Quote:
Originally posted by Agamemnon+May 10 2005, 08:26 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Agamemnon @ May 10 2005, 08:26 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-dustygoon@May 10 2005, 07:33 PM
Not my point. After laying down the law, Germany and France have gone easy on themselves. You think they would have gone easy on Holland if they breached the target? I doubt it. The situation you are describing involves Alberta going into a deficit because of the need to borrow to make up for lost oil revenues. This is after Alta has cut massive amounts from health spending. There are not too many areas left for cost cutting in alberta.
In France and Germany, the funds are staring them in the face in the form cost cutting......massive subsidies, massive bureaucracy, etc. Low hanging fruit. But they refuse to do it because of the political backlash. Alberta bit the bullet. France and Germany won't do it.
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Well, it could be that our idea of what constitutes responsible social spending is not THE way to go. Alberta, while a very nice place, has not yet been declared by any world body as having set the model for social spending. Neither has the EU.
If having cradle-to-grave welfare/care is important to a society, how is it a bad thing that they implement it? Maybe running the best, hottest economy in the world is your goal, but it may not be their's. Hell, they might be so insane as to declare human welfare as more important than avoiding deficits! Can you believe it?
As for Germany and France 'going easy' on themselves, I think this still over-simplifies the incredibly complex political relationships in the EU. Its a consensus body on important issues. There are MANY checks and balances, as MANY small states were worried about being gobbled up by the larger ones.
Only time will tell as to exactly how the EU works out, and what its 'personality' looks like re: German/French domination. Personally, I see the world as US-dominated, so I don't see the big deal of the EU being German/French dominated. Drop in the bucket. [/b][/quote]
whatever. i am not talking about the benefits/drawbacks of free market vs socialized economies.
I am talking about the abuse of power by France and Germany. They are larger so should have a strong voice in the union. But I think they go to far. Do you seriously not see this?
New states are gagging to join the EU because of the hugely stupid hand outs that get redistributed to new members for "projects". It is like the PEI bridge times 10. Every little butt fata region gets a piece of infrastructure money for projects that are more of a bonus than a need. These hand outs are akin to buying support to join the EU. Who pays for these? The core EU states. They have the "give-them-some-appeasement-money-now-and-we'll-figure-out-how-to-pay-for-it-later" mentality to get states on board. Then when policy is made, the old core countries dictate terms. Kinda like how our Liberals buy the NDP, then Ontario and now maybe Sask.