Growth -hearted as a disappearing trick
In its latest election program, the VVD presents growth as the universal lubricant for all political knots: more defense, better care, clean energy, lower taxes – all possible, as long as the economy grows.
A kind of political black box: On the one hand, throw ‘radical growth’ into the machine, and from the other side, wonderfully enough affordable houses, good education and a livable climate. The only problem: such a machine does not exist.
The VVD confuses resources and goals in a classical way. Growth is not a goal – it can be a result of policy aimed at productivity growth, innovation, knowledge and labor participation. But in the VVD program, growth has become a holy grail, a political fetish with which all other values are subordinate. ‘Radical growth’ is in fact the VVD turbo variant of an old recipe that has been leading to stuck public services, untenable ecological pressure and structural inequality for decades.
It is a radicalization that took place in Slow Motion. In 1981 the VVD found that growth was necessary, but “with the environment and health of humans as boundaries.” In 2002, growth became a goal in itself, to be achieved through privatization of care, education, housing. And in 2012, growth simply called ‘desperately’, with technology as a panacea – handy, because exportable.
And now? Now growth is even the condition for the preservation of those now stripped -down public facilities. Environment is barely still occurring; The basic industry must remain. As if you pour extra kerosene into an overheated motor.
And again that old fable: if entrepreneurs just make money, it benefits everyone. That is why the VVD wants to relieve costs, fewer rules, fewer obligations. As if economic flowering ‘leaks’ naturally. But if the top contributes less and pays the bottom more, that is none trickle-down But drainage. It is shocking that the VVD still sticks to this kind of dated economic theories.
What we need is not a growth plan, but a compass. A new course in which we do not sacrifice everything for the umpteenth percent extra GDP, but invest in the real engine of a healthy society: people, nature and public infrastructure. Growth is allowed, as a by -catch. That would be radical for the VVD, and much more realistic. But above all: fairer.
Lex HoogduinRadical green growth is a false promise
I wrote earlier NRC That the VVD was left with the exclusion of the PVV and left the playing field for a classic liberal policy wide.
The recently presented election program has pleasantly surprised me. The party prefers a right-wing liberal cabinet. Bolkestein is quoted several times and the program clearly distances themselves from the view that is widely prevalent in Dutch politics that there is a need for more control of the government.
Bravo, because the Dutch economy and society are not locked because there is too little government involvement, but too many. Where the government wants to arrange more and more, citizens and companies are increasingly losing freedom and the opportunity to lead their own lives. More and more people are made dependent on the decisions made by a limited group in The Hague and Brussels.
Yet this twist is certainly not complete for the benefit of the VVD. There is a lot of space left for further tightening in the classic-liberal direction. The first of the five missions that the VVD formulates illustrates: radical economic growth. A really classic-liberal economic policy is purely conditions. Those elements are certainly in the election program. But it also contains quite a few measures that assume that the government can ‘make’ the growth.
Really classical-liberal policy would not formulate a goal for economic growth, not even with qualifications such as ‘green’ or ‘radical’. The essence of classical-liberal policy is: give people the space to choose. For example, if many people prefer to have more free time and work less, then there is nothing wrong with that, even if it leads to lower economic growth – on the condition that the result of this choice (less income) is not removed with government compensation.
Also, maintaining climate and nitrogen goals cannot be reconciled with purely conditions-creating policy. The impression is given that radical growth and achieving these goals will be the outcome of the VVD program: radical green growth as a false promise.
Barbara BaarsmaWe can’t do without growth
Without economic growth it becomes difficult to absorb the costs of aging. There is simply too little financial scope for strategic investments, such as a modern armed forces, a climate -proof Netherlands or the expansion of our overflowing power grid.
The focus on growth is therefore understandable. Not because growth is the final goal, but because it is a necessary means. Because the lower the growth, the army the treasury. But that growth must be green and fit within what the earth can handle. Otherwise, future generations will pay the price without having had a voice on 29 October.
The growth capacity of the Dutch economy is under pressure. The only growth engine that can still drive our aging country – labor productivity – Hapert. At the same time, the economy clashes into increasingly sharper capacity boundaries: labor, soil, nitrogen space and clean water are scarce. Roads, rail and power grid are overloaded. Without intervention, stagnation threatens.
Those who want to stimulate economic growth must therefore dare to make choices. Choices about which activities require adjustment, scaling up or relocation, because they have a large seizure of scarce production factors but provide relatively little value. Such decisions are uncomfortable, but inevitable.
The pursuit of strategic autonomy should not be a reason to move those choices ahead. On the contrary, it underlines the need for European coordination and joint priorities.
The VVD election program does not make these choices. Although it acknowledges the scarcity, it remains unclear how the government actively focuses on a reallocation from low to high-productive activities. The required instruments are available – they are not used alone.
A selection from the toolbox. First: with spatial regulation policy, focuses on an economy that requires less space and creates more value. That means saying goodbye to part of the ground -intensive activities. Preservation of climate law, enforcement of environmental standards and the pricing of pollution accelerate the transition to sustainable and innovative companies.
Increase the minimum wage: this stimulates productivity and discourages low -productive jobs that only render with low wages. Supervision of underpayment prevents a shadow market of cheap labor that undermines the productivity stimulus.
Without sharp choices and powerful control, green growth remains no more than a paper promise.