4 ms·

"meanwhile median income between poorest and richest EU members is close to 10x - in the US it's ~2-3 between states" That's comparing apples to oranges. Count

by kbart 10y ago

"meanwhile median income between poorest and richest EU members is close to 10x - in the US it's ~2-3 between states" That's comparing apples to oranges. Country != state.

rubber_duck 10y ago
>Country != state. This is my point
coldtea 10y ago
>That's comparing apples to oranges Which is totally valid, since both are fruit, and we can e.g. compare their nutricional value to decide what to eat. Or their selling price, to decide what to buy. Etc. >Country != state That's kind of the parent's whole point. That countries are the closest thing the EU has to states, and that they must get much closer to states for EU to function properly.
matwood 10y ago
For the EU to work, the countries need to function more as states. Maybe this is just the hard road for the EU to get to something resembling the states, or it will fall apart as a failed experiment.
- adrenalinelol 10y ago
  You can rephrase: > ...the EU to get to something resembling the states, as: EU member nations need to have their sovereignty diminished. That's extremely hard to swallow if you're the one losing rights/protections to a foreign institution.
  - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
    It's hard to swallow if you don't trust the foreign institution you're losing your rights to. And that's a problem for the EU, because many people don't feel like it does a very good job of listening to people (or even countries). Instead, they feel that it does what it wants, and runs over people who don't like the EU's self-decided plan. That would be a problem for the US, too (see the approval ratings of either Congress or the president), but we're not having to hand over much new power to either one at the moment, so inertia is working for the US. It's working against the EU.
  - matwood 10y ago
    I agree, and that's the problem with the EU. It is what led to Brexit and may lead to eventual Grexit, then Italy and Spain leaving. The Nordic countries never fully joined for similar reasons. I wonder if the free movement of people is an unworkable concept without also consistent laws.
sievebrain 10y ago
Today, yes, but the ideological goal of the EU is to convert it into a US-style federal union (in recent times some of them try to deny this because reality is closing in, but it has always been there). Hence large transfer payments between EU countries in the form of "structural adjustment funds" and euro policy, etc.

by kbart 10y ago

"meanwhile median income between poorest and richest EU members is close to 10x - in the US it's ~2-3 between states" That's comparing apples to oranges. Country != state.

rubber_duck 10y ago

>Country != state. This is my point

coldtea 10y ago

>That's comparing apples to oranges Which is totally valid, since both are fruit, and we can e.g. compare their nutricional value to decide what to eat. Or their selling price, to decide what to buy. Etc. >Country != state That's kind of the parent's whole point. That countries are the closest thing the EU has to states, and that they must get much closer to states for EU to function properly.

matwood 10y ago

For the EU to work, the countries need to function more as states. Maybe this is just the hard road for the EU to get to something resembling the states, or it will fall apart as a failed experiment.

adrenalinelol 10y ago
You can rephrase: > ...the EU to get to something resembling the states, as: EU member nations need to have their sovereignty diminished. That's extremely hard to swallow if you're the one losing rights/protections to a foreign institution.
- AnimalMuppet 10y ago
  It's hard to swallow if you don't trust the foreign institution you're losing your rights to. And that's a problem for the EU, because many people don't feel like it does a very good job of listening to people (or even countries). Instead, they feel that it does what it wants, and runs over people who don't like the EU's self-decided plan. That would be a problem for the US, too (see the approval ratings of either Congress or the president), but we're not having to hand over much new power to either one at the moment, so inertia is working for the US. It's working against the EU.
- matwood 10y ago
  I agree, and that's the problem with the EU. It is what led to Brexit and may lead to eventual Grexit, then Italy and Spain leaving. The Nordic countries never fully joined for similar reasons. I wonder if the free movement of people is an unworkable concept without also consistent laws.

sievebrain 10y ago

Today, yes, but the ideological goal of the EU is to convert it into a US-style federal union (in recent times some of them try to deny this because reality is closing in, but it has always been there). Hence large transfer payments between EU countries in the form of "structural adjustment funds" and euro policy, etc.