Back to the initial page

Reading from the screen becomes easier if you make the sentences shorter. You can do that by narrowing the webpage frame.

How the Dutch Nieuwsuur programme made America look like two different countries


On November the 3rd, I wrote that President Obama had let jobs pour out to other countries. Two days later, I saw the Nieuwsuur programme in my country, and the talk that economist Mathijs Bouman and presenter Jeroen Wollaars had about the American economy. They spoke about the stock exchange, about the unemployment and about the economic growth in the U.S..

The stock exchange was clearly rallying, according to Mr Bouman. He showed a graph of Standard & Poor's 500, the top 500 U.S. enterprises quoted on the stock exchange, and the graph went up, and it showed that it was already going upward during the Obama presidency.

Then they talked about the unemployment in the U.S.. That is at a historic low, another graph of Mr Bouman showed, and he said all demographic groups are benefiting. The graph showed that the decrease of the unemployment had already set in in 2010, when Mr Obama was about two years in office. Unemployment in America decreased from 10% in 2010 to 4,5% in 2016, and it decreased further to 3,7% in the two years of the Trump presidency.

As for the economic growth, a graph came in view that showed that a shrink of 4% in 2009 has positively turned into a growth of almost 2% in 2016-2017, and that President Trump's promise to make it 3% has almost been achieved. Mr Bouman said that the reviving of the American economy was fanned by low interest rates, but he also said that sensible economists were warning that keeping the interest rates low could overheat the economy, at the risk of increasing America's state debt, which Mr Bouman described as 'saddening'.

Mr Bouman added that the Federal Reserve Bank could increase the interest rates to prevent the state debt from going up, but that President Trump had already become angry at the prospect of such an intervention by America's central bank.

So the overall tenor of this Nieuwsuur item was: the U.S. economy is doing fine, it's actually booming, albeit with a risk of overheating, but President Trump can rightly claim he's doing a good job, although a lot of good work has already been carried out by his predecessor.

So I watched that, and I thought of having blamed President Obama for letting jobs pour out of America, and I thought: "What made me write that, two days ago? A qualified economist like Mr Bouman shows the Dutch TV viewers that President Obama's policy has actually proved to be a good cure against unemployment."

Then my memory came up with this answer: in 2015, 2016, during the campaigns for the presidency elections, I have seen many TV reports about the socalled Rust Belt, about the Midwest, about large areas in the USA with abandoned factories, where very many people felt forgotten by Washington DC. I remembered having seen Donald Trump as a candidate saying thats tons of jobs were lost to China. I remembered the young American who I quoted in my text of February the 24th, 2018, who had said: "When I look around in Walmart, all the products there are manufactured in China. How can that be good for America?" I remembered TV reports about Youngstown in Ohio, once a prosperous place where most people did well, now a city that clearly knew better days. Dutch TV, Belgian TV, British TV, German TV, they all paid attention to the economic decay of Youngstown, Ohio, as a symbol of many similar towns.

I remembered having seen TV commentators in November 2016 who could explain why Donald Trump had won. It was because many 'fly-over states' had been voting for him, and they also explained what they meant by 'fly-over states'. Those are the states where America's decision-makers are flying over, in the plane from their home at the West Coast to a meeting in New York, or from their home at the East Coast to their friends in Silicon Valley, Hollywood or somewhere else in California. I have seldom heard a more arrogant expression than 'fly-over states', but let's put that aside.

So that combination of memories had given me the idea that many American (blue collar) workers had lost their jobs in the past ten years.

Then I thought: "Youngstown, Youngstown.... haven't I made a recording of a media report about that city?" I looked it up and I actually had: on September the 10th, 2016, a report that was made by.... Nieuwsuur, the flagship news programme of the state-funded Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch Broadcasting Foundation).

And this was the report's content, by and large: presenter Mariëlle Tweebeeke tells in her introduction that Youngstown, traditionally a steel town, saw tens of thousands of jobs disappear in the past decades, because the factories had been moved to countries with low wages. She says that although the inhabitants of Youngstown are usually voting for the Democrats, many of them are now considering to vote for Donald Trump, who is promising new jobs on the ruins of the steel industry.

Images of empty factory halls with holes in the roofs. Weeds overgrowing everything. Reporter Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal, walking around in Youngstown, describes it as a 'real concrete jungle', talking to the American in his company.

Then, Donald Trump the candidate comes in the picture. "Ohio lost one third of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA..." [an international agreement that stimulates the globalization of the economy - RS] "...and almost a quarter of its manufacturing jobs since China joined the World Trade Organisation. That's really something."

Under gloomy music and the images of rusting trains, the reporter says that America went through a metamorphosis in the past decades, which can nowhere better be seen than in this town. A writer called George Packer comes in view. He tells the reporter that Henry Ford was a manufacturer who paid his workers enough money so that they too could buy his cars. Mr Packer calls it the classic example of how the industrial revolution made the working and middle class prosper, but that this doesn't apply for the information revolution, in which some people are winning big, but which hasn't been helpful at all for people living in parts of the country suffering from decreasing employment. He says that the information revolution doesn't create enough jobs to replace the lost jobs in industries like the steel industry.

