Give the country back to the entrepreneur

The Netherlands has become a country of service counters. Those who run a business fill in forms, pay consultants and accountants, and hand over half their profits. Those who do not run a business receive benefits. The result is a country where working and taking risks scarcely pay any more, where the entrepreneur is viewed with envy and where factories move away.

Let residents and businesses decide for themselves again. Get the government out of the economy, lower taxes and make everyone an entrepreneur instead of a wage slave with a sugar daddy.

The problem in five figures

• €12.6 billion per year goes to ten business schemes that the government itself has evaluated negatively.¹

• 41 cents of additional research is yielded by every euro of WBSO.²

• 160,016 fte in central government in 2025, compared with 131,132 in 2021.³

• €5.8 billion extra taxes on labour in 2027.⁴

• 29 times as much venture capital per inhabitant in California as in the Netherlands.⁵⁶

Step 1 Abolish the ten schemes

Table 1. Ten schemes that, according to the government's own evaluations, do not work or barely work.

Along with the service counters, consultants, accountants and inspectors that go with them, they will all disappear at once. The money released will in the same step be returned through lower rates for everyone.

Step 2 Profit and dividends each capped at 25%

A company now pays 19% on profits up to €200,000 and 25.8% above that.¹⁷ Whoever then withdraws money from the business pays another 24.5% or 31%.¹⁸ Of every €100 in profit, €51.20 remains. With a maximum of 25% on profits and 25% on dividends, that becomes €56.20, the level in the United States.¹⁹²⁰

Table 2. What remains of profits. Author's calculation.

Those who earn can build up wealth again and invest themselves in the next innovator. That is how it works in California: founders who become rich fund the next generation of start-ups, without a service counter.

Step 3 Freedom to dismiss, own insurance, one fixed benefit

• Dismissal can happen any day. Employers and employees are free. Those who do a good job are kept on; those who find a better job leave.

• Everyone builds up their own basic insurance from 25 to 30% of their pay, through the government, but in their own name.

• The benefit is at most 75% of the minimum wage, and no more anywhere. At a minimum wage of €2,337 per month²¹ that is no more than €1,753. No allowances, no extra payments from local authorities, no stacking.

• Only a doctor can arrange a supplement, at the doctor's own responsibility, for those who cannot work because of illness or disability, and then up to the minimum wage at most.

This means that working is always more rewarding than not working. The poverty trap disappears, and with it the resentment between those who work and those who receive benefits.

Step 4 Responsibility restored, a strong police force

Responsibility must shift. At present the government arranges everything and citizens bear no responsibility. In this plan it is the other way round: citizens and entrepreneurs are responsible for their own income, insurance and business. The government withdraws to its core functions: safety, justice and law enforcement.

The government payroll bill in 2024 was €43.9 billion.²² Without the police, that is about €37 billion. Returning to 20% of the current size saves about €29.6 billion a year. Fewer rules mean fewer civil servants making, implementing and checking rules.

Those who give citizens freedom must step up social oversight. That requires a much larger police force: from 67,502 fte²³ and €9.4 billion²⁴ to a force that will eventually be five times as large. Not a police force that checks forms, but one that takes the problem off the citizen’s hands and gets to work on it:

• Reliable. Strict selection, its own integrity oversight and an officer who is known in the neighbourhood.

• Approachable. Every report is assigned a specific officer who takes up the problem and reports back to the citizen.

• Focused on the real problems. Crime, undeclared work, benefit fraud, drug dealing and subversion.

The build-up takes place in stages. First, the police force doubles: that costs an extra €9.4 billion and can be paid for entirely from the savings on government. The force then grows further towards five times its current size, paid for from the black money that is brought into the open through enforcement. That is how enforcement pays for itself.

Step 5 Care as a business

1.5 million people work in health and social care.²⁵ They spend 30% of their time on administration.²⁶ If care providers become entrepreneurs instead of carrying out protocols, that administration can be halved. This frees up the working time of around 225,000 people for actual care. The government is now pushing self-employed people back into employment.²⁷

The model is found in Switzerland: everyone chooses their own basic insurance and an excess of up to CHF 2,500 per year.²⁸ You pay the small costs yourself; you are insured for the large ones. That is how an entrepreneur works, too.

Step 6 Competing with China

China produces approximately 30% of all industrial output worldwide.²⁹ The Chinese state spends at least 1.73% of GDP on industrial policy.³⁰ Chinese industry pays around 8 cents per kWh for electricity,³¹ while the large Dutch consumer pays €116 per MWh, almost 12 cents.³²

The Netherlands cannot beat China with more subsidies: Beijing always wins that game. The Netherlands can win with what China does not have: freedom, speed, craftsmanship and entrepreneurs who make their own decisions. That requires lowering costs through lower taxes, fewer regulations, cheaper electricity and a government that gets out of the way.

Paying without borrowing

Table 3. Funding for the plan in the first phase. The author’s calculation. Savings on benefits and allowances are not yet included.

Wage and income tax raises €180.8 billion in 2027.³³ Every €1.8 billion means 1% lower tax on work. With €27 to €29 billion, tax on work can be reduced by about 15%, or the rates on profits and dividends can be reduced to 25% and the remainder allocated to work. Nothing is deferred and nothing is borrowed.

Respect for the entrepreneur

For years, the Netherlands has treated the entrepreneur as someone who needs to be monitored and earns too much. This plan turns that around. Those who work keep more than those who do not. Those who take risks may keep the proceeds. Those who break the rules will face a police force that is there. Those who build can pass it on. That is how resentment disappears and respect returns. Let the country run on capitalist principles again, and something quite different will emerge.

Accountability

The direction of this plan is the author’s. The factual figures come from the sources in the footnotes. The author’s calculations: tax per €100 of profit (tax rates applied cumulatively), savings on government (80% of the wage bill of €43.9 billion minus approximately €6.9 billion for police personnel), police costs (directly proportional to the number of FTEs), the savings from the schemes after relocation effects (for the innovation box, the CPB assumes €0.4 billion) and venture capital per inhabitant.