May 1 and the fairy tale of the hardworking Dutchman – Joop

In church last Sunday the pastor pointed out the Brazilian priest to us Clear Camera who exposed the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church on poverty. Helder Camara said: if I feed the poor then I am a saint. If I ask why the poor are poor, I am a communist.

It’s a bit like that in the Netherlands. All political parties considered social security to be the most important theme of the elections and wanted to get rid of the benefits system. But if you actually want to tackle the system that causes poverty, namely that on the one hand too little is paid for work and on the other hand capital can grow unchecked, then all arguments are used to protect that capital. Anyone who wants to skim the capital is then a danger to the state.

A few weeks ago one rejected majority in the Senate the proposal to increase the minimum wage by 1.2%. This amounts to an extra 25 euros per month for someone who earns the minimum wage or receives benefits. If you earn little, that 25 euros means pants for your child or saving for a new washing machine. Someone with a lot of capital in the bank does not even notice that there is 25 euros more in the account. I’m still becoming angry when I think about that debate.

The opponents of the minimum wage increase had an arsenal of arguments to vote against. SMEs could no longer afford it. The minimum wage has already increased considerably in recent years. But the most important reason was that this increase in the minimum wage and the linked benefits was paid from capital: from the profits of banks, through a small increase in boxes 2 and 3 and by taxing the purchase of own shares. You would think that this would be logical if you believe that work should pay and money should flow. But during the next discussion of the Tax Plan, right-wing parties tried to undo that coverage. Murder and fire, the business climate! But above all, the idea that capital would pay for labor is almost an immoral idea. Alternative coverage was not possible, so they voted against the increase in the minimum wage.

The cynical thing is that parties that say they stand up for the hard-working Dutchman, when push comes to shove, mainly put a thick wall around ‘hard-earned’ capital. In their election manifesto, these parties want to get rid of allowances and therefore believe that salaries should be high enough to live on. But the best way to break the system of poverty is to ensure that work pays more and simply having capital pays less. Yes, that’s what Marx concluded too. But somehow Marx has become a curse word and those down on their luck still work hard for too little money to get by.

Could that be the reason that fewer and fewer workers celebrate May 1 as Labor Day? After all, it is a fairy tale that hard work pays off. There’s not much to celebrate. As a hard-working Dutchman, you don’t have time for fighting. People who are lucky enough to accumulate capital have more reason to celebrate May 1. They can toast all those others who clean the house, pick vegetables, take care of grandma, debone meat or deliver packages for too little salary.