A future to look forward to

DWARS and GroenLinks present:

A future to look forward to

The place where your cradle matters. Opportunities in life are passed on from generation to generation. This starts at an early age. Children of poor parents get a lower school recommendation than you would expect based on the final test. This inequality of opportunity continues throughout life, e.g. education level is the best predictor of higher income later on.

This is not the only thing that skews. For all young people: it can no longer be taken for granted that they will have a better life later than their parents. Wealth inequality between younger and older generations is growing, affordable housing is often unobtainable in today's market, and young people are much more likely to struggle with precarious employment contracts.

Young people are more idealistic, but also more stressed than ever. This is not surprising: our society has become a performance society. At the same time, the real issues in society are not being addressed. Cabinet after cabinet seems to care more about multinationals and market forces than about growing inequality of opportunity, fair distribution of wealth and scarcity of affordable housing. Moreover, the bill for the climate crisis is pushed forward time and again.

The challenges facing young generations are enormous. Being young means taking time and space to develop. Into something. Into someone. It is up to politicians to work for a future to look forward to, even for young people who are not made for school.

DWARS and GroenLinks stand side-by-side with young generations and want to achieve the following with our youth plan.

1. Fair start

'Over the past five to 10 years, inequality of opportunity in education increased. Students with equal achievements increasingly entered different levels. Their parents' qualifications became increasingly important in this regard.' - Education Inspectorate (2019)

We reverse the growing inequality of opportunity and wealth. From the age of eighteen, young people will be given an initial capital of €10,000. This will give all young people a chance to invest in their future. For the first five years, the start-up capital can be used for tuition fees, fees or study costs. And whether you become a plasterer or a heart surgeon, a world traveller or a beautician: from the age of 23, the start-up capital is freely available as an investment in your future. We replace the loan system with a new scholarship of up to €400 per month, depending on parents' income. We compensate the 'loan system generation' by making the start-up capital available to this group of students retroactively. This is fair.

2. Affordable housing

'Rents rise faster than wages' - NOS / CBS (2020)

Everyone has the right to decent housing. That is why we want to make a rent subsidy available for young people in non-self-contained housing or student rooms. At the same time, we tackle rising housing costs by largely abolishing free market forces in the rental sector. By setting the maximum rent through the housing rating system, most tenants in the free sector will start paying hundreds of euros less per month. To meet growing housing demand, we will build 1 million sustainable new homes over the next decade. Tens of thousands of these will consist of student housing.

3. Decent pay

'Well-being is lower among people who are insecure about their jobs or income (...) Among people on flexible contracts, there are relatively high numbers of young people, the lower-educated, people with disabilities and people from non-Western migration backgrounds.' - Social Cultural Planning Office (2020)

We address the wage gap. We abolish the minimum youth wage and gradually raise the minimum wage to EUR 14 per hour. More and more young people can barely make ends meet because of low wages and high costs. By raising the lowest wages, we reduce the wage gap between rich and poor. Young people deserve more security, which is why permanent contracts will become the norm again. We do this by making temporary contracts more expensive for employers and making false self-employment impossible. We put an end to exploitation via odd forms of contract. Payrolling and zero-hours contracts will be abolished.

4. Relaxed society

'A few groups are really struggling because of the corona crisis: homeless people, the elderly, but especially the youth. There we see an increase in anxiety, stress and depression.' - the Dutch Mental Health Care (2020)

The corona crisis is hitting young people unabatedly hard. By testing more frequently for the corona virus, we are rapidly containing the virus and can give young people more freedoms. For instance, by reopening lecture halls and lifting restrictions in amateur competitions. We tackle the long waiting lists in the mental health sector by abolishing market forces in healthcare. We will lower the health care premium to 10 euros and abolish the deductible for low- and middle-income groups. This includes most young people. Finally, we tackle the causes of stress in education, among other things by actually turning binding study advice back into advice.

5. Everyone equal

'Discrimination appears to be a persistent problem in the Dutch labour market'. - research by the Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam (2019)

Institutional racism exists in the Netherlands. Your origin matters when it comes to finding an internship, work and housing. The government is also guilty of discrimination, as the Toeslagen affair unfortunately showed. We fight institutional racism in the government and push back discrimination in the labour market and public housing. We are only equal when everyone is.

6. We tackle the crisis of the future

The corona crisis is not our last crisis. If we do nothing, the climate crisis will be many times bigger in impact and scale than the current one. We must therefore act immediately: there is no time to lose. With a Green New Deal, we will make society and the economy more sustainable at a rapid pace. As a result, in 2030 we emit about 60 per cent less CO2 and other greenhouse gases than in 1990. And we create 100,000 new jobs in this green economy. By 2045, the entire society will be climate neutral.