4 ms·

I wonder what prevents GB from doing a Greek thing? You know, the Greeks voted overwhelmingly not to honor the debt to the EU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr

by bawana 10y ago

I wonder what prevents GB from doing a Greek thing? You know, the Greeks voted overwhelmingly not to honor the debt to the EU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_bailout_referendum,_2015 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_bailout_referendum,_2015 But in the end the govt did not honor that vote. Greece is still functioning-no increased amount of violence. And they have big payments due still. GB was smart to get out before they end up in the same hole.

internaut 10y ago
Courage, which is a quality lacking in the world. I am quite honestly not a fan of democracy despite this referendum suiting me. Despite that I think that the Greek vote should have been honoured for sensible fiscal reasons. They should have left the EU and adopted a new currency. My own country Ireland should have done the same thing. We famously voted No to the Lisbon Treaty and it was ignored. That was a mistake. We've been paying off a mountain of debt that does not rightfully belong to us. I think the Irish will gradually realize, along with it dawning on the others, that the European Union is unable to function without giving up sovereignty altogether. Politically I much prefer a diversity of loosely tied independent trading nation states. That hedges against a lot of the worse outcomes. Milton Friedman predicted the common currency could not ultimately work and I have not seen a good argument against his points. Suppose that a European Hegemony is a good idea but we just don't have the governmental apparatus to make it work in the present. That still leaves the question of the utility of the thing. What is it for? Governments should exist for a purpose. They should solve problems people can't solve on their own. I see little evidence really fundamental issues like European reproduction rates, zero percent interest rates not to mention waves of foreigners who have decided to make Europe their home can be solved at present by the European Union. It is annoying to have politicians and intellectuals pretend this is a solved problem we figured out decades ago. It is nothing of the sort. If interests are not aligned we cannot pull together with full strength.

by bawana 10y ago

internaut 10y ago

Courage, which is a quality lacking in the world. I am quite honestly not a fan of democracy despite this referendum suiting me. Despite that I think that the Greek vote should have been honoured for sensible fiscal reasons. They should have left the EU and adopted a new currency. My own country Ireland should have done the same thing. We famously voted No to the Lisbon Treaty and it was ignored. That was a mistake. We've been paying off a mountain of debt that does not rightfully belong to us. I think the Irish will gradually realize, along with it dawning on the others, that the European Union is unable to function without giving up sovereignty altogether. Politically I much prefer a diversity of loosely tied independent trading nation states. That hedges against a lot of the worse outcomes. Milton Friedman predicted the common currency could not ultimately work and I have not seen a good argument against his points. Suppose that a European Hegemony is a good idea but we just don't have the governmental apparatus to make it work in the present. That still leaves the question of the utility of the thing. What is it for? Governments should exist for a purpose. They should solve problems people can't solve on their own. I see little evidence really fundamental issues like European reproduction rates, zero percent interest rates not to mention waves of foreigners who have decided to make Europe their home can be solved at present by the European Union. It is annoying to have politicians and intellectuals pretend this is a solved problem we figured out decades ago. It is nothing of the sort. If interests are not aligned we cannot pull together with full strength.