Anyone who has ever neglected their homework recognized the fumbling of Minister Hoekstra. During the debate on the sanctions against Russia, he searched more and more for the right piece of paper and the annoyance was more and more visible on his face – why did I ever say ‘yes’ to this bullshit? And that Omtzigt again, can that guy never be relaxed against his own party members? Do those people know that I could just have picked up a million a year in anonymity from McKinsey? I don’t have to do this, do I?!
Yet I felt sorry for him and not just because I sometimes suffer from impostor syndrome, or identify with bumbling frat balls. Because of course it’s not Hoekstra’s fault that we in the Netherlands are used to separating business and morals. The hesitant action against Russia is a logical consequence of our national character: in the Netherlands we measure each other on virtually every level, except financially. But the Ukraine war makes it painfully clear that the schizophrenia of the merchant pastor is no longer tenable.
The current inflation debate also shows that the rigid division between wallet and conscience is not an exclusive matter for Zuidas lawyers or superyacht builders. Now that the war is starting to get used to, in addition to the extremist FvD sound, a much more broadly supported ‘realistic’ story is emerging, which means that the sanctions against Russia should be reduced a bit, because that inflation is starting to hurt. Such an annoying war, but we can also support Ukraine with nice videos and hugs?
But financial morality is precisely about the willingness to suffer. To consume, to take a loss and to give up luxuries and privileges. Apart from the fact that inflation without sanctions would also have been high due to the energysqueeze which Russia has been carrying out since the summer of 2021 and because the war simply haunts Europe’s breadbasket, this is exactly where the Dutch shoe pinches: we are never prepared to suffer financial pain.
This was already painfully visible during the corona crisis: the generously distributed NOW support was seen as an absolute right, with no (moral) obligation in return. Even when Doutzen Kroes, face of the far-right antivax movement, turned out to be attracting NOW support, the consensus was that you shouldn’t be fussed about it; Wasn’t she entitled to that? They do whine about an innocent investment by the aforementioned minister Hoekstra, but understandably mutter about NOW profiteers ‘that they don’t have to tell anyone else’.
Current inflation is yet another way to abuse the common man and block change. This is how the . used Telegrapheconomist Lex Hoogduin using inflation as an argument against decent capital taxes; after all, current inflation would melt wealth inequality on its own! A misshapen opportunity argument to dismiss the skewed growth of the past decades, but it will sound logical to the Dutchman. Meanwhile, the continued lack of financial morale has seriously undermined our credibility in Europe, something that will plague us for years to come.
The transition to a country in which money matters and morality are linked will not be easy. The Dutch idea that the pie gets infinitely bigger and you make the world fairer by giving the other a piece of that growth is untenable. We will also have to hand in a piece of the current pie. That means learning to suffer pain.