Taiwan friends have been worried about the domestic economy for quite some time. They look envious to the performance of other countries including The Netherlands.
I am always somewhat embarrassed by this. How easy do people tend to forget that twenty years ago The Netherlands economically were in bad shape: double digit unemployment, double digit inflation, high government deficit, low profitability in the private sector?
It took us ten years to sort this out. So we were just in time when an unprecedented economic boom of eight years was in front of us. (Timing is a very important element in this kind of issues)
What caused the turnaround? Allow me to tell a small story instead of giving a lot of macro-economic data. In those days when in The Netherlands factories were closed on a weekly basis, every time that happened workers, politicians and the media gathered in front of the factory gate.
And the journalists always asked the same question to the politicians: "what is the government doing to do about this?"
Then one day a politician said: "Nothing, because it is not our problem. It is the problem of the company.
If they have mismanaged their commercial risk they should face the consequences." Of course this statement came as quite a shock.
But the politicians persevered. The laid off workers were given additional training to prepare them for other, maybe more promising jobs.
The entrepreneurs were saved from moral hazard. And The Netherlands slowly and painfully started back on the road to recovery.
I leave it to our Taiwan friends to decide what lessons to draw from this story.
However my final admonition is: never forget the lessons from the past.
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