The NY Times has an article called "Going Dutch" in which an American explains where his Dutch taxes go.  He at first resented the 52% tax, but then started to get surprise checks in the mail including a big one to use for vacations on top of the pay he would continue to receive from his employer while on vacation.  Check out the beautiful Dutch hybrid that melds a capitalist free market with a little social well being.
Going Dutch

The story of the Dutch fits into the theme of "What Makes Us Free?" that I'm continually pondering.  "Purebreds and Mongrels" is a theme I've also written on before.  The economist Milton Friedman and his spawn concocted a junk theory of free market capitalism and proceeded to anoint it with holy oil and decree it pure.  Economists who disagreed were considered mongrels. These mongrels growled that the markets were chaotic and hardly pure.  So they argued that it was probably a good idea for the state to herd them a little and create an atmosphere where people didn't "fear the future".  The state should "liberate" its citizens from that fear. Some people, like the Dutch, devised a system to alleviate "fear" by having some safety nets. You can't get turned down for health care and there are no co-pays. If you get sick, you don't lose your house.     When you retire, you can live a decent life.

But the oligarchs here in the U.S. do the opposite.  As George Carlin said, want "obedient workers--people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it."

Our oligarchs, like the advertisement says, "want it all and they want it now".  Countries like The Netherlands have marginalized those kinds of people with those kind of attitudes even though the Dutch are the original capitalists.  The Dutch value work but they also value and take seriously their leisure time with their families.  Maybe that's the reason why in a recent  poll of 21 industrial countries, Dutch children were the happiest and American children were second from the last.  Insecure American parents dashing madly around to pay for braces (90% of the cost of them paid in The Netherlands) and college might have something to do with that.

There will always be forces that threaten stability and peace, but you can keep them at bay when you live by the creed that we are all "down in the polder together" as Jared Diamond reports in his book "Collapse".  Rich and poor alike live behind the Dutch dike system in the below sea level country called the polder.   The rich don't live on top and the poor below.  Both rich and poor are responsible for keeping the pump system going that returns the sea water that seeps in back to the rivers and oceans. And so they have a history of solving problems together.   It is not a case as Naomi Klein said recently of the rich throwing the poor overboard to keep the crooked capitalist boat floating.

The article points out that the Dutch tend to be kind of conformist and samey.  They, like the Danes, don't like people who get above themselves which may be why my Dutch grandfather tried twice when he was young to run away to America.  He wanted to get above being a plumber.  He yearned to own a farm and have an adventure.   The first time he ran away they found him in a small boat heading out of the Zuiderzee into the North Sea.  The next time he stowed away on a ship.  Funny thing was he turned out to be a lousy farmer and ended up working for Ford in Detroit.  All five of his children became very educated and very successful.  But his siblings did just fine staying home in the Netherlands too. 

A hybrid would be a good idea.  Splice our American love of freedom with the real sense of freedom that comes with sensible cheap health care, paid sick leave, paid vacations to spend time with your family, a living wage with adequate housing, proper schools and an army only for defense and not invasions.   That smells like freedom from fear to me.

(longer version cross posted at montanamaven.com)