25 September 2010. In The Netherlands we are now confronted with a house market that has come to a stand still. This is not an Dutch problem.We see it all around Europe and the North American countries.
I can only write about the Dutch situation and there are probably some similarities.
Dutch government for years have stimulated people to create debts and get a tax deduction. From the perspective of government this is a wise thing to do, because this way you keep the population totally dependant on you during at least 30 years. That is what a mortgage is, a debt untill we die.
From a personal finance point of view it is totally insane and it leads to new and hidden slavery, although slavery was abolished during the 19the century.
At the same time people who can afford to buy a house are subsidized year in year out on the costs of the taxpayers. This means others pay for your house as well. At the same time government takes all kind of measures to see to it that people with high incomes live in expensive houses, whether they like it or not. The argument is that this way the cheaper houses can be available for people with a small income.
This policy has totally failed. The house market has stopped to function.
I want to make an inquiry into other possibilities.
Let’s assume that we are really free to live where we want to live and to spend what we want to spend. Then most people would want a sustainable home against a reasonable price.
Consequence would be that we would build less and cheaper houses, resulting in further downsizing in the building industry, because we would only build what we would need.
Short term this would be a disaster for the existing building industry, but for the world as a whole it would be a blessing.
For the existing financial industry it would be a disaster as well and we can ask ourselves whether the financial industry and the building industry as they have functioned up untill now have become obsolete in a certain way. Time will tell. People don’t trust financial institutions anymore and they have reasons to do so.
So I think we have only seen the top of the iceberg and things will go on transforming and we as “drama kings and queens” instead of being with what is so call it a disaster.
Or is there a more empowering interpretation?
Leaders, no matter what the circumstances, always create the world around them as they see it.
To me this means taking responsibility for your financial situation and train yourself to be financially free no matter what the cicumstances are.
If you live in The Netherlands or Belgium and you are interested visit
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