This story is gaining significant traction recently. I commented
on this just two weeks ago, with a Pew Research poll documenting the loss
of faith of many Europeans in the project that is Europe.
Now there is concern
among the European political elite regarding the impact that continued high
youth unemployment will have on this centralizing scheme (emphasis added):
Francois Hollande, the French
president, warned on Tuesday that failure to offer these people
hope risks destroying the EU altogether. “We must act urgently.
Six million youths are out of work in Europe,” he said.
“Unemployment is reaching
unsupportable levels in a number of countries. Imagine all the hatred, the
anger. We’re talking about a complete breakdown of belief in Europe. What’s
really at stake here is that citizens are turning their
backs on the European project,” he said.
I maintain it will not come to this. Default
on sovereign debt will be the answer, if it is all that is left between the
people and their faith in regulatory democracy.
French statesman Jacques Attali
told the Elysee forum that EU leaders are running out of time. “If I was 20
years old today, I would face a choice between exile and revolution,” he said.
Neither answer is a good answer for the elite. These possibilities come with the risk of
loss of control. The elite, above all
else, value control. Control is best
exercised through regulatory democracy.
There will be sovereign
defaults in order to save the primary tool of control.
I think the loss of faith has already occured in the EU. The problem is the average citizen, at the moment, believes there is no alternative to statism.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog, found it on DB.
Thank you.
DeleteYour comment points to a fundamental issue - you can't replace something with nothing. This is why I believe dialogue on the internet, activities such as UKIP and Tea-Party movements, etc. are beneficial.
As to alternatives to the EU, why not a return to the nation-state - or at least half a return? My sense is many people within Europe will welcome this.
The return to the [smaller] nation state is welcomed by the EU as evidenced in the break up of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Smaller countries mean easier controlled economies.
ReplyDeleteTrue liberation can only occur if the EU member countries dismiss the Euro and form their own currency and embrace a more Libertarian minded form of government. Of course that would be the end of the EU.
"Smaller countries mean easier controlled economies."
DeleteI disagree. Centralization is the objective; imagine one world government - the elite only need get a law passed or a regulation written one time, instead of one jurisdiction at a time.
The break-up of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia were not helpful to the elite.