Not unlike reports from other area’s all over the world the Dutch report to have an increase in income equality. Quite surprisingly the gap is growing fast while in recent history the gap has been relatively stable. According to numbers of the Statistics Agency (CBS) the top 1% of the country owned 24% of the private wealth at the start of 2012, at the start of 2013 this had risen to 26.6 percent.
It seems only the richest are able to leave their capital intact as the middle class has very little assets left to handle any new financial set backs. An even more disturbing situation is the increasing debt problems of the poorest, as told by professor van Bavel of the Utrecht University.
Before the financial crisis in 2008 the top 1% owned only 20% of the wealth in the country. This clearly shows that the richest of the nation got even richer, a number received quite shocking by the ‘ordinary’ Dutch. An eyeopener for the government, as many political parties are now using these numbers in their promotional campaigns. There are strong believes to not increase taxes on income but rather taxes on capital to decrease the income equality.