Lazy Europeans
Some argue that Europe’s life-style compares to America’s like slow food to McDonald’s. The cosy and relaxed lifestyles of the Europeans indeed sound appealing. But it’s not that Europeans simply enjoy more leisure than Americans do. It’s the high tax burden of the typical welfare state that forces Europeans to do all kinds of low-skilled jobs themselves.
Since European governments, like the Dutch government, take 50 to 55 cents of every euro earned, it is more efficient to forgo a day’s earnings to weed the garden or paint the walls than to hire somebody else, who would charge 20 euro per hour or more to do it.
Nothing would be wrong with people spending a nice day working in the garden if western Europe did not have such a large supply of low-skilled workers, mostly first and second generation immigrants. In the Netherlands, 65 percent of the young adults (age 20-34) with Turkish and Moroccan backgrounds have no high school diplomas. Their Dutch language skills are poor or non-existent. According to one government report, 79 percent of (first and second generation) Turkish and Moroccan women are unfit for the Dutch labour market. In New York City, on the other hand, 65 percent of first-generation female immigrants have a paid job.
In the Netherlands, non-western immigrants (age 15-65 years) are three times more likely to live on public assistance than other people in that age group. At the same time, hiring a nanny is too expensive, if one can be found. This discourages highly educated women from pursuing a successful career.
You see more incongruities of this sort in the Netherlands. There are long lines at the checkout because hiring cashiers is too costly. For a simple manicure one has to make an appointment two weeks in advance. And even on a sunny day in early spring, some outdoor cafes in Amsterdam remain closed for lack of personnel.
Paying high social benefits to the out-of-work increases the tax burden on professional incomes, which encourages high-skilled workers to take more time off. The leisure trap, which may seem cosy to some, keeps both the best educated and the least educated out of the workplace. As a result, most Western European immigrants are forced to spend their lives in subsidised isolation. We have seen some of the sobering consequences with the rioting in Paris banlieues and the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
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Heleen Mees (1968) lives and works as a consultant in New York City. She became a columnist NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch) after voicing criticism about the low number of Dutch women pursuing high-powered careers.
Have your say about this subject, leave a comment!
Friday 17 October 2008, 9:31
It is essential to improve the participation of non-western immigrants, but is lowering tax the solution?. Lowering tax will have other disadvantages to, like no Health care and a bad educational system.
The key is not to give the high income people more money by lowering tax, but we have to improve the concurrency position of the non-western immigrants by lowering the minimum income and at the same time removing the tax and premie’s for the groups at the low end of the income spectra and remove the BTW for all small Business activities
In this situation the non-western immigrant is able to supply his service at a lower cost. Lowering tax is not specific dedicated to the problem we have to solve
Friday 17 October 2008, 17:57
While some of this may be true, one has to be aware of the dangers of dismantling the Welfare state. In the U.S.A., very large numbers of people are homeless not because they want to be but because there is no way out of their situation. As a Scotsman who previously lived and worked for many years in The Netherlands, I used to admire the Dutch system which may not be perfect but which has at least allowed most people to live without finding themselves in the worst case scenario. Having returned to Britain from The Netherlands in January 2007, I met people who had been sleeping out in the cold in the winter which, believe me, is not something to be dismissed lightly.
Friday 17 October 2008, 18:42
I wonder what is wrong with the so called “leisure trap”. Is there something I don’t know about the constant rat-race in America? Although not higly skilled I’m very happy with my life. Poliitcs based on the American/Anglo culture are a big concern. Why do we need to work hard if we can take it slow. Life is not about work. Do I work less than 60 hours a month because of the high taxes? Not really. Simply put 60 hours a month provides me with more than enough money to live comfortably. Yes it means I can not afford a gardner (well I can, but for arguments sake), I can not afford a housemaid (again I can and I can even afford a painter, renovator and everything else), who cares. To be honest I don’t want to manage staff in my private life. Most important of all, it’s a choice and has nothing to do with the tax rate. Ofcourse I admit I will not easily take on an extra job because of those taxes of 60% (don’t forget VAT), but if I really like the job I will. Again choice and that is a big thing in America as well. Not everybody wants life to be about money, status and even achievement, more and still more. It is frightening that current politics are almost solely based on American economics. Thank god for the current crisis, people will think twice again.
Also all horrible examples are correct in their existence, but not in their cause. How can one believe that the deplorable service or absence of service in shops and bars/restaurants is due to the minimum wage or paying social securities/taxes. It’s Dutch, nothing more and nothing less (”we are all equal so why do I have to service you”, service jobs are simply not popular).
What you call low-skilled work is not regarded as low-skilled work. Want a good painter, plumber, gardner, you just have to pay fair wages, as everybody wants. You want crap, hire the 20 euro guy. Again I take 800 euro’s a day pre-taxes. Even after taxes basic economics tells me it’s cheaper to hire people to do my chores. It’s choice, not a trap and again I’m thankfull even a not highly skilled idiot as I am, can reach this still, slightly different, American dream
of Choice and still be paying to society a reasonable contribution.
To blame the murder of van Gogh on the high taxes is a gotspe. Due to our social system the Parish banlieues, in comparison, are almost non-existent in the Netherlands. We don’t have ghetto’s, real gangs. Yes we have problems with immigrants, but they are here due to our never ending greed and wish to have more and more. We have problems because we want to treat everybody equal, which for immigrants can be seen as paradise at first. However, give it time and less American economics and we will be back on track in no time. It’s the division between poor and rich, the classification between high and low skilled workers which causes the problems.
Saturday 18 October 2008, 19:57
New York City is not a yardstick for anything other than itself. The vast majority of Americans equally do the menial stuff themselves – in my rural neighbourhood, folks chop their own firewood, mow their own lawns, clean their own siding, fix their own plumbing, and grow an can their own vegetables. Only for major jobs, like resurfacing a 300 yard driveway, or replacing a whole house heatpump, does one call in a contractor.
The exception is that many Americans have work done, buy services, and products, that Europeans do themselves, because we work many more hours than Europeans do, and spend almost twice as much time commuting – I have a 200 kilometre commute, and so does half the Federal Government in D.C., this is by no means unusual, L.A. is even worse. In Holland, Belgium, Denmark, you’d just about be in the next country.
So many don’t have time to do their own laundry, and buy a coffee an a Danish on the way to work because it means ten minutes more sleep, in the morning.
Sunday 19 October 2008, 13:06
A second point is the globalisation. As consequence of globalisation we import in to the EU Non-western immigrants and that is why we have to adapt our income spectra to the countries of origin of those immigrants
We have to start a complete new economy at the bottom end of the income spectra. Like we support new business from outside the EU by tax relief we have to support all the people we work at the bottom end of the income spectra.
Native EU members because they have to compete to the Non western immigrants, and the Non western immigrants because thy have to start a new live in the new EU
It seems that politics have only interested into the High educated Non western immigrants and the to attract new business from outside the EU.
There is a urgent need to support the people who live at the low end of the income spectra, we fail to do that, it is no wonder why the populist in the politics is nowadays popular.
Monday 20 October 2008, 5:30
As a dutchman living in Houston, I do not see that much difference between the Netherlands and the USA. The English language skills of the poor population in Houston are comparable to the worst performing immigrants in Holland and their children need meals at school to avoid hunger. Taxes have evidently little to do with this situation and creating more low paying jobs is a poor solution for failed education and cultural adaptation to the majority culture. You simply cannot pay attention to children and live from a minimum wage in the USA, as you need to work at least 70 hours a week to pay necessary expenses. Day care for school going kids is way too expensive to allow mothers with small paychecks to work here as they cannot earn enough. Heleen Mees has a very rosy view of life in the USA -I can advise her to visit schools and see how poor kids and their parents really are. Immigrants need two things to succeed: adaptation to the majority culture and assisting their children in education. This often fails and leads to continued poverty. Nobody has yet come up with a solution, and low minimum wages definitely do no contribute.
