Why Forced Charity is a Good Thing
June 26th, 2007, by HilkoLast Sunday, on of the pastors at my church, Eric Asp, preached about Ephesians 4. He read verse 28, which is on the subject of stealing, and linked this to the Dutch welfare system. A brave, and somewhat controversial statement, this caused a bit of a stir in the audience.
I’ve been thinking about the issue since then, and I’m torn between two points of view.
On the one hand I hold the somewhat libertarian view that the government is to mess with our lives as little as possible. On the welfare issue, I think people should share from their heart, and not through impersonal taxes in an inefficient welfare system.
Last year, another point of view presented itself. When I hitchhiked to Taizé, I got a ride to and from Paris with an Economics professor at the uVa (University of Amsterdam). He knew a lot about politics, and told me me much about the pros and cons of the Dutch welfare system. He explained that, while I might be right in theory, I shouldn’t forget about the practical, and often grim reality of things.
Theoretically, we can make a great point that the Dutch welfare system makes people lazy, uncaring, and dependent. But practically, it turns out to be a working solution, while letting people free to give is not. People are selfish, and this freedom to give, or not to give, would make them give too little. Should we really hold on to our ideology if it means that a lot of people live in horrible poverty?
The facts are that the Dutch are among the most generous when giving to charity, The Netherlands has some of the lowest unemployment ratings in the world, and the Dutch are known to be hard workers. Apparently, the Dutch welfare system does not make us uncaring, dependent on the government, or lazy. And even if it would, is that too high a price to pay for a nation-wide decent standard of living?
I’m of two minds. Ideologically, I think the Dutch welfare system is not the ‘right’ way. Practically, however, it has contributed greatly to a society with an amazing absence of poverty. In the end, I think that is what matters most to me.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Thanks for your thoughts, Hilko. I can totally appreciate your perspective.
As a matter of fact — let the record show — I would not advocatie for a complete annihilation of the Dutch welfare system at this point in history. I do, however, think that some reform could certainly be useful. For example, perhaps any person on welfare should be expected to get a job to the best of their ability, and then whatever extra income is needed to supplement a lower-level job could be provided by the government (as it is right now, however, a person on welfare would never dream of working 20 hours a week at an Albert Heijn grocery store — even if they were physically and mentally capable of such a position — because that would cut them off from their benefits and thus leave them without enough money to pay for food and rent and such, which is obviously not desireable)… I don’t know. This is just an idea. Any system is prone to its abuses; I just know an astonishing number of people here in Amsterdam who are taking unfair advantage of the system without any real sense of regret or shame.
Furthermore — just to clarify — I wanted my challenge from Sunday to be directed toward those able-bodied Christ-followers, who are challenged to “no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking” (Ephesians 4:17). As in areas of conflict management, dealing with anger, gossip, and other forms of interpersonal relationships — the body of Christ is specifically called to a different standard than the rest of the world: “putting off the old” and “putting on the new” (vv. 22-24).
The fact of the matter is that true Christ-followers are a ridiculously small minority in the Netherlands, and until we can see an explosion in the number of people coming into a relationship with Christ and exponential church growth — it’s probably not a bad idea for the government to enforce some kind of social safety net (even arguing from an entirely secular point of view). So I think there are definitely some positive aspects to the Dutch system (as you’ve pointed out). As Christians, though, I hope we can be challenged to consider a higher calling…
June 26th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Hey Eric, thanks for the clarification. I had been wondering what exactly your stance was, because you obviously couldn’t go into detail on Sunday.
While you were the ‘catalyst’ to my post, so to speak, I wasn’t specifically writing in reaction to what you had said. It’s an issue that had been on my mind off and on.