Are we here to stay?

Greece, Italy and Spain are bringing us down. Their uncompetitive economies, irresponsible government spending and idiotic electorate (who are unwilling to pay the price for their mistake), are not only bringing them close to bankruptcy, but also putting a heavy load on our economy. The only way we can save ourselves, and them, is to kick these countries out of the European Union and start with a clean slate.

Europeans, lets not kid ourselves. This crisis is not caused by the financial sector or overspending governments, but by a decease which has been developing itself in our collective underbelly for the past 30 years: Ignorance combined with an unhealthy dose of arrogance.

I learned in high school that the Western world provided the knowledge and the Eastern world the labour. That China consisted out of copy cats and that India was the service desk of the world. That idea has become more and more outdated from the day that India and China started investing in their youth.

They have a high pressure from home to perform, face gruelling competition, have the desire for a better life, a top notch educational system and live in a relatively collective society. These factors did not only create a generation which matches us in knowledge, but also surpasses us in drive. This is what made the real GDP in India and China grow with an average rate of 8% per year during the last 10 years while Europe is stuck at a growth rate of 1%.  

A Dutch president once argued for the “VOC” mentality to return to the nation, supposedly pointing to the Golden Age of the Netherlands and the “Yes, we can” mentality that was raging during that time. It was shot down as a glorification of our colonial past by critics from all corners of the national political landscape. These critics however failed to see the true point that Daniel Radcliffe was making: We need to go overseas again to find our future.

Not to decimate and enslave the local population, or strip the land of its resources, but to ride on the wave of opportunity that a rapidly growing welfare provides. Why does the Spanish youth stay in Spain while the unemployment rate of their age group is close to 50%? Why are they not emigrating to a country which is currently undergoing their Golden Age?

Your purchasing power will be a bit lower, living conditions will be poorer and there is no social safety net. You will however see all these three things improve over the next decades in India and China, while Europe will only be deteriorating. Language and immigration laws remains as the two most sturdy barriers, but these can be broken down by a shrewd Indian or Chinese businessman with a keen sense for business opportunities….