Thursday 23 October 2008, 18:06
Heleen Mees seems to have a good life in NYC.
Around here, the majority of the people try to do things themselves, just look at the lines at Home Depot and Lowes. It is the top 20-25%, to which Mrs. Mees aaparently belongs to, who can afford to outsource their chores.Yes, except for teachers, americans do not take 5 weeks vacation, because they do not have it! I just spoke to somebody who works for a well known company which provides the luxury of a 3 week vacation, but she takes only 5 single days a year and works 2 hours a day overtime for free.Not because she is a workaholic, but because she is middle age and she knows what would happen if she looses her job like so many co-workers did.
The most people work long hours here out of economic necessity.A welfare safety net is non-existent. The problem is that we are getting more and more very high pay and very low pay jobs, with the middle field disappearing. Creation of even more low pay jobs really is not the answer.
I lived in a number of european countries and my impression was that in at least some of them the pressure on the job was higher than in the U.S. You work less hours, but you work harder and better. Many american employees could not get(or keep) a comparable job in the NL. And try to show up late a couple of times in Germany with the excuse that you had issues on your second job.Even if it is just 15 minutes.Also, cars are much more affordable in the U.S. and you absolutely need a car just about anywhere outside of NYC,even if you have to sleep in it, which on the other hand gives you the flexibility to go to different jobs. In a number of european countries, rigid store opening times etc also make working multiple jobs a challenge.
Saturday 25 October 2008, 22:14
Shorter Heleen Mees:
If only the poor got less social benefits, the upper classes would once again be able to hire servants and pursue their highly productive careers with more vigour. Everyone would profit!
Sunday 26 October 2008, 12:23
On a couple of points made by Helen I beg to differ.
First of all, I choose not to work the whole year, both because I choose to be happy with less and love to puddle in the yard/ around the house.
However, when it was time for a new car, I put in the extra and saved diligently.
There simply is more flexibility here as to how much you want to work, than most Dutch people think.
It is the Americans choosing to live from creditcard payment to creditcard payment, who indeed have to work one to two jobs.
Overall, I don’t find Americans all that efficient at work, which may have something to do with living in more rural areas.
As to low skilled immigrants working harder in the States; my ass!
I’ve been in area’s were hugh groups of hispanic immigrants, especially women had made an art out of staying on welfare and breeding more kids, which than indeed was paid for by the harder working skilled immigrants. And what to think about other minority groups in bigger cities, supposedly unable to better them selves and falling into a similar trap.
Just explaining that away by victim behavior isn’t cutting it at all.
And last but not least; when are we going to tell women to THINK before they have babies and EXPLAIN the consequences of their deeds; as in ‘you have to help your child integrate into a new country and it migth help it you learned the language as well’.
Welfare is a trap for these women, no matter where they live, and sets their kids up for low skilled laborer jobs, so who really is to blame…..
Monday 27 October 2008, 17:06
My best friends in the NYC, highly educated themselves, find it difficult to find a cleaner, plumber etc. too. They have extremely short vacations (no wonder so many US citizens “do” Europe or Asia in a few days, not understanding a lot from the local culture and staying at the outside). Yet, productivity in the Netherlands is much higher than in the US. So what are we talking about?
Wednesday 29 October 2008, 17:51
I think Heleen Mees’ reasoning is incomplete. She advocates to lower taxation in order to activate more low-skilled labour. However, lowering taxation in itself will not achieve that without also lowering the minimum wage at the same time. Following that course sets in motion a race to the bottom. This doesn’t seem a good idea to me at a time when other societies have embarked on a race to the top.
In other words, we shouldn’t be working on creating jobs for low-skilled labour, but rather on providing high-skilled labour that the job market today is crying out for. If we have a significant portion of the population unable to understand, speak or write Dutch, then we should be tackling that problem. This is not just a social issue either. I.e. educating people for the higher end of the labour market is not some do-gooder thing, although social justice has been underrated in the recent past. A significant lack of high-skilled labour simply represents a a significant amount of missed economic output. Therefore, as a society we make ourselves poorer than we could be, by not educating our people properly. More skills mean more earnings, for the individuals concerned and thereby also for society as a whole, and we, all of us, benefit from that.
