The current situation makes me anxious about our health and the love for me that are my dear ones. And I have concerns about my job and income. At the same time, my head is spinning with positive energy, not only because there is so much solidarity in the Netherlands, but also because it is a unique opportunity we have to start adapting some agreements and systems to the times we live in. Because times were already in transformation but have now changed forever. Whereby some topics should go back to how it was, e.g. the role of the government and the right of existence of financial exchanges. While other arrangements can be scrutinized and changed just now.
Because besides our health, our biggest concern right now is our income. The government today promised to support us all during this time which is a wonderful gesture. But if we set it up as a kind of patchwork where, when everything is over, we just go back to how it was, then we are really missing a huge opportunity. Healthcare remains under pressure, education is not really being renewed, and teachers continue to work under the highest pressure, and professions that we so desperately need now remain undervalued or taken for granted by us.
I would like to look at a redefinition of work. If we kept our certainties then nearly 70% of working people would go on to do something different from what they are doing now according to annual Gallup research. Can’t we use this blank page to start redefining what our definitions of work and life are? Where technology might be able to work more for us and give us the opportunity to live even better? The call for a basic income is great these days, and perhaps in disguised form that is what the government is offering us now, but couldn’t we start introducing that very thing for every Dutch person? A basic security for everyone. Not out of poverty but out of abundance? So that we can add our values in those places where we as a society attach values? Where we can use our human skills and compassion for each other much more: connecting, coming up with solutions, being creative and increasing our knowledge by giving values to insights (data) and good interpretation of the insights (science). So that we can then make decisions again as human beings that affect us all? Technology can do those things that are repeatable? The opportunity is here! Robots work, humans live! We can live in abundance with each other in these ’20s of the 21st century. Fear of health and the loss of loved ones? Yes, there will be! Fear of your personal livelihood? No! There’s really no need for that in the Netherlands .
