must take responsibility for their own future and create their own social and financial  safety nets, with less help from the government".  Those last six words were tagged on to this shocking announcement to soften the impact of the first part of the sentence. It leaves the impression that the hole in the dyke is just "finger sized" and it will be easily dealt with by everyone.  When the truth is, that finger sized hole is fist sized already and rapidly blowing out a huge hole which will quickly break the dyke and flood the land. The King's "politically correct" term, "Participation society" used to be called "Self Reliance, Self Respect and Individual Responsibility". The King's words, "less help", in reality means, taxes will be doubled and the government will "help" by paying for the tax forms. Don't you just love these double talking politicians?

 

Dutch King: "Say Goodbye To Welfare State"

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- King Willem-Alexander delivered a message to the Dutch people from the government Tuesday in a nationally televised address: the welfare state of the 20th century is gone.  In its place a "participation society" is emerging, in which people must take responsibility for their own future and create their own social and financial safety nets, with less help from the national government.  The king traveled past waving fans in an ornate horse-drawn carriage to the 13th-century Hall of Knights in The Hague for the monarch's traditional annual address on the day the government presents its budget for the coming year. It was Willem-Alexander's first appearance on the national stage since former Queen Beatrix abdicated in April and he ascended to the throne.  "The shift to a 'participation society' is especially visible in social security and long-term care," the king said, reading out to lawmakers a speech written for him by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government.

The Kicker here is that Holland is not the only country facing a broken Welfare State system, and all the others are trying to put words together, right now, to soften the blow of such an announcement to their citizens.  They like to restrain explosions, like   breaking dikes, by releasing the pent-up flood in several lesser explosive stages. Our own government just did the same thing by announcing a continuation of Quantitative Easing instead of "Tapering" it off as they have all said they would do. The reason for this reversal is, they have trapped themselves in an impossible cave in, and can neither dig their way out nor survive the absence of fresh air, but have decided to save their breath by not trying to dig.  The canary is dead and they have a few extra minutes.
Amsterdam just happens to be the first Welfare State Government to confess it's failure.  In all of history, Socialism has never yet succeeded, but politicians continue to try to make it fly and stay in the air .... without an engine.  It will sail, briefly, but is destined to crash. RB