In 2007 American journalist and writer Russell Shorto settled in Amsterdam to become Director of the John Adams Institute. Over the following months and years, he submerged himself in Dutch society. Among his experiences were receiving unsolicited payments: some 荤500 every quarter with the one-word explanation kinderbijslag (child allowance). Upon first receiving this money, Shorto looked up the website of the benefactor, the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (Social Insurance Bank), where the reason for this financial transaction to every parent residing in the Netherlands was explained as follows: “Babies are expensive. Nappies, clothes, the pram … all these things cost money. The Dutch government provides for child allowance to help you with the costs of bringing up your child.” Similar surprises continued to materialize over the subsequent months. At the start of a school year the Social Insurance Bank transferred €316 to his account for every schoolgoing child, to help pay for books. Other American expats who settled in Amsterdam had equally grown to appreciate Dutch social security. Shorto's friend Julie discovered that Dutch universal health care did not only cover the cost of the midwife when she gave birth – at home, following Dutch tradition – but in addition a week-long maternity assistance, as well as regular checkups at a public health clinic. Day care for Julie's children was subsidized, so she could afford to continue her writing career. Another friend learned to appreciate the benefits of social housing, which allowed living in an affordable place.

Although Shorto seems to have taken a liking to the Dutch system, he realizes that some of its features will make many foreigners view the Dutch welfare state as a form of socialism. And at least one aspect of it seemed to confirm this. Shorto: “For the first few months I was haunted by a number: fifty-two. It reverberated in my head; I felt myself a prisoner trying to escape its bars. For it represents the rate at which the income I earn, as a writer and as the director of an institute, is to be taxed.”

What Shorto so vividly described is the difference between the Dutch welfare state and the arrangements he grew up with in the United States.