Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "3 Reasons Joining the EU Might Not Always be a Great Idea" video.

  1. To be fair, that has little to do with the Euro and more to do with Italy not keeping pace with other EU countries, a lack of reform, corruption and high debt levels isn't doing Italy any favours and these problems would be there with or without the Euro, and many would rightly say that the Euro is helping to shield the worst of it for Italy, things could be worse for Italy if they were not in the Euro. But when things go wrong, there's always something to deflect blame on, the UK always blamed the EU for all the wrongs in the UK, since Brexit, Brits are realising that the EU wasn't the problem and the problems are much deeper in the system of the UK, in the case of Italy, it's easy to deflect blame on the Euro then to solve their own problems, but the simple truth is, a lot of countries are doing fine in the Euro, so that excuse is wearing thin, and besides, the problems were there before the Euro in Italy, just that it's becoming more evident as time goes on and deep sutural reforms are needed in Italy on the political and economic front as well as some major clean up of corruption which is holding back the economy. In the meantime, Spain, a country that started out well behind Italy are quickly catching up and I suspect they will overtake unless Italy gets its act together, Spain is a Euro zone country and are doing well out of it just like most are doing, in fact, if you look closely, it's countries like Italy and Greece that have had major issues with it, but if you look closely, you'll see it had little to do with the Euro and far more to do with internal politics and policies, Greece seems to be coming out of the worst of it and might be on the right track now, but we'll have to wait and see on that, as for Italy, I've not seen any major shift yet to get things moving and I really hope Italy gets its act together, but it's hard to keep faith on the country when they keep stumbling, and in any case, deflecting blame isn't the solution, constructive policymaking and solutions are needed, not the blame game that creates anger that gets none of us anywhere.
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  2.  @markojovanovski3372  It's more likely to do with the EU having tougher rules in place to allow these countries to develop, whiles at the same time, making it more difficult for them to go off track, but that doesn't always work as we see with Hungary, but it does with most of them, so the laws, rules, regulations, easy access to the market, allows a lot more economic growth and forign investments. Also as pointed out, the pattern is the same, look at the countries that joined the EU from the east, they are doing far better than what the ones that didn't join are doing, with the exception of Russia, and even then, only in select cities like Moscow, St Petersburg, the rest of Russia isn't doing so well, and this is with a country that's got a lot of natural resources so should be doing far better. Or if we want to put it another way, pretty much all the developed rich countries in Europe are either in the EU or are closely tied to it so much that they might as well be in the EU, the rest are pretty much fending for themselves and are pretty much doing far worse for it. Also, we should remember, countries that want to join the EU but are not in are likely to develop far more than countries that don't have a plan, mainly because of alignment with the EU market and other policies, Croatia is a prime example of that, they were getting ready to join the EU well ahead of before they joined the EU and benefitted a lot on the economic front, the same goes for all other countries that joined, they benefitted before joining by alignment and the same will be the case for future members over time. Also, I find that countries that implements the reforms sooner rather than later, tend to benefit on economic growth the most, some are quick on it, others drag their feet, hence why some do better before and after joining the EU, the EU after all can only help so much, the country in question still has to put the work in.
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  3. Very true, and with these eastern EU countries developing, that brain drain will reduce and eventually reverse as the economy catches up with western EU standards. In any case, the brain drain was going to happen to those countries regardless of if they were in the EU or not as people want a better quality of life and many are willing to move to get that, with these countries being in the EU, it does make it easier for them to move to other EU countries, but it also helps to develop these countries much faster which then people will want to live in those countries, something we've seen in many western EU countries that developed over time, the Republic of Ireland is a prime example, they were quite poor and now one of the richest countries in the EU and that's enticing people to want to move there, the same will happen to these eastern European countries over time.
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  4. Problem is in today's world, most people tend to look for flaws in things and not the good something does. The EU isn't perfect and reforms are needed, but it does far more good for its members than if it didn't exist, but unfortunately, we are living in a very negative world that's always looking at the negative of things and not the positives, most of this blame is on the right wing, from politics to the media, they are always blaming things, not being very constructive, dividing people and more or less being troublemakers, they are rarely constructive with credible solution, but are very quick to point fingers and blame, a big part of the problems we are having is because the right wing are whipping up a mob mentality from the people, a lot of which is based on lies, half-truths and disinformation, we saw that just recently in the UK with the riots and with things Elon Musk and Farage said, basically, troubles makers that were trying to put fuel on the fire to make things worse, and if you look closely, you start to realise where the real problem is.
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  5. Depends on how you look at it, joining the EU will mean a readjustment for the country joining and it will also mean their companies will have to up their game to be competitive in the EU market, but that also benefits those companies by being more competitive on the world market. The brain drain thing was probably going to happen regardless of joining the EU or not as people seek a better life, but it's a temporary thing that will reverse over time as these countries that join and develop into modern wealthy countries, we've already seen that with many western EU countries that joined over the years. