The Netherlands: Rutte Government under fire over costly healthcare and educational student loan programs - by RM

The Netherlands privatized Healthcare and Educational programs are not proving to be one of  the Dutch PM's Rutte success stories. As a matter of fact, they are both a disaster, too costly and worst of all undemocratic.

It seems that Mr. Rutte and some of his colleages in the Dutch Government don't seem to be aware that education and healthcare, are not, and can never be seen as marketable commodities.

They are a basic democratic right for everyone, poor or rich, and must be free and widely available to all citizens.

The present privatized health and educational programs, applied by the Dutch Government and a few other Governments in the EU, and around the world, are not only undemocratic, they are also proving to be a financial barrier in providing proper education and healthcare to every level of the population, and when all is said and done, actually do not benefit the overall economy.

It is regrettable that some countries, including the Netherlands, have turned these basic human rights, related to education and healthcare, into marketable commodities.

Almere-Digest

The Netherlands - Free Market Forces in Health-Care and Education not benefitting Netherlands consumers - by RM

After returning back home from America to the Netherlands, it struck me how incredibly passive the Dutch population reacts to many decisions of their Government, which unfortunately, usually negatively affects the "pocketbooks" of the average Dutch citizen.

Particularly, because when these decisions are announced, the  Dutch Government gives little or often no clear explanation, about the nature or reasons for these decisions. Their catch words usually are, either to improve the economy or to cut costs.

One example is the Dutch Health-Care system, which was changed a few years ago from a government controlled Universal Health-Care program, to a "Market controlled version, now mainly controlled by Insurance companies.

According to a recently held opinion poll, however, a majority (more than 60%) of the Dutch population wants to return to the old system of Universal Health-Care, since the new system, now run by Insurance companies has steadily increased their costs for affordable Health-Care .

In the field of education, Dutch students, who used to be able to apply for a free scholarship, which they did not have to pay off, after they successfully had completed their educational program, now have to pay back their scholarship through a loan program, including interest.

Unfortunately, many Dutch politicians, and large companies have abused the concept of "market forces" to create the suggestion of freedom and honesty.

A truly free market offers advantages, but with economic "spins and gibberish", as it does now, it certainly does not.

Bottom - line, the Dutch citizen is now at the mercy of a few large suppliers - and the so-called benefits of the market forces do not end up being tangible economic benefits to them .

The Netherlands economy, unfortunately,  is starting to look more and more like that of the US, and that certainly is a scary idea. 

Isn't it time to man the barricades?

C: this article can be published if source is identified as EU-Figest

EU-Digest

USA: Politics in America are Corporate, not Citizen focused - Why are guns a right in the US, meanwhile education and healthcare are not?

USA: Corporate controlled Insurance sucks

The fact that the US isn’t among the countries with universal healthcare and free college has been a topic of many heated political debates and complaints, especially among the Millennials faced with the prospect of repaying their student loans well into their adulthood. If they have a misfortune of getting hit with a major hospital bill as well, declaring a bankruptcy is often the only solution.

Universal healthcare is something that is available in a vast number of countries across the globe. While the programs offered by each government varies from nation to nation, they’re all based on the same concept – offering access to free healthcare to everyone, old or young. Most often than not, insurance is offered freely for the underaged and the elderly, while those in the working force have a small portion of their paycheck directed to the national fund sustaining this system.

Free education is something that is widely encountered across the globe, although college isn’t always included on the list. Many countries offer a number of free university seats while others subsidize them.

Many argue that this type of education, just like universal healthcare, isn’t actually free since it is funded by the government, who in turn gathers the cash by taxing people’s paychecks and businesses. 

Basically that is an argument used in the US which in reality does not fly, because the end result in countries which do provide this service  is offering everyone access to what they need, be it education that will provide them with a better future without having to spend half of their lives paying back the student loans or getting the healthcare they need.

Across the globe, there are quite a lot of countries that offer free healthcare, from the Americas, Asia, although the most are from Europe where this seems to be the way to go when it comes to this important issue.

Many European (EU)  countries regard free education also as an investment to the economy. There is skilled workforce available on the free labor market. The opposite solution could be for example that every industry would educate their own work force starting from day one.

Capitalism or socialism doesn’t define who must pay the education: the society, the industry or the individual.

It’s the same with the healthcare: there isn’t any rule that tells that either the society, the employer or the individual should be the one who pays for the health care. It could be also so that every industry should build their own hospitals and educate their own doctors - or so that the people, the work force, do it together. But it can also be regarded as a state’s investment in the economy so that the free work force remains available and capable on the market.

These investments by the state are comparable with other investments in the infrastructure and the functionality of the society. The state offers some base for the free economy to thrive, like roads, security and so on.

Socialism is so abused and so polymorphic concept that it’s hard to define simply. But in the basic concept of socialism is about how the economic power is divided between the capital and the labor.

It certainly has nothing to do with communism, which unfortunately many right-wing conservatives like to call socialism.

.
The ultimate goal is a society that has stopped the domination of capital over the labor and where the labor has taken the domination on the production. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the state should own everything.

Both of these functions can also be shared in different ways as long as it benefits the citizens and the country as a whole.

In America the concept has become totally lopsided over the years. Today about 3 % of the US population controls all the wealth in the country, with corporations basically influencing all the decision making processes of the political establishment.

If not corrected soon, it will have disastrous consequences for America.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands - Islam: Dutch Children from Turkish descent Forced to Submit to Islam

Parents in the Netherlands can't stop their children from being indoctrinated with Islam against their wishes.

A new report from Cultuur onder Vuur (Culture Under Fire) documents evidence from hundreds of cases where children in Dutch schools are instructed by an imam on how to pray and how schools are taking measures to hide these trips from parents.

Church Militant spoke with Hugo Bos, the campaign leader for Culture Under Fire, who said they started investigating Islamic indoctrination in Dutch schools after they found one video of a school trip to a mosque.

"We found it very shocking," he said. "We found proof of 19 cases where children took part in Islamic rites."

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told Bos that when children pray at these mosque excursions, it is "exercise in Islamic dawah" — a form of proselytism. From the Muslim perspective, these children are "purposefully prepared for converting to Islam."

One of the cases from 2014 involves elementary school children who were taken to a mosque in Zwolle. That mosque hosted the hate-preaching Pakistani imam, Mohammed Anas Noorani Siddiqui. Siddiqui reportedly said, "Non-Muslim Dutch people live like dogs and b*****s."

They found other mosques children had visited had allegations of extremism and anti-Semitism and ties to the Turkish nationalist movement and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party.

Last year, Erdogan called on Muslim Turks to have five children and "educate your children at better schools."

Bos noted a survey found three-quarters of Catholic and Protestant schools visited a non-Christian place of worship. In 41 percent of those cases, it was a mosque.

Additionally, parents are often not informed of the field trips and schools take steps to hide the information from the public. Oftentimes, Bos found that the school would take down the information from their website after parents complained or they were contacted by him.

"The government has made goals for education that include respect for other religions," Bos said. The curriculum includes spiritual direction, yoga, meditation and visiting a church. In practice, Bos found little to no efforts being made to take Muslim students to non-Islamic places of worship.

Read more: Dutch Children Forced to Submit to Islam

EU: Overview - What is the Europe 2020 strategy about?

The Europe 2020 strategy is the EU's agenda for growth and jobs for the current decade. It emphasises smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in order to improve Europe's competitiveness and productivity and underpin a sustainable social market economy.

To reach this objective, the EU has adopted targets to be reached by 2020 in five areas:

• Employment
• Research & Development
• Climate change & energy
• Education
• Poverty and social exclusion

 What are the key targets to be reached by 2020?

The headline targets related to the strategy's key objectives at the EU level cover:

• Employment:
  > 75% of the population aged 20 to 64 years to be employed;

• Research & Development:
  > 3% of GDP to be invested in the R&D sector;

• Climate change & energy: 
  > Greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by 20% compared to 1990
  > Share of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption to be increased to 20%
  > Energy efficiency to be improved by 20%

• Education: 
  > Share of early school leavers to be reduced under 10%
  > At least 40% of 30 to 34 years old to have completed tertiary or equivalent education

• Poverty and social exclusion: 
  > At least 20 million people fewer at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

The EU-level targets have been translated into  national targets in each EU country, reflecting different situations and circumstances.

The Netherlands: 38% of international students remain in Holland five years after graduation

Rotterdam Erasmus University Campus

Over a third of all international students who graduated from Dutch universities have remained in the Netherlands five years later, according to a report from EP-Nuffic on the rate of retention of foreign students.

Welcome, to work’, produced in collaboration with Bureau Blaauwberg, found that the five-year stay rate of international students from the 2008/09 graduating cohort was 38%, higher than the global average of 25% recorded by the OECD.

Of that cohort, 71% are employed in the country, reflecting the efforts of national campaigns to train foreign talent to enter the labour market.

“Substantial numbers of students come here because of the quality and reputation of the education system, without even a thought of remaining in the Netherlands to work afterwards,” the report notes, but adds that the figures “suggest that a majority of graduates wish to seriously evaluate their prospects in the Dutch labour market, or for further study.”

Promoting the Dutch labour market to foreign graduates is a leading tactic in initiatives to retain students.

Of the 7,350 international students graduating in 2008, 70% were still in the country in October 2009 while two years on, 3,540 students, or 48%, remained.

Retention figures are higher among students outside of the EU and EEA, who have free access to the Dutch labour market, the report shows.

“Since [non-EEA students] have already made a big decision, it makes sense that they would put in more effort to stay on after graduation,” it says.

The number of international students has consistently risen in the Netherlands in recent years, with close to 90,000 international student enrolments in 2014/15, up from 70,389 the previous year.

The EP-Nuffic program, Make it in the Netherlands, aims to show students the career opportunities available once they graduate.

The scheme’s efforts consist of bridging the divide between Dutch and non-Dutch students, helping to connect international students’ studies to a career path and making the Dutch language more attractive to learn for international students.

“An early acquaintance with the Dutch language is essential for a successful start in the domestic labour market,” the report notes.

The program also aims to increase the scale of regional student retention campaigns, and reduce red tape for students who are looking for work.

“Where possible, we’ve decreased this red tape and made sure that more information is provided in English,” a spokesperson from EP-Nuffic told The PIE News.

“One of the main results was that the possibilities for the so-called ‘orientation year’ in which students are allowed to stay in Holland to look for work has been simplified and elaborated.”

The report also credits higher education institutions for the higher than average stay rate.
“When it comes to increasing the stay rate and retaining international students in the Dutch labour market, to date the institutions have taken the lead,” says the report.

It also makes recommendations of what more could be done to encourage international students to stay in the country post-graduation.

“Increased efforts would benefit, for example, from more regional collaboration and a comprehensive national, social and economic agenda,” the spokesperson said.

“Municipalities, businesses, not-for-profit organizations and higher education organizations should better exploit cross connections.”

EU-Digest

Gay Rights: Netherlands to teach asylum seekers about LGBT rights - by Janene Pieters

The Ministry of Education is launching an initiative in which all asylum seekers in all asylum centers in the Netherlands will be taught about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The same information material that is used in schools will also be used for this, Dutch newspaper Trouw reports.

“We must not be naive. Asylum seekers come from countries where women’s rights are not always respected, where gay rights are not a given. We are making it clear that discrimination is not tolerated”, Education Minister Jet Bussemaker said.

According to the Minister, schools have good experiences with the so-called Gay straight alliance method, in which students, teachers and directors provide information about LGBT people and create “a safe atmosphere in which students can be themselves” .

Bussemaker wants this method to also be applied in the asylum centers. “This can be done in various ways: in classrooms, in discussion groups, each center will find an approach that works. We provide educational materials to promote social security, to start the difficult discussion and also to to bring gay asylum seekers in contact with the Dutch LGBT community.”

Bussemaker wants gay interest group COC, which helps schools with LGBT information, to also be involved in providing information to asylum seekers. She is also approaching “Pink in blue, the organization for gay police officers. In the coming weeks the minister will hold a conference with the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers COA, aldermen and the COC, among others, to make arrangements.

This follows a number of incidents of LGBT asylum seekers being harassed in asylum centers, including a gay Iraqi couple being forced to flee the shelter in Apeldoorn after being attacked by fellow residents and reports of routine harassment in the Heumensoord asylum camp in Nijmegen. One gay asylum seeker in the center in Haarlem told Het Parool in December that he is forced to keep his sexual orientation secret in the center for fear of attacks.

Amsterdam decided to to shelter LGBT asylum seekers separately following a number of threats and incidents. The PvdA faction in Rotterdam asked mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb to do the same.

Read more: Netherlands to teach asylum seekers about LGBT rights - NL Times

EU Migrant Crises: The economics behind Europe’s migrant crisis - by Mohamed A. El-Erian

Fleeing economic and social miseries of home countries

As our Eurostar train zipped from London through the Chunnel to Paris, I couldn't help thinking about the thousands of migrants languishing on both sides of the English Channel. Once again, national and regional political systems are struggling to cope with a mounting human tragedy whose spillover effects involve disruptions to commerce, and all this is stoking a political crisis.

The economics of the Channel migrant crisis are quite clear, being basically about supply, demand and regulatory failures. They also shed light on the potential solutions, though they will take time to materialize.

The supply of migrants to Europe is fueled by waves of people fleeing the economic and social misery of their home countries — and, in some case, political oppression, persecution and violence.

They do so in hopes of a better future for themselves and their children. The temptation for some to try and make it all the way to the U.K., often after a perilous sea crossing and a fraught trip through western Europe, is amplified by the attractiveness of an economy with low unemployment, comprehensive social services and a country where many already know the language. 

Although the supply of migrants has increased, the demand for migrant labour has gone the other way. Tougher laws have made it harder and more dangerous for employers to hire undocumented workers. And with a European unemployment rate of more than 10 per cent, the demand is further damped. 

This imbalance in supply and demand isn't one that can be sorted out by the markets' normal equilibrating mechanism. The market-clearing wage — that is, the price that would lower the migration incentive while facilitating the absorption of those still inclined to risk life and limb — is well below the minimum wage prevailing in Europe; and any meaningful reduction in the wage would involve significant and unacceptable social disruptions to local populations in Europe.

Read more: The economics behind Europe’s migrant crisis: MIGRANTS

European Technology: A €63 billion EU app boom. Nearly 5 million jobs in European app sector by 2018, says EU report

Apps=Skills=Jobs

The EU's app sector has gone from zero to digital superhero in less than five years. By 2018 it could employ 4.8 million people and contribute €63 billion to the EU economy according to a report presented in Brussels today.

The study, carried out by GIGAOM and NUI Galway for the European Commission, shows that Europe's app developers are up to the challenge of taking the global lead.

 Currently, EU and North American developers generate the same levels (42% each) of app revenues in crucial EU and US markets. Although the future is bright, developers have raised concerns about the skills gap, connectivity and fragmentation which could put the app boom at risk

Today the app economy employs 1 million developers, and 800,000 people in marketing & support posts.

This could rise to 2.7 million developers + 2.1 million support staff by 2018. EU buyers and advertisers spent €6.1 billion on apps in 2013, 30% of total global app spending, growing to €18.7 billion in 2018. Consumer spending combined with advertising and contract work could lead to €63 billion annual revenue for the app sector within five years.

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, said "In the face of increasing youth unemployment, these figures give me new hope. The app sector is one area of the digital economy where Europe can really lead. But we have to address concerns about connectivity and fragmentation – yet another reason to complete the telecom single market!"

28 EU leading companies created 40% of the top 100 grossing apps in the EU and US. Three of the top-five companies are Nordic games developers (1st King.com, 2nd, Supercell, 5th Rovio)with German, French, Spanish and UK app developers also finding success outside their native markets. 

Growing market, growing jobs: In 2013, developers earned €11.5 billion making apps for consumer goods, banking, media, retail and other clients. They can expect to earn up to €46 billion through contracts of this nature in 2018. The app boom is creating jobs, for example contract developers Golden Gekko (London/Barcelona) plans to grow its staff 40-50% next year and London-based Grapple Mobile was a 3-person firm three years ago, employs 120 now, and intends to double next year.

Almere-Digest

Netherlands scores poorly in HSCB survey among Expats as a country they want to work and live in

The Netherlands which claims and is often seen as a great place for foreign companies to establish operations only ranked 18th in the 2013 Expat Explorer Survey  by the HSBC as the best countries for expatriates to live, work and raise your children in. 

If you're sick of your home country and are yearning for a change, you might want to consider settling in Asia for the next chapter of your life.

A new study by HSBC ranks several Asian nations among the best countries for expatriates in 2013. The annual Expat Explorer Survey analyzes the findings from 7,000 expats to rank their new homes according to criteria including economics, experience, and raising children.

When considering all three categories, China comes out on top with high scores in economics and experience. Despite faring poorly in the field of raising children, expats in China report high salaries and better quality of life than in their home countries.

Switzerland tops all nations in terms of economics, though it remains unranked overall due to insufficient data in the raising children category. Hailed as a "beacon of growth," Switzerland instills financial optimism in its new inhabitants, with expats citing strong fiscal policy and healthy markets.

When it comes to experience, however, Thailand outpaces the field, thanks to top scores for healthy diet, working environment, social life, local shops and markets, and local culture. Expats living in Thailand enjoy a high quality of life with little trouble integrating; 76% noted how easy it was to make friends in their new land.

And of course, food plays an important role in satisfying these expats. Like Switzerland, however, Thailand also could not be ranked overall because of its lack of data on raising children.

In that category, Germany reigns supreme, with high scores in child education, quality of childcare, and child health and wellbeing. Expat parents laud German education options as cost-effective while still reporting an improvement in the quality of schooling over those available in their home countries. Deutschland also received high scores in economics, helping the nation to place second overall among all three criteria.

http://www.expatexplorer.hsbc.com/#/countries

Lotteries: are they a hidden "scam" to make the lower income earners pay more tax?

The world lottery news reports that in the the first half of the year global lottery sales were up nearly 5% world-wide after a sluggish start with Latin American, Asia Pacific, and North American markets performing strongly in the second quarter.

Latin America showed a increase in sales of 24.6% for the first six months of 2013. Argentina’s Lotería Nacional Sociedad reported an increase in sales of 31% for the period January–June 2013 and Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal also enjoyed healthy sales growth, reporting an increase in sales of 12.5% for the first half of 2013.

The Asia Pacific region witnessed an increase in sales of 11.1% for H1 2013 over H1 2012, including the China Sports lottery increased by CNY 10.54 billion and the Chinese Welfare lottery increased by CNY 10.11 billion for the first six months of 2013.

European lotteries witnessed a relative decrease in sales of 1.7% but was still up a small percentage against the same time frame in 2012.

In the North American market, an increase of 9.4% on sales for the second quarter of 2013 was reported. 

The North American lottery system is a $70 billion-a-year business, an industry bigger than movie tickets, music, and porn combined. These tickets have a grand history: Lotteries were used to fund the American colonies and helped bankroll the young nation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, lotteries funded the expansion of Harvard and Yale and allowed the construction of railroads across the continent.

Since 1964, when New Hampshire introduced the first modern state lottery, governments have come to rely on gaming revenue. (Forty-three states and every Canadian province currently run lotteries.) In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding.

While approximately half of Americans buy at least one lottery ticket at some point, the vast majority of tickets are purchased by about 20 percent of the population. These high-frequency players tend to be poor and uneducated, which is why critics refer to lotteries as a regressive tax. (In a 2006 survey, 30 percent of people without a high school degree said that playing the lottery was a wealth-building strategy.) On average, households that make less than $12,400 a year spend 5 percent of their income on lotteries—a source of hope for just a few bucks a throw.

A 2008 Carnegie Mellon study found that "lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals' desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations." As the study's lead author said: "The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape." (For what it's worth, the odds of winning the latest Powerball drawing were about one in 175 million.) A Duke University study found that the poorest third of households purchase more than half of the lottery tickets sold during a given week.

So let's acknowledge the lottery for what it is: a tax on those who can least afford it that is levied by preying on the very fact that they can't afford to buy the things they need. Sure, buying lottery tickets can be fun in the short term, but in the long run, lotteries are a truly cynical way for states to raise money.

As to the operational mechanics of lottery systems - investigators probably would have a field day looking into these structures. It is obvious that the super-computers which run these lotteries can easily be manipulated.

EU-Digest 

The Netherlands: Facts And Figures About Higher Education In The Netherlands

The Erasmus University in Rotterdam

A student born in what is called the "European Space" which includes the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles pays a standard fee per annum, valid at every Dutch Institution of higher learning, of 1.835 euro plus a 500 euro educational material fee (books etc) p/a  The level of the annual fee is set by the government on a yearly basis.

Financial Student Aid in the Netherlands is a mix of Government grants and loans which amount to a total of euro 960.87 p/a if the student lives outside the parental home, or euro 765.80 if the student lives at home. University students who can show proof of enrollment in a certified institution of higher learning are also eligible for a free public transport and railway pass valid for the academic year they are enrolled in.

Students have to show proof of academic progress on a yearly basis in order to qualify for the continuation of grants, loans, etc.

Insurance: Every Dutch citizen who reaches the age of 18 years (including students) has to be enrolled in the national health insurance program with a basic minimum fee of 87 euro per month. Students of parents who earn less than the minimum established yearly income can apply for additional grants in support of their children's education.

There are also various opportunities for Dutch Nationals to study abroad. For additional information: http://www.fulbright.nl/, http://www.wilweg.nl/, http://www.wilweg.nl/financiering/beursopener

Almere-Digest