European Vacation
I’m awaiting BullDog’s take on this - I thought the EU was established for trade purposes, more than anything else - but it seems that national sovereignty {sp?} is being sacrificed with every pronouncement from EU bureaucracies .......................
Posted by Diamond Mair
03/16/2006 at 11:11 AM
Well Diamond, I hope his words are something along the lines of
“Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame, All their attempts to bend thee down;
Will but arouse thy generous flame, But work their woe, and thy renown.”because it looks to me that the UK is losing it’s sovereignty down to the level of worker’s compensation practices. Which implies more than a fair degree of subservience to an outside set of rules (in this case governmental ones, not religious ones). I have always admired the British people for their ferocious sense of independence; and this looks like another bananna peel on that old slippery slope. Or did I miss the whole point, probably from being an arrogant unnuanced Yank, and that all this is actually a good thing?
Drew, my husband was working in Livingston, Scotland, in ‘98 - we went down to Monterrey, Mexico, in ‘00, ‘til ‘02 - then HE went to the Czech Republic for what was supposed to be 6 months, in ‘02 - wound up being 2 years, & he saw firsthand the EU accession of the CZR - the lowest common denominator became consumer goods prices - it seems that once one becomes a part of the EU, one must charge what other EU member nations charge for the same goods - for example, a bag of potato chips was 30 CZK - under the EU, even though the chips are produced locally {within the CZR}, they would have to be priced at 2.00 euros ............................ cost of living was GREAT by American standards, prior to joining the EU ......................
I just feel badly for our ‘Cousins’ - it seems their government is selling them down the river for EU ‘principles’ the same way our government is selling US out, re: illegal immigration ........................Posted by Diamond Mair
03/16/2006 at 03:09 PM
Drew I’m sorry to say that we have been sold down the river by respective British governments. The UK is fast becoming just a region in the EU superstate. We can no longer refuse entry to Europeans and they can come and get welfare and medical treatment free. The EU dictates more and more about what we can and cannot do. They even want to dictate who controls our natural resources so they can share them out amongst all the other deadbeat nations. The French and Spanish have vacuumed up all our fish stocks. We used to get a rebate on the billions we pour into the EU but now Blair has caved in to the French whining and given that up. As it is we pay 4.5 times as much per person as the French, now we have given up the rebate it is 14 times as much! However I am optimistic that it will collapse. The CIA reckons 15 years and it will all tear itself apart. I don’t see it lasting not when you are letting countries like Romania and Bulgaria join not to mention Turkey!
LyndonB, what was the formation of the EU supposed to do, anyway? Ok, I can see using a common currency, that sorta makes sense. And open borders too, but only if the EU is fairly well closed against outsiders. Was it supposed to become one big country/one big economic block to compete against China, USA, et al? And compete how? High Tech? General production? I’m just not seeing what the other perks are from over here on the west side of the old pond.
I can’t say whether Bulgaria and Romania will help or hurt; never been there, don’t know much of what goes on there, only known a couple folks from there my whole life. Turkey does make me wonder though. Lots of nice wood comes out of there, but so do most of the Denial Of Service attacks on the Internet. NATO ally except when there’s a bit of war on. Are they moving West or (middle)East? Seems a bit wobbly IMO.
Drew the original concept was inspired by the Fwench. Having been over run by the Germans twice in the century they wanted a way to shackle the Germans into an economic alliance that benefitted them. Also as Fwance is mostly agriculture and Germany has a huge industrial output it was a way of combining the best of both countries. They signed up to an agreement in 1957 along with four other countries into a free trade zone and it was called the common market.
Over the years more countries joined in. There was also concurrently a system called EFTA the equivalent in the US is NAFTA which gave preferential treatment to countries that were members. Britain was blocked from joining the “common market” by DeGaul who hated Britain and the US and considered Britain would be a trojan horse for the US if it was allowed to join. Eventually he snuffed it and then we were tricked into joining in 1973 when it was sold to the electorate as a free trade zone. It worked ok up until the late 80’s early 90’s when more and more countries joined. Now there is a drift towards making it a Federal Europe. The currency is the first step. They even tried to foist a “Constitution” on us but fortunately the Fwench and Dutch kicked that into touch. The problem is behind the scenes the unelected bureaucrats are passing into law many of the things that were in the constitution.
Undoubtedly the EU has benefitted many countries. You only have to go to Spain to see what a few billion dollars worth of investment can do. However the main problem with the EU is our old friend the dead hand of socialism. They are all after handouts. The Fwench in particular have thousands of farmers who left to their own devices would go to the wall because you can buy food cheaper elsewhere, but the Fwench government has become addicted to handouts that pacify the farmers and sustain their backward economy. Consequently Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Britain make massive payments which go toward the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and now with countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia having joined they all want a slice of the pie. On top of that these countries have minimal welfare and treat some of their populations quite badly so what happens is they move to Britain where welfare is generous. Romania and Bulgaria are set to join in 2007 and they are basket cases. They have a mainly rural economy and from my experience once they join their population will flood into Britain seeking welfare. Turkey has a population of about 70 Million which would make it the biggest country in the EU and it is a “young” population. It is also a muslim country. I for one think it would be a bad thing having a muslim country in what is in essence a European club. We have enough problems with mooosies in Europe without adding another 70 million. Anyway Turkey is an Eastern country. Let them join up with Iraq and Iran and form a United States of Moooslim or the Caliphate!!
apologies for the length of this reply!
Questions of national sovereignty are getting bigger all over. How about agreements like Kyoto? The E.U. is an especially advanced example of where it all leads. Finding a way to ensure peace in the world is generally a good thing, but giving up what we’ve worked for for generations isn’t. Good luck to us all, we’re going to need it.
im self employed, never had it anyway
i think Germany would suffer the most if Turkey was to become a member, with there allready high population of turks,who are not citizens no matter how long they have been there, could open a can of worms for them.i say let them in
Christ, Europe is living like the Commies had won the Cold War. Come to think of it, maybe they did…
It doesn’t only happen in the EU, folks. UPS forced me to take my vaction, period. Right at the end of the year, I was told that I had three paychecks (if you are going on vaction, you get that week’s paycheck, plus the next weeks, so you don’t have to go back to get it), so in essence I was forced to go on vacation. There was no “losing” vacation or “cashing in"- it was either you take it or you take it. In addition to that, if you’re a package handler or part-time supervisor, anything over five hours is considered “overtime”, which means you get paid time and a half. All they have to do is demand pensions, and Teamsters would be the UAW.
03/16/2006 at 04:18 PM
