I know over-construction and understaffing are now global problems, but they are particularly acute in the Netherlands. The country has run out of space and staff. Sure, a recession may temporarily loosen the jobs market, but the problem was acute pre-pandemic and will simply resurface whenever growth resumes. The Netherlands is probably the first country to hit the limits of economic growth.
Other overdeveloped places such as the Bay Area, New York and Singapore may follow, running out of room for new workers and businesses. This raises the question: can a rich place be happy if its economy stops growing?
If the size of an economy were defined by how many people you could fit into an acre then this would be a useful observation.
Given that an economy’s size is defined by how much value is added in it then it’s fucking idiocy.
So, that’s all you need to know about this.
I know the FT has been going down the tubes for some time, but I certainly didn’t expect that when I clicked through.
Thanks Tim
If there’s any significance to this article (which may be a bold assumption), I read it as testing the waters for Net Zero (growth).
Mentions, slightly obliquely, the Dutch government’s war on its own agricultural sector, and the European hatred of doing a full week’s work. It certainly feels like the idea of going for growth died with Kwasi’s short tenure in Number 11.
The papers carried a story about panic in Singapore a while back. They were having trouble importing enough sand for their project of extending their area by building artificial concrete land in the sea. I dare say that their inflow of refugees from Hong Kong will increase pressure on their housing.
How many refugees will they get from PRC? If I were Chinese I would want to move further than Singapore, which will presumably become the next target after Taiwan is in the bag.
If the size of an economy were defined by how many people you could fit into an acre then this would be a useful observation.
To be fair, just the other day you were promoting building houses all over the countryside as a way to grow the economy.
And so its population mushroomed. When the counter hit 14 million in 1979, Queen Juliana said, “Our country is full.” In 2010, Statistics Netherlands said the population would probably never reach 18 million. Today it’s 17.7 million and rising. The country has 507 people per sq km, nearly five times the EU’s average.
Central England (England minus the West Country, East Anglia, Northumbria and Cumbria) has over 700/km², more than 44 million people in 64,000 km² (cf 42,000 km² for NL). And that’s on 2010 census figures, which were notoriously under-counted, so you can probably add a few million to those numbers. I should think the population density of an area the size of the NL that included London would be well over 1,000/km².
Locally we keep hearing about population growing faster than housing then someone did a study and found that the growth in housing units was slightly higher than the population growth, but they were mainly condo towers and higher density in existing areas so the problem was really the growth in the type of houses people wanted (single family with a garden) not overall housing stock
Honestly, despite the density in parts of some cities, the Netherlands is pretty underbuilt. The government banned almost all new construction, and subsequently rents have gone up, now they are looking for any solution except the obvious one of letting people build housing. Like this kind of whinging.
Ummm Chris.. Don’t be Spud and pick-and-choose convenient bits to support your ideas….
Average density for a country is simply total population/land area. Which for the UK seems to be 281/km² for 2022.
If, like you did, you can strike off the Empty Bits to fluff the Numbers you’d be talking about the Randstad in the Netherlands.
Which, on average, has about 1160 peeps/km².
Your choice, your odd millions included to correct for your “undercounting”, comes down to 690 peeps/km² , rounded up to the nearest decade to give you a fighting chance.
So…yeah…
As for the writer and article.. Never heard of the bloke as a “dutch” journalist.
Not surprising as what he writes for on occasion here is basically for The Guardian on steroids.
Groene Amsterdammer = Greenie Activist Guardian. Vrij Nederland = Armchair Socialist Guardian. Quite unsubtly so as well.
And really, while he does pick up on some problems currently playing out in Clogland, it’s almost hilarious how his gripes about his…inconveniences.. that sparked his comments boil down to “Not Enough Servant Class”, and our unwillingness to import those servile people for his convenience..
Grikath
“Which for the UK seems to be 281/km² for 2022.”
Yeah, but that includes Scotland, a separate country to the north that’s mostly full of midgies. England is quite a bit higher at roughly 434 (for a UK comparable of 274). In full, including all the empty bits, it’s about 3-4 times the size of NL, so one would expect the density to be lower in any case. That’s not an unreasonable comparison.
