Wow. Great discussion unfolding.
The EU has about as much strategy as May: fuck all, hail financial capital. Where's the growth? Where's the plan to save crumbling countries like Greece and Latvia? What's the plan for the 20% average unemployed youth? How are the climate agreement goals going? What about the ongoing, illegal QE that doesn't fit into the economic basis of those plans? Why does infrastructure like bridges and railway keep crumbling from lack of maintenance? When can I get a CT scan in a public hospital in less than four months? When does the stupid structural deficit start making any sense? What's the plan to deal with rulers who control the media and censor the internet?
Plan to fix Greece and Latvia. There is none. Basically because of Italy and Spain, or because of Germany - depending on how you want to see it.
Have open markets and free money flow, and a global crisis, and no one with any idea how to bootstrap the next economy really - and you have all money ending up in Germany - while the other countries can only get more "competitive" by lowering wages. Ups design mistake?
Or - have Italys and Spains economies on the brink of collapsing as well - and do some basic forcasting on what happens, if you help out Greece and Latvia better. Choose one depending on you political standing.
The "Greeces economy is growing" argument doesnt fly imho - because you can always wrek a countries GDP, then tell everyone five years down the road, hey, its growing again. The issue is the economical design of the union and everyone knows it.
But - from the "international trade and economics" logics perspective, what the EU does currently makes nothing but sense. It even mitigates the immigration crisis, to have countries in the south really not that well off, but thats cynical as well.
Long story short - no one wants to confront the people with money, because everyone is so afraid of them taking their money and leaving to places like New Zealand, which especially the tech elite is entirely capable of.
Or because that never happend in history ever. Pick one..
QE isnt so much illegal, as its something everyone does - because economics doesnt work like they taught you in university.
But you have to look at its effects. It keeps markets stable (if you get it right), at the "cost" of everyone equally, while ideally fostering entrepreneurship (which isnt happening
) - while prolonging current structures, that might not work for everyone. If you get it right. So you could see that as unfair as well - depending if you have all the money, or you dont..
If you get it wrong - you can destroy your country, or the European union. Also within one monetary union you have to do it following one strategy - that ideally isnt Greeces, or Italys.
But now - Great Britain didnt exactly leave, because they wanted to effectively devalue the pound towards the Euro.
So that made no sense here.
Infrastructure is fine mostly == another infrastructure program is NOT the solution. (State puts money into infrastructure projects - everyone so amazed that they can now have better commerce for free (*look at them paved roads*), that they start investing as well) If it were - people would have done that already.
CT scans - populist argument. Make your doctors prescribe less of them - problem solved.
When will structural deficit make sense? Never. Its a power politics gambit. The goal always is not having to restart the entire monetary system after yet another crash.
You are selling trust to people that are dumber than you are - but because you do - stuff actually works out.
How to deal with Orban? - Thats actually more of a question regarding how to deal with outside influence (Russia, China, ...). For the people there - eh, they are effed as well. They voted out democracy. No sympathies there. Make sure it doesnt spread, by telling everyone how dumb they were. Hit international politicians on their fingers, do some power plays. Keep talking to everyone. (Not really that big of a problem either.)
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The EU and the international fund is what provided our country a possibility to escape the economic crisis and to have some growth at the moment. Greece GDP is in growth as well. Greece benefited the same lending hand as we had, although with the aggravated issue of smoking it's accounts. Youth unemployed is decreasing in Portugal since 2013. All Europe signed the Paris agreement that implicates legal binding to the goals.
They "keep us afloat" prolonging what is - kind of argument. People already see the economic stagnation - and they dont like it one bit. Setting Greece back onto a growth path wasnt a great feat, Paris wasnt a great feat, unemployment is growing (quick invent some jobs), trying to make france "more like germany" just failed spectacularly... I'm just counting the years until I start voting in right wing governments, really..
The EU is what has been stopping greater corruption in governments.
At the expense of making Brussel the most corrupt place within the EU. No - wrong argument. Right argument is - corruption is actually good. It helps politicians write legal texts, and keeps them in touch with who's popular right now. But dont let it seep into lower levels of bureaucracy, or transaction cost for businesses gets so high, that you kill your economy.
People giving money for legislature is still very much a thing, and even "wanted".
If Jan Philipp Albrecht is too successful at the european stage, quickly - give him a higher paying job in the german government, where he can count cows, or something..
edit: Oh, forgot the "censor the internet" thing. Every politician. In the world. Wants to control the populus. End of argument. (Chinas "new facebook based social control" is just "polling people 2.0"
)