Sander Schimmelpenninck sees himself as the man with the mirror. In the first episode from the VPRO series Sander and the gorge he had to portray the subject of the series with Playmobil. He collected a large group of dolls (the don’t worry) who looked from a distance at a smaller clump of figures (de haves) who mainly had an eye for each other. When Schimmelpennick had to put himself in the situation, he chose a male with a mirror. He wanted that one haves to hold up.
Sander and the gorge is a vigorous indictment against the inequality of opportunity in the Netherlands, made by a man who grew up on an estate, but who, according to his mother, preferred to belong to the ordinary side of the village. He also takes pleasure in throwing his privileges in the face of his wealthy friends (“boys, now a round of honesty”).
An asset manager who helps the rich pass on their capital to the next generation, he gives a diatribe about how unjust it is that it is barely taxed. The money man states that Schimmelpenninck will beep differently when he is about to inherit, but the presenter does not want that: “I like to pay tax. That means I got it right.” It harms society if income from property is taxed less than income from labour, he keeps repeating.
Columnist, presenter and entrepreneur Schimmelpenninck (37) is an intriguing figure in the Dutch media circus – something he seems to agree with himself. He keeps trying to reinvent himself, which can lead to curious situations. He is currently combining his series on wealth inequality with an ad campaign for a wealth bank, which is a frivolous choice from the point of view of journalistic independence and avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Mercilessly outcompeted
Anyway, the facts diverse from the Schimmelpenninckologie should not be in front of the subject. Sander and the gorge shows the wealth inequality in the Netherlands very sharply and shows how disastrous its effect is. Thursday treated the second episode the housing market, where starters without capital are mercilessly outcompeted by investors and rich children with a ‘jubelton’.
The presenter thematizes his own role in the system. When he bought a new house in Amsterdam, he kept the previous one and rented it out “for quite a high rent to young people. I was a slum landlord.” Now he’s selling the house, a consistent move for someone who thinks the system creates injustice. I did wonder what Schimmelpenninck would do with the proceeds – suddenly I remembered that I had recently seen a commercial for an investment bank.
Schimmelpennick speaks to a couple that buys and rents out cheap houses in peripheral places like Sneek. The house prices and the (untaxed) rental income make the return great: the “Box 3 party”. He visits the Great Property Experience, where the Dutch are seduced to a real estate investment in Blackpool, while clapping and singing.
The contrast with the fruitless searches of young people is poignant. Naziha Hamdach, who works in healthcare, has been looking for something more spacious than her thirty square meters (the VPRO cameraman stumbles after entering because he cannot see the bed), but there is nothing to be found. She pays 800 euros per month for the wrecked cubicle. A man in his twenties with a job on the Zuidas has already missed the net forty times. And house prices are rising faster than his income. Wealth inequality threatens society, Schimmelpenninck concludes. It is also a moral issue.