Only citizen initiatives can bring a new political culture. Therefore the problem of collective action needs to be overcome which is of no use when an individual citizen reacts against clientism while his fellow citizens are making use of it.
To maintain the tradition of excellence, it is important to realize education effectiveness, not only by reaching a number of minimal final attainment levels. It is equally essential to follow up the so-called learning improvement of each individual.
At the moment, the attention paid to the wasted talents that are the exceptionally gifted children who got through the stitches of the net increases slightly. However, it is still very likely that a large number of them will drop out somehow during the school year 2008-2009.
The papyboom has started with a hundred new retirees each day. The Social Security has a deficit of several billions due to aging, and not because of the crisis.
What now?
Our education system needs to focus on gaining skills, not on every pupil achieving a certain level of skills. Minimal standards do make sense, but we need to be aware that a certain group has already got the required level in the beginning of the school year.
Belgium not only has to cut its deficit but also needs budget surpluses to consolidate public debt. It’s important not to be blinded by cyclical improvements as they will be dwarfed by new costs due to ageing.
Since we only think about it in times of crisis, Belgium fails in terms of industrial policy. We urgently need to determine the conditions for government support. The Itinera Institute established the 10 commandments for a succesful industrial policy.