Quote:
Originally Posted by hulkrogan
The US itself has all kinds of dissimilar local economies forced under one currency, and for the most part it works just fine.
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In the USA there is easy internal migration of people from a locale with a depressed economy to areas with booming economies. The same is the case in Canada - look at the people moving from the depressed East out to Alberta, for example. In the EU, while in theory this is also possible, I doubt that a lot of the Irish are just going to up and move to Germany, or vice versa, depending on which area is doing better. This is a large mitigating factor that softens the effect of national economic policy, that is simply never going to happen in the EU.
There is a profound difference between different regions inside one nation, and different nation-states inside an economic bloc as far as the effects of economic policy are concerned. In Canada, there is anger in Alberta at other regions of Canada that are seen (not MY opinion, BTW) as perennial losers who are always looking for hand-outs - imagine that scenario, but with nations who historically distrusted each other and have never before been part of the same political structure, as opposed to provinces who are, in the main, culturally homogenous and have shared history (minus Quebec, of course, but that is one huge reason why Quebec is seen as the biggest offender out West as far as always taking and never giving is concerned, whereas the Maritimes are considered much more kindly).