Your neighbour lives the same lifestyle as you on a mere 1k euro a month?

New housing projects are mandated to have 35% social housing. So our building of 12 apartments have 4 social housing ones with I believe cost €600 per month in rent. Minus around €200 in rent subsidy for people with low income so you pay around €400.

I pay 2 percent interest of €300.000 so about €1000 per month including paying off the mortgage in 30 years and around €150 in building maintenance cost.

Also yearly healthcare for me is €1000 for insurance plus €2900 in Zwv tax. For her it’s €1000 for insurance only and there is a €900 healthcare subsidy for low income.

So that why we have the same lifestyle even though are income is very different. We call it “nivileren”, which I believe translates to income leveling.

Why don't you quit and work on your own passions and projects for free then? This is what I don't understand about most Europeans. All of my friends in Europe all do exactly what your neighbor is doing, almost all of them just live on welfare and it is great. They have so much money from welfare they can come visit the states and hangout regularly and have endless vacation while getting paid.

All of them use this time to work on interesting personal projects and do really cool work that I love being a part of. I love that they have time to do that and keep working on what they are passionate about without worrying about money.

If I were European I don't think I would do what you do unless I was working at my own personal company. And if I was working for myself at a high enough profit level that taxation would effect me, I would not incorporate my business in Europe at all.

This is just my perspective as a American, but I think this is why this system wouldn't work at all in America, people like me who are completely competent and able to work like me would probably try to get out of working.

> They have so much money from welfare they can come visit the states and hangout regularly and have endless vacation while getting paid.

This sounds too good to be true. Do you have any numbers? The welfare systems in EU are shrinking.

Welfare in the Netherlands is ~1200/month. If you live cheaply (e.g. in a 500/month room in a shared house) that leaves more than enough for a transatlantic plane ticket every now and then.

Source (in Dutch): https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2018/12/19/uitke...

I cannot find the number you report on that website. Please elaborate on where you got it from. I'm 100% sure you are leaving out important additional details, like that one has to have been recently employed.

You can get WW (werkeloosheidswet - unemployment law) for 24 months, like you say you need a sufficient history of employment. This is based on 70% of the minimum (full-time) wage, i.e. 70% of 1615.80 = 1131 euros/month.

Minimum wage is on the top of the linked pdf (download link here [1]).

Sorry if I was unclear, just looking for some ballpark numbers for the sake of the argument.

[1] https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/publicaties/2018/12/...

>Why don't you quit and work on your own passions and projects for free then?

If everyone does that, then the system can't be sustained.

> Why don't you quit and work on your own passions and projects for free then?

Eventually, he will, just like everybody else will - which is why socialism fails ever time it's tried. Unfortunately, starting it is bloodless but ending it never is.