4 ms·

The same happens in Southern Europe and membership of the EU allowed me to get a 6-digit income and to live in a country where I don’t need a political affiliat

by mmarq 5y ago

The same happens in Southern Europe and membership of the EU allowed me to get a 6-digit income and to live in a country where I don’t need a political affiliation to get a decent job and where the state bureaucracy is not merely a welfare system for government employees. I’m not sure I’d blame this state of affairs on the countries that decided to not be economic basket-cases. What should Germany do? Cut its productivity or destroy its value chains?

aiilns 5y ago
Individually there are of course benefits to being able to go to richer countries. On the whole though it is obvious that a free market within the EU is vastly better for the large established industries of the west. An underdeveloped country can hardly compete with the likes of already huge corporations without some serious backing from the state. And even then it may be unfeasible. Of course you can blame Germany and other developed nations with established industries that while benefiting from educated immigrants and the free market within the EU don't care to give anything back, or even view this as problematic in any way.
- mmarq 5y ago
  I don’t see this as problematic because, at least for Eastern European countries, the west absorbed some of their unemployment, while they were catching up, potentially reducing internal tensions and smoothing the transition to a modern high value-added economy. Access to the European market allowed them to become part of the German value-chain, which produced wealth and exported technology and know-how. All this while receiving transfers from the West to build infrastructure. I’m not sure what alternative scenario we could have had. I think that Poland outside the EU would have ended up closer to Ukraine than to where it is now (Poland GDP per capita PPP is 3x the Ukrainian).

4 ms·

The same happens in Southern Europe and membership of the EU allowed me to get a 6-digit income and to live in a country where I don’t need a political affiliat

by mmarq 5y ago

aiilns 5y ago
Individually there are of course benefits to being able to go to richer countries. On the whole though it is obvious that a free market within the EU is vastly better for the large established industries of the west. An underdeveloped country can hardly compete with the likes of already huge corporations without some serious backing from the state. And even then it may be unfeasible. Of course you can blame Germany and other developed nations with established industries that while benefiting from educated immigrants and the free market within the EU don't care to give anything back, or even view this as problematic in any way.
- mmarq 5y ago
  I don’t see this as problematic because, at least for Eastern European countries, the west absorbed some of their unemployment, while they were catching up, potentially reducing internal tensions and smoothing the transition to a modern high value-added economy. Access to the European market allowed them to become part of the German value-chain, which produced wealth and exported technology and know-how. All this while receiving transfers from the West to build infrastructure. I’m not sure what alternative scenario we could have had. I think that Poland outside the EU would have ended up closer to Ukraine than to where it is now (Poland GDP per capita PPP is 3x the Ukrainian).