Since the world was visited by the latest virus in 2020, named Covid-19, unrest and instability have become “the new normal”. Dumb political choices were already made long before that, but aren’t interchanged with a wise one here and there anymore. Would it really be so hard to restore and stabilise the economy? A few thoughts and ideas.
A virus and the economy
First of all it was extraordinarily strange that almost all politicians in the world agreed immediately after the outbreak of Covid-19 that the only solution to fight it would be a vaccine. Everyone knows vaccines take about 10 years to fabricate and test. Due to that long procedure they are expensive, not a very friendly option for children and then there was the other issue: there were two existing pills that helped chase Covid away. You know, Ivermectine (“for animals”) and HCQ (“against malaria”). In most countries Health ministers tied themselves in all kinds of knots to get those medicaments rapidly banned. In the parts of Africa where people received Ivermectine from their government though, almost no-one got Covid. The same happened in India, where the government distributed HCQ …
In the rest of the world people were tied to their houses for weeks and that many times. In China the lockdowns haven’t stopped until now. Stumbling over each other in tiny apartments, fighting over the question if they should wear masks or not and in many cases beating their frustrations out on the poor kids, who weren’t allowed to go to school or even to play outside, they ended up depressed and in many cases even deprived of an income. Businesses weren’t allowed to open either, as you remember well. Two and a half years later the whole economy is devastated and if there is a plan behind it or not: something needs to be done urgently, or else millions of people will die of cold and hunger during the coming winter. A little discussion on how to survive and become better instead of worse is right in its place!
Depression paralyses people
Now most people are passive by nature, because they always struggle for life. Yet the Great Covid Depression hasn’t finished at all, since governments keep on coercing people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. They are trying very hard to force a digital identity pass on us, so that they can only allow vaccinated people to go shopping, travelling and all. Since everyone is tired of fighting the government and has bigger problems now, like how to get through the winter in the first place, I am afraid the pass will be there much sooner than we think. This pass obstructs economic growth even more and will, together with top energy prices, make small and medium-sized businesses fall more and more often. We are in a negative spiral that becomes harder by the day to turn around. I am not even talking about the loss of freedom here. Is turning the tide still possible?
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Peace is good for business
Many people who – loyal as they are – read the news and watch TV, will quickly answer this question. “It’s because Russia invaded Ukraine!”. But first of all Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. It came to help the people there, who had been tortured, deprived of money, water and electricity for 8 years and who asked the Russians to save their lives. Second of all Russia is an enormous country and a fight in Ukraine wouldn’t stop them from still delivering gas and oil to the countries that are their customers. Moreover the war could easily have been avoided, if the American government hadn’t forced Ukraine to become a member of NATO and if Brussels hadn’t given the unstable and corrupt nation hopes to access the EU.
No, the energy crisis wasn’t caused by Russia. It was caused by the European Union and America who, instead of helping to solve the problem in eastern Ukraine, threw oil on the fire by claiming the Russians started a needless war. Needless? So we are just to step over 15,000 deaths caused by a Nazi regime in the middle of Europe? The Obama government put Ukrainian President Zelensky in power, so they could also have removed him from power. Like by allowing fair elections or so. But instead they pushed Ukraine into this war they can never win and that they also can’t stop. Russia offered so many times peace talks, but the collective west keeps Zelensky from solving the problem, promising him a victory a child knows he will never have.
The reason why energy prices have mounted to the top, is the propaganda by EU and US that Russia must be “punished” for its alleged war actions. There are very few countries that possess natural gas and we in Europe bought our gas for the greatest part from Russia. Without their gas supplies we can’t live, as you can see now. Wise people knew that years ago and saw that the Americans used the Russian excuse to sell us their own natural gas – depriving their own population of it – against top prices and shipped to Europe in barrels as LNG.
So the solution to the energy problem is simple. The OPEC doesn’t want to send us more oil and gas, because they are loyal to Russia and because the European Union is an instable customer that wants short-term contracts that they change all the time. There is only one solution to get ourselves through the cold winter and that is that we do business as usual with the Russians. With long-term contracts, at least until 2035 and a reasonably stable purchase. It is good for both parties and if we do business together, we can also solve the problems in Ukraine. Peace is good for business.
A soaring immigration
The times when anyone who dared say a word about overpopulation due to immigration was immediately called a racist or a fascist, are over. The Netherlands especially is a country where overpopulation is as clear as daylight. Almost 18 million people now on 41 thousand square meters, circa the size of New York City, is outraging. The rate of aliens from far-away continents that are incapable of adapting themselves to the cold, wet and western country is also far too high. A few years ago there were about 1 million Muslims to 16 million others (and 75% Dutch), but now the government has lost track. Nearly another million asylum seekers has entered the country and in the Netherlands almost nobody is ever sent back. So normally there are almost 2 million Muslims now, or people from far places with a totally different language, culture and religion here. The balance is lost and the irritation is high. Another thing that is all-time high, is the money all these not-contributing people cost. So many billions that you can’t even pronounce the amount.
Denmark has almost the same surface as the Netherlands, but considers their country overpopulated with a mere 5.8 million inhabitants. Very wise, methinks. The problem is that many Dutch feel guilty if they don’t help each and every person in the world who has a difficult time. Therefore they would need a country at least as large as Russia, which they clearly don’t have. They also think receiving refugees in a camp in a safe place in their own region is a sin. Yes, if you imagine those gruesome UN tents in Syria and Libya, that is right. But these countries are a lot cheaper than the Netherlands. So for a quarter of the money they spend now, they could build a wonderful camp with small brick houses, a vegetable garden, a little park, a prairie with some cows, chicken and camels, a school and a medical center. That would be paid by a lot of countries together and would be good for everyone. I don’t think anyone would still feel guilty if refugees would live in such camps.
Managers!
This is a short one. When I returned to the Netherlands with a Master’s degree in French and Greek linguistics in 1995, everyone was complaining about the latest rage: managers. It was a plague and it still is, this American phenomenon. Managers are superfluous, expensive like caviar and annoying. Schools have become factories with almost more personnel than students. Cheap? No. Schools, government instances and even businesses have become blown up giants that are unworkable. At a small school students automatically get more attention; a small organisation or company is much better organised and a lot more efficient. Small municipalities are more human and therefore much cheaper. I live in a “municipality” that consists of 47 villages among which a few towns. It is a county where you must drive 16 km (!) in order to get at the municipality bureaus. Less managers and smaller organisations are better for the economy.
More SME’s, not less
Small and medium businesses are the root of our society and a source of happiness for people. Many don’t like working for a boss and prefer having their own toko, as the Dutch call a small company or shop with an Indonesian word. My toko is Untold Times as you see and I love being independent. Others prefer working in a small environment, that feels a bit like a family. Shops in a village or city bring atmosphere and social interaction. They make it possible for people without a car to do their shoppings and they bring livelihood. They also prevent criminality in an empty city center.
Since the Covid crisis governments all over the world seem to have started a war against SME’s. Until 40% of these businesses have gone bankrupt or were forced to stop before they’d go bankrupt. First because of lockdowns, now because of soaring energy prices and in general towering prices for literally anything you sell. Empowering these businesses by compensating them is not a long-term option. Business owners should be able to pay for their own costs without government intervention. Something else needs to be done for their survival.
Climate protection
Climate is the phenomenon of general weather conditions during longer times. The climate always changes and so it does in our times. Long-term statistics clearly show there is no global warming, but like always there is change. First many scientists thought a new ice age was approaching, but now we just have to accept that the weather changes and that we have to adapt ourselves to new conditions. Humans can’t stop nature from developing itself, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take care of the environment and protect nature.
The problem with climate fanatism is however that masses start panicking about us polluting the world. This panick started with a factfree book by Al Gore 25 years ago and is ever since fed by more and more governments. Nowadays the hottest hipster place is the WEF or World Economic Forum. This hugely growing association founded in the seventies by Klaus Schwab even schools politicians in their super leftist Young Global Leaders programmes. Newly arriving politicians get into politics filled up with the most stubborn and wrong ideas about our planet being in danger of existence. With their idées-fixes they feed the panick and they demand that there be a one world government, there where we just concluded that bigger is less human, less happy AND a lot less effective too.
The newly formed left pushes extremely hard for a global energy transition as soon as 2030. This is of course completely impossible, even more because their solutions are not at all better for the environment, don’t provide enough energy and food for all people and cost trillions more dollars than we will have in a century. Their solution to close the budget? Take away people’s possessions and let them lease anything they need. Let them become veganists, because there is allegedly no more space for cattle. Control them day and night. That’ll teach them if they planned not to follow the crazy living rules these extremists propose and push for.
But if you chase farmers from their fertile lands in order to host Africa’s multi billion population in Europe, you won’t have space for agriculture. In Africa we have gigantic places with a nitrogen shortage, deserts and jungles where the strongest machines couldn’t farm. The Netherlands thrive on agriculture and especially milk and meat production. It’s not only bringing in cash, but also an important cultural expression that brings millions of tourists and above all happiness. Why should you tear all that down with the lie that you want more “nature” if in reality you want more immigrants squeezed into that tiny and bulging piece of land? It destroys the whole economy against no gain at all.
Conclusion!
I think that for someone who only had economy at school for about half a year, I have a pretty good idea of what could be done to improve the economy right now. Whenever I see all those blundering ministers and EU commissioners with their mega salaries, I have the following thought: pay me a normal salary and I will solve all the problems in 5 years time. Five years, because cutting myself a way through all those rocky and rusty brains takes some time. Exposing all the conflicts of interest they commit and getting the schmucks before a decent judge takes not only time, but is also dangerous. Five years, so be it.
