03-05-2016, 07:35 PM
(03-05-2016, 04:53 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: this is why the EU is failing. They are trying to do this but still be total seperate countries. The Germans make a decent point of becoming An EU nation and having their own army. But that requires each nation giving up their individualism. Which is what the goal was I believe. I just don't see the people allowing that now.
They don't have to give up individualism at all. All they really gave up was some budget autonomy and the ability to print money (and the two are related). That is not very different from how our states function, and in fact the EU countries retain far more autonomy and independence than our states.
The problem with the EU is they are running out of other people's money for their entitlement programs. Canada was there on the brink not long ago, but they exercised some fiscal discipline and were boosted tremendously by the commodities boom.
I think it's could end-up much worse in the US, because we want all the social programs but don't want to pay for it. People don't realize how high the average bloke in Europe's taxes are - FICA equivalent of close to 22% on average (50% higher than ours), and a VAT trending into the low 20's (double our highest state sales tax rates).