Images of streets that have seen better days. Mr Packer supposes that a country like Holland has more social mobility now than America. He says that the U.S. has a much rougher and less protective economy than Europe, and that the old trade off, the traditional hope in America of 'well, you can rise, you can do well' doesn't apply anymore. According to him, the jobs that are being created in the area in which he lives are jobs for which you need at least a college degree.

The report continues, now by showing local political commentator Bertram D'Souza. He speaks about a broken election promise. He tells that Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign stirred up enthusiasm in a crowd of 10,000 people, and that he promised them to build an accounting center of the Pentagon in the Youngstown area, once elected president. That center however never came their way.

More sad background music. Writer George Packer again: "There has been a really tragic collapse, both an economic and a social collapse, and then it becomes a personal collapse, because without the jobs, without the social bonds that come from having a civic life people are part of, they become isolated and lose hope, and that has happened in a lot of parts of the country and Trump is feeding on that, that has been his constituency."

People in the streets tell the reporter they are going to vote for Donald Trump. Some say they never thought they would ever vote for a Republican, but now they will. Commentator Bertram D'Souza: "He is selling snake oil. He based his campaign on promises that cannot be kept. And yet the American people has not reached the stage of asking questions, like they would traditionally have done in any other candidate."

The images have become merrier in the meantime. The Dutch viewers get to see families gathering to eat BBQ food, make music or listen to it. A woman emphasizes the importance of the presence of businesses for any town, and she and the reporter do a hi-five after he says: "Let's Make America Great Again!"

Then we go back to the studio, where the presenter is telling that Youngstown is trying to fight its way up again, despite the misery, and she mentions a forthcoming series of programmes that will pay attention to that and to America as a whole.

Now, compare this Nieuwsuur report of 2016 with the Nieuwsuur interview of 2018, with the economist. In the 2016 report, it's all depressing. Bad luck for many American industry workers. Massive loss of jobs during decades. In the 2018 interview, only two years later, it's the other way around: it looks all rosy. Improving employment, stock market values and growth as from 2009-2010. The conclusion can't be any other than that, when it comes to reviewing the U.S. economy of the recent past, Nieuwsuur is providing its viewers with information that is pretty conf... contradictory.

If you want to know what I wrote about the globalized economy and what I think is the best direction for the economy of the future, please read the chapters 5.2.4 and 6.6 of the main text, in part 1 and part 2 respectively.


Richard Schoot, 15th November 2018 (with a correction on 28th March 2020)




The Western countries are in very big trouble, in my opinion, as there are solid reasons to assume they’ve turned into Torahist dictatorships. It’s very important to know what Torahism is. Please read my main text at www.ibcpp.org.uk

If you come to agree with my views, please remember that the only way out is a patient and peaceful way. Not a single person can be held solely responsible for the present situation. It looks like we are ruled by people who actually can’t help themselves they are misleaders, and we are letting them mislead us on and on.

Avoid confrontations that can easily turn overheated. Don't react to provocations. Please don't view the avoiding as cowardice. It isn't. Be strong, be calm and calm down others, before their anger causes them to do foolish things.

Our countries urgently need new political parties, Christian Patriotic parties, and so the more people will get to know about this initiative, the greater the chance some true, constructive change in politics will ever come about.

So your drawing this website to other people’s attention would be very welcome, but now a warning is due. Since the 2013 revelations about the secret surveillance of our e-mails, phonecalls and internet surfing, sending an e-mail or calling someone up has become something you should think twice about. That’s the bitter and disgusting reality the Western world descended into, in the past half of a century, despite the sacrifice of nearly a hundred million lives in two world wars, and despite the huge defence costs it took to hold our own against Communism.

So I am a bit between a rock and a hard place here. On the one hand, I don’t want to see people land in trouble, and resisting malevolent rule has always been a very short road to trouble for people’s personal lives.

Yet on the other hand my initiative needs people to spread the word about this website, because the old media ignore it, and not for noble reasons, I fear.

If you are in a dilemma, my best advice to you would be to pray, and to ask God to help you choose between passivity and activism.

In my article Suppose, the reversal takes place next week. Then what?, as well as in the main text, I am exploring how the political change can be brought about, once the nations have become aware of Torahism.

Torahism is the forgotten evil in politics. It is forgotten because the Nazis were terribly aware of it, and Hitler’s crimes against the Jewish people were abysmal enough to make everyone with a heart ignore Torahism, let alone criticize it. That however created a unique window of opportunity for Torahism, and it is most probably exploiting that to the full, from the 1960s to the present day.

I sent my digital book to the academic world of Great Britain instead of my own country, for the reasons I put forward in the text ‘It is time to introduce myself’, 9th June 2005, on the initial page.

I am trying to conduct this initiative in the spirit of the Jew I am mentioning in the first line of this website.

Long live the Jews, down with Torahism.


                                       PRINTING THIS TEXT TAKES 5 SHEETS

                                       Back to the initial page