This is not a good idea.
Wednesday 29 October 2008, 21:42
I am first generation immigrant here in Houston, USA. I was able in ‘short’ 10 years to complete my education get high paid job with 5 yes 5 weeks vacation. It is actually PTO (paid time off) which you use for everything vacation, sick days etc. So every year I go back to Europe for 4 weeks and have fun. But I did work very hard to secure the best grades in school so that I can get the best job offers. I do not work 60-70 hours per week I actually work 40. Comparing to Euro standards where one needs to wait for few generations to be accepted or just spoken to on the street this sounds like a dream to me.
I have so many American friends and I feel like I am at home. Now I have new home and kids are going to the best school in Houston. Yes I pay high taxes on property but that’s OK with me. On the other side if I lose job I am on my own just like the day I have landed. No compassion just get yourself up and move on.
Thursday 30 October 2008, 17:46
Emir @ 12 forgot to explain what would happen if he used up his PTO for vacation and got sick after that, or how much paid leave a pregnant woman gets. Let us hope that his good luck stays with him.
Friday 31 October 2008, 19:32
CB @ 13
I agree with you. It is rather cruel in that case. I work for company where I can take up to 3 months PAID medical leave because company covers that as accident. As for ladies it is few weeks I think plus 3 months UNPAID guaranted leave. Cruel and unhuman rather. CApitalism as its worst and best. But I am not sure if I would prefer all the luxury of social programs in Europe if it would have taken few generations for locals to accept me for what I am : foreigner!
Tuesday 4 November 2008, 19:25
In the US you definitely do get rewarded more for hard work, and it indeed doesn’t take generations.
The article written by Heleen isn’t structured very well, rather confusing. Seems to me she needs to mingle more with the locals and ditch the Dutch sentence structures!
I appreciate her concern regarding women not pursuing careers, but the root of that problem really lies with being female, period. Let me explain a little further, as a young female in the US, pursuing a career. See, here you NEED a car, groceries are expensive, the cost of living is generally pretty steep. You pretty much HAVE to work full time, if you want to be able to afford a little bit of luxury.
As an entry level engineer I get just about a week of vacation per year, and your regular holidays. Health insurance I get through work, though the contributions and copay both are rather expensive, and coverage is limited.
At the moment, the thought of kids would give me nightmares. Since everything is so spread out, they are not able to get to places by themselves, so you need that soccermom van to drive them and their friends around. If they get sick, you’re screwed unless you have unused vacation time or floating holidays. Medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy, so I am not taking any risks in general. Pregnancy beats you up pretty well too.
Altogether, the necessity to work (more than) full time, longer commutes (my drive is a little over an hour, which is not bad compared to some coworkers), and the high cost of medical care keeps me from starting a family.
The general picture that is painted about the average immigrant in the US is questionable. Here in Arizona, right across the Mexican border, the immigrants do have low paid jobs usually, but live in such poor conditions that they usually end up as criminals mooching off of welfare.
Wednesday 5 November 2008, 23:36
All is not so rosey over here in America. My job with pays me a flat hourly wage gives me absolutely ZERO days vacation, ZERO days of holiday, ZERO days of sick time and ZERO amount of benefits. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Wages are going down right now because of the economic crisis. Companies are hiring lower wage employees to trade out the higher waged ones. I am thinking of returning my family lineage back to the Netherlands because this American worker is getting burnt out.
Saturday 8 November 2008, 10:40
Altough sentence structure might not have been top of the bill, Mrs. Mees aces on content and conclusion. Non western immigrants have a low participation grade and are well of doing so. Regarding the circumstances they are coming from, welfare still is a lottery ticket compared to their former situation. No need implies a change of the status quo. Government measures will cause popular disobedience (riots) and market mechanisms don’t get the opportunity to filter out non contributing attributes. Easy to fit in social structures are a magnet for exponential growth of misery, which is best to be visualized as a cyclic whirlpools sucking in the worldwide surplus of unqualified non desired unemployed.
Monday 10 November 2008, 15:19
Immigration all over the world Hill increase no matter which law you create, is just like water, people Hill look for were it is better to flow on. It will move as fast as the communication will go up. Races will mix up, languages will get in such a gay that a new language will show up, hundred per cent should be English but with a lot different profiles. USA, Brazil are good examples of places were races learned to deal with this stuff. We need no frontiers, we need no borders, we must move to a globalize world, because that is nature is sending us to. World does not need religions but comprehension, understanding, loyalty, values that are too far away in some societies
Thursday 13 November 2008, 19:33
As an immigrant in Dallas, TX, I can tell you from firsthand experience that anything is possible in America, for immigrants and natives alike. I can’t speak much for how well Europe integrates its immigrants. They get welfare benefits, but yet they constantly riot. My family didn’t get a single dime from the government, and my parents managed to work themselves up into middle class. For my parents, it was sacrifice and risk. They went without health insurance for a while, they cut corners to save a penny everywhere they could. Knock on wood that nothing terrible happened to our family during those first few years. It’s merely survival of the fittest here in the States. There’s no compassion, like a previous poster from Houston said. My husband and I do pretty well for ourselves, but between us we have 80K in student loans to pay back, which is a small sacrifice to make I’d say. We’re lucky that we work in recession-proof industries. Xenophobia is alive and thriving here. I’m a white immigrant, so I hear a lot about “those dirty immigrants.” Imagine the surprise on people’s faces when I tell them that I’m a foreigner. But that certainly doesn’t prevent one from rising up in society. You have to take everything your hear with a grain of salt and focus on your ultimate goal, because the opportunity is always there.
Friday 14 November 2008, 13:53
Those figures are completely unsubstantiated. Where does Ms Rees get these statistics from? Without source references we can only conclude she made them up. I am shocked to see that NRC publishes her article, which is clearly far below our journalistic standards.
Rees’ concluding paragraph, in which she blames our social system for the riots in Paris and for the murder on Theo van Gogh, is an attempt at populist deception that recalls the lies of George Bush. In the same way Bush tried to connect the invasion of Iraq to the Osama’s attack on 9-11. Many Americans fell for those lies. But Ms Rees, we are not Americans, so keep your neo-conservative immorality to your own side of the ocean please.
And enjoy your hotdogs every night, I have some quality cooking to do.
Saturday 15 November 2008, 9:17
Mr. Faas, what’s the deal on misspelling Mrs. Mees’ last name? European laziness or dyslexism? It might even be part of your little want-to-be-world you are living in. The reality pictured in the article merely needs statistics to back it. A walk in any european city confirms the stated inactivity among non-western immigrants. Never been to The Hague, Cologne or Marseille? Never mind, Mr. Faas, get your ‘figures’ from the dutch CBS and check ethnicity percentages in prisons, welfare and health social security. Soon enough, these data will not be spread publicly anymore. The issue is too delicate to be discussed. All attempts to stir up these FACTS will be dismissed as demagogy, populism or, in your words ‘neo-conservative immorality’. Goodnight Mr. Faas.
Wednesday 3 December 2008, 16:50
@21 Lowie A. &@ Ms Mees.
I am very sorry for misspelling Ms Mees’ name. My apologies.
I know the European cities Lowie A. suggests and I know the social conditions in several American cities too. The idea of adopting the social conditions of the United States is a horrific concept. WASPs may benefit from such a harsh and heartless system, but not society as a whole. Have you forgotten hurricane Katrina? Have you forgotten the incredible selfishness nearly all citizens of New Orleans displayed? Have you even seen a more despicable moral? Selfishness has been elevated to an ideal in the USA and it showed in the pure barbarism that was exposed after the hurricane. Europe is heaven in comparison to the States, where it concerns social justice.