preface: likely an ignorant opinion from an american. from across the pond, it looks like the richer EU countries (eg, germany) essentially want to have it bot

preface: likely an ignorant opinion from an american. from across the pond, it looks like the richer EU countries (eg, germany) essentially want to have it both ways. they want to have strong worker protections and prevent poorer EU countries from enabling labor arbitrage, all while having relatively unencumbered trade within the EU. at the same time, they don't want to provide the economic aid to the poorer countries that would reduce the incentive to do this sort of thing. seems like a "pick one" type of situation.