The European Union

[whiskeryron]

Bearing in mind the awful predicament that Greece is in at the moment can someone explain to me how the whole Euro system works ? If several different countries get together to form an alliance, should they not all work together whereby through a common banking system they should all contribute the same amount of fees to run the system & they should all have the same common payouts for civil servants, pensions etc. So that every member of the alliance is equal in every respect ? Surely if it was run in this fashion there would not be any country that was less fortunate than another.
I realise that I am probably being very naive about the whole thing but it seems to me that no one has actually thought it out properly.

[whiskeryron]

Come on guys,still waiting for someone to explain it all to me.

[bookbinder]

It's a big subject, w-ron, and probably too big to be answered here. This website might get you started on your long journey of discovery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

[Old_Geezer]

What makes you thing that the whole Euro system works ?

[Old_Geezer]

{sigh}
...THINK...
like I typed

[jourdain2]

So what could be done is that on 1st Jan 20? all systems could converge. OK. The mind boggles, but I'm sure Eurocrats could organise it (and probably have such plans in place already). It's a question of these awkward governments and democratic votes that need to be overcome.. Tch, Tch.... big problem these people....

I.e. You're quite right Whiskeryron, no-one has thought it out, but they're still driving towards it. MADNESS!

[New Judge]

Your scenario is ideal, ron., and the euro was devised with exactly this is mind.

Now for the problem. The common currency was devised on the assumption that the economies of the members would converge, that the fiscal regulations (tax, public expenditure, etc.) would converge and become similar, that the economic output of each of the members would be similar.

Of course none of this happened. The difference in productivity (and hence the “wealth”) between Germany and Greece is absolutely enormous. The architects of the euro were warned that it might work if everything remained hunky-dory. But of course it did not. The excrement hit the air conditioning seven or eight years ago and the rest is history.

The euro is a fundamentally flawed project. Currency union requires fiscal and political union. The euromaniacs assumed that the one would force the other. It did not and it will not. There is no democratic will for political union across the Eurozone and it will not happen. To have launched a common currency without fiscal and political union was a folly of the utmost gravity and probably the most serious political blunder since WW2. It has caused enormous instability and has consigned large numbers of people in the lesser nations to penury which will take generations to recover from. The politicians simply will not admit their folly and will defend the euro to the bitter end and they are prolonging the agony of particularly the Greeks but also of some of the other “PIIGS” nations because of their vanity.

[Peter Pedant]

well I dont think it is the Germans fault that Greece was and is an economic basket case currently run by 'Clowns' [ as Angela Merkel put it last week ]

[venator]

Easy.
To quote Woody Guthrie "one man kills you with a six gun, one with a fountain pen"

Germany and France believe they are fated to dominate Europe.

Napoleon and Hitler had invasion fleets ready to cross the Channel, but didn't quite manage it.

So They recruited an army of unelected bureaucrats whose brief is "ever closer union", and we sleepwalked into the trap.

Will we wake up in time to get our necks out of their noose?

[whiskeryron]

Thanks guys, my edification is a step forward.