Als overheden of politici (financiele) garanties geven, dan weten ze dat ze daar niet zelf voor op hoeven te draaien. Ze weten dat als de garantie geclaimed wordt, dat ze dan gewoon kunnen betalen met belastinggeld van de burgers. Dat maakt een overheidsgarantie al vanaf de prille start immoreel.
Dit is o.a. duidelijk in het IceSave-geval. Zelfs dubbel op omdat twee regeringen daarin een rol spelen. De IJslandse overheid begon met garanties voor de bank en toen ze die niet konden/wilden nakomen, stapte de Nederlandse overheid er in en ging de spaarders van de bank betalen.
En nu gaan overheden proberen burgers die er niets mee te maken hadden, te dwingen om dat geld te betalen. De immoraliteit daarvan zal wel voor iedereen duidelijk zijn?
Er hebben al meer dan 600 mensen een steunpetitie onderschreven. Omdat er ook veel niet-Nederlanders hun bijval betuigen, volgt hieronder een uitgebreidere toelichting in het Engels.
Draag ook uw druppeltje bij voor een betere, morelere wereld en teken de PETITIE hier.
English here below:
An update on the Dutch support for Iceland petition
So far we have over 600 signatures, for which we are very grateful and like to thank all who have signed. Below we give you an update on recent events and a little more explanation on why to sign the petition.
On the 5th of January president Grimsson of Iceland refused to sign the controversial and immoral bill for Iceland to repay 3,8 billion euros to UK and the Netherlands. Instead the president will hold a referendum due March the 6th. About 60% of the Icelandics is estimated to vote a no. This is a clear victory for liberty.
After initiating our petention a lot of people asked us why Iceland should not pay. Didn’t the Dutch and UK governments lent the money to the Icelandic government? Wasn’t it then moral for Iceland to repay this amount? Wouldn’t otherwise the Dutch and UK taxpayers be the ones to foot the bill?
These are valid questions and they exactly point to the core of the problem. Yes, the Dutch government compensated Dutch depositors on behalf of Iceland and for which it lent Iceland the money. But it shouldn’t have done that in the first place. Everyone in the Netherlands depositing money on Icelandic bank accounts should have questioned the deposit ‘insurance’ of a small country such as Iceland. If it seems too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. And no Dutch of UK regulator should have legally allowed this house of cards to continue while it was doomed to collapse from the start. Neither should Wouter Bos have paid out deposit insurance to Dutch Icesave depositors who had between 40.000 and 100.000 euros outstanding. Moral, innocent and prudent Dutch tax payers were royally screwed because of that. People that took too high of a risk were rewarded instead. Moral hazard in society dramatically increased. The more the government ‘protects’ the more risks you take and the less you think for yourself. Wouter Bos probably had to make this call to avoid jeopardizing Dutch gambling bank ING, which would lead even to higher potential claims on Dutch taxpayers. By lending Iceland the amount of 1,3 billion euro he held Iceland responsible for the first 20.000 euro of each deposit. He should have known that an amount like that could not be repaid by such a small country. The UK and Dutch Icesave claims are as high as 50% of Iceland’s GDP. How would the Dutch people react if foreign countries would ask them to ‘repay’ some hundreds of billions of euros? It is not difficult to guess an answer.
It is indeed a very tangled web of legal responsibilities but basically it boils down to the following. Each day individuals representing national governments, central banks and supranational organisations such as the EU and IMF are making ever increasing horrible decisions that harm (liberty minded) moral individuals all around the world. Although commercial bankers were wrong and corrupt many times during and before the crisis, changing Iceland into one gigantic hedgefund, they actually just profitised from the conditions set by the government officials in the first place. Governments have been destroying our money and disrupting our societies by setting up central banks, controlling interest rates, inventing horrible deposit insurance schemes, making outrageous bonuses possible for bankers and mainly by forcing upon us their worthless paper money backed by virtually nothing. Many priviliged people, especially bankers, profited from it. And they will keep on profiting, as demonstrated by the huge horrendous bank bonuses recently announced, as long as the governments continue rigging the system.
There are numerous people of Iceland that have not profited from the financial boom that took place in the years before 2008. These people should not be harmed. This is immoral and this is something Wouter Bos should have born in mind while lending money to Iceland. He should have known that Iceland would never be capable and many of its inhabitants would morally not be obliged to pay such huge amounts. We should stop governments all around the world playing chess on our backs and reign in their power, especially in the money industry. We should constitutionally downsize all current and future powers of politicians, for they are usually the source and not the cure of our problems.
In case you haven’t, please sign the Petition, forward it to as many people as possible and support Iceland. Thank you sincerely.
Hub Jongen and Paul Buitink
January 19th, 2010
