It is raining job tidings about poverty in this country as a result of the currency depreciation and in particular the high energy prices.
The Central Planning Bureau recently reported that 1.3 million Dutch people live below the poverty line, including 300,000 children. Nibud says that one in three Dutch people is ‘distraught’, because they can no longer make ends meet and are forced to make ends meet. The director of the Wiardi Beckman Foundation even speaks of a ‘silent humanitarian disaster’, which suggests that not only the asylum seekers in Ter Apel, but also the Dutch in their terraced houses are struggling almost as much as people in Pakistan and Haiti.
In reality, the Netherlands is still the fourth richest country in the world. In fact, it is the only eurozone country in the top ten richest countries. It’s not that bad in this country, despite the fact that even the king speaks of ‘uncertain times’.
Savings platform Raisin recently compared the costs of a basket of groceries and all kinds of services between 2002 and now: from a loaf of bread to a hairdresser’s visit. They have increased by 23.5% in those twenty years. Products that have increased in price the most are margarine (+236.1 percent), potatoes (+117.2 percent) and milk (+78.7 percent). Compared to twenty years ago, however, products have also become cheaper, such as white rice (-34.4 percent), bananas (-14.4 percent) and cucumbers (-6.6 percent).
When it’s all added up, groceries have become 23.5 percent more expensive. But incomes in the Netherlands have increased by an average of 41.6 percent. ‘The Dutch can buy more groceries for what they earn in one hour’, Raisin concludes. Statistics Netherlands confirms that since 2002 groceries have become more affordable.
But it does not mean that the Dutch have made real progress. Services have risen faster in price than incomes. At the bar, a beer now costs an average of 2.77 euros, compared to 1.54 euros twenty years ago, an increase of almost 80 percent. The price of a cup of coffee outside the door even doubled, as did an entrance ticket to the Efteling. A return flight to Gran Canaria has become 30 percent more expensive. In addition, the costs of energy have increased enormously, especially in the last year.
There is no reason to downplay the calamity. The average Dutch person is a small minority. The main problem is that the differences are increasing. An average household with two incomes and a well-insulated house does not have to suffer so much from inflation, but that does not apply to a single person who has just bought a handy house with an expensive mortgage because municipalities hardly pay attention to first-time buyers. . It also does not apply to people who have to make do with a small pension or only AOW.
Some of the Dutch have the right to complain about poverty. Only often the wrong part has the biggest mouth. Hopefully the cabinet will repair the purchasing power of the good part.