Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
There are many times we, as individuals and countries, do things that are a waste of time or money because the over all good out weighs the individual action, the UK has done massively well out of the EU, I am old enough to remember the sixties and early seventies when the economy was damn near at a third world level with the IMF stepping in to rescue the UK like Brazil or some other failed state, huge companies closing down regularly, whole industries and regions failing. The EU gave Briton an economic role, it is no longer a manufacturing economy it is a service economy, specifically it services the EU, my friends work in IT for companies that work through out the EU, the city acts as the EU's banker, all of that is at risk and at least 20% of the UK economy is going to contract in my opinion.
The cost of leaving the EU massively out weighs the cost of being in the EU, and most of the problems that people complain about, immigration, house prices, unemployment in the old industrial centres of the North will continue in or out.
As such there's no way of viewing the vote as anything other than a massively stupid ill considered emotional decision that will either do massive damage to the economy or will do nothing to change anything but will take away the UK's influence in Europe while still leaving it having to swallow all the same gripes.
As to whether it was just a working class vote that caused this, obviously not, stupidity isn't restricted to the working classes.
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Good points AFC, but I am not sure you are aware that a lot of the IT jobs in the UK and other Western European countries were moved to Hungary, Poland and Romania who make less then half a UK workers wage. Because of strict EU data regulations, these jobs are very difficult to move to India under any circumstances, so it is fundamentally an EU issue.
They are for the most part high end positions(lead software developers, network engineers, etc..) being held by multiple degree holders, not just Help Desks. That is just one example but the same thing is happening with all kinds of labor such as construction, arts(film production), and anything else that can be moved or can be performed by a low wage eastern European worker(they do not match the wage) in the UK.
Exiting the EU may not help, but there is certainly a perception among UK workers that leaving would be moving in the right direction.