Yes, everything I am saying here is based on high social mobility, high median net wealth and high minimum wage. I like my capitalism in the hands of many.

1 FTE should always allow someone to save up a good amount of money. The minister in Flemish parlement I voted for is investing in social housing now. Relieving pressure on renters from private options. I do want both public and private options, government doesn’t need monopoly like in Singapore.

i view these things as trampolines, not as crutches.

Like at my work, newbie comes from a home where neither parent could work. Father is blind/deaf and mother takes care of him. Idk how they did it, but they own a house. I’m completely fine with that, I prefer to work than to be blind/deaf, by a lot.

But I’ve also been talking to an older guy who has no money at all, 57 years old, lives in social housing and didn’t work for more than 5 years because “his knees hurt”. Not a fan of him. His daughter starts life with the basic package because he never really tried.

But I’m very happy that his daughter has all the opportunity. She’s educated and can choose her own path. (She can’t move out until his pension or he will lose a lot of his monthly income).

We have an aging population, so it’s fine I guess. Money to raise a kid.

Like I’m a fan of immigration not for the first generation but the second generation. That’s the real investment. Even though nowadays first gen immigrants will be quite better, as education in the world has been drastically improving.

What our prime minister did first, was limit unemployment benefits to 2 years and increase the unemployment benefits in the first year. That’s good. It needs to be insurance, not an early retirement alongside your other passive incomes.

I don’t want people to hate rich people, I want them to become rich. I want them to feel good in the country they grew up with. View people as equals socially.

Personally I can’t imagine not growing as a person when working 38 hours a week. If you don’t learn anything, please change job. They are wasting your time.

But my wife has that choice. She’s working part time as cleaner while learning Dutch. Now she’s pregnant and for the time being she will just continue working part time as cleaner. It’s nearby our home so it’s very convenient. She pays basically no taxes, it’s pretty good for us financially. She has a law degree from her country of origin, so she can likely just get a career option if she so wishes. But she prefers to focus on being a mom. Her choice. We’ll get 250 euros per month for the kid. I’ll pay 50 euros fewer taxes every month. We’ll get a free stroller and car seat. Giving birth will be 300 euros. They’ll give us 1200 euros at birth.

Personally I cannot understand the desire to not grow qualifications. Learning things is fun. It’s very boring to go week in week out without learning anything.

But yes there are people that don’t care. My wife can choose what she prefers. Both are adequate options. Spending more time with our kid is valuable. Honestly I think our aging population is because people work too much. My grandmothers didn’t work, my mom worked part time. My wife’s sisters and mom don’t work.

So it’s definitely a complex thing.

I don’t think someone needs a job in order to learn things either. But it’s quite useful. I hope she gets an opportunity for a different job that also is easily manageable with a family while also learning more things.

The good thing about cleaning is that she gets a good workout out of it. 4 hours per week day, it’s social. She sees dogs etc. People are nice. (Not the old ones that can’t speak English and are more of the funny old racist generation)

Basically, a country needs to be designed in such a way that when you’re poor at age 57, it’s your own choice.