Those cows they are culling because they belch and fart must take up a bit of space. So problem solved.
PF,
Yes, and we got the northern and eastern provinces, oh.. and the Ijsselmeer polders and Zeeland. So that’s the equivalent of Scotland and Wales sorted right there in the average for UK v/s Netherlands. Quite likely NI as well.
Your point?
What is needed for fun and illumination is a world table of countries by GDP/hectare.
I suspect NL could go much higher but it’s up to them, ah, like this place they’ve voted for a government that wants net zero.
@philip The cows do take up some space, but selective breeding has given us cows that are so good at making milk that your actual milk-producing farm only has something like 10-15 cows, including the growing younglings..
In that respect the biggest space-wasters here in Clogland are actually horses, of which there are many, and not enough of them get ‘et.
If you actually look at what’s standing around in the meadows nowadays, it’s horses in the dry bits, and sheep in the wet bits.
Oh, and f*cking golf courses…
Yet Hong Kong fits 40% of the Netherlands population into a few square miles of high rise, and (pre-2018) was one of the most awesome places on earth. And, even under the oppressive thumb of the Xi regime, is not busy closing down its small agricultural sector.
OK, I’m biased. But I would still rather live there than the Netherlands.
Tim, I grok that you have to make money, but your site is covered in sub-taboola shit. Most offensively, every page has at least 2 photos of that autistic Swedish post-schoolgirl scold scowling her moral superiority at me. It is really putting me off my Friday evening. Please get rid of them.
@Grikath
10-15 cows per farm sounds like hobby farming to me.
Or did, until I looked up milk yields. 60 litres a day pretty normal, 100 not unusual.
Bloody hell, that’s at least ten times what cows gave when I was helping out the farm. “Helping”, aged ten.
Bi1VR
The advertising you’re seeing is targeted at Kraut preferences. So maybe the Swedish Goblin does something for Squareheads. Here I get Dago. So actually some quite nice latina totty at times. Heaven knows what they get in the UK. With Brit advertising preferences about 95% effnik I’d imagine.
@ G
I’ll let you explain to the Jocks’ national rugby and football sides that they’re simply a province, just like Zeeland. 🙂
Or, if sovereignty is the real issue, then you’re now a province of the EU, maybe that’s the effective comparable…. So, how does the EU compare to the UK?
@BiS ‘ Heaven knows what they get in the UK. ‘….Price comparison websites currently. Presumably so you can shop around energy providers to find one that is not charging the current energy price cap
Now I have Greta in plaits, scowling Greta, and Annalena Baerbock with that face she makes when she realises she is wrong about everything.
It’s enough to give Rocco nightmares.
In God’s Own County I get a couple of well-padded Jamaican ladies advertising Go Compare.
Simon Kuper is a bell end of epic proportions. His usual article is whining about brexit.
@Grikath
Bollocks. You can pick out any area the size of NL in Central England as I defined it, and whichever you choose there’ll be more than half as many again people living there. If the area you select includes London, it’ll be more like double. I see your Randstad, and raise you Greater London – 9 million people in 1,600km² for a density of 5,620/km².
No need to cherry pick, Whichever way you slice and dice it, Central England, which is where 75% of the UK’s population and 80% of England’s live, is substantially more densely populated than NL. 🙂
If Simon Kuper was merely an idiot he wouldn’t be half as annoying. His habitual sneer at the oldest of his three adopted countries (he was born in Uganda of South African-Jewish parents, but has since acquired British Dutch and French nationalities – albeit not, it appears, Ugandan, South African or Israeli) shows an unjustified superiority complex.
BiS ” Heaven knows what they get in the UK. ”
The adblock in Opera is usually effective, just sometimes the screen gets greyed out until I refresh page.
What it doesn’t block is “Sponsored ContentRecommended by [With]Outbrain”
“Put Towel Below Your Hotel Door, Here’s Why”
“Plant Bananas All Over Your Backyard, Look What Happens ”
“This Billionaire’s Lavish Motorhome Has To Be Seen To Be”
“3-Foot Wide House Sells For $260K, Take A Look Inside”
etc
On ads, I’ve got “Official hair transplant partner of Everton”, which says more about the demographics of football fans than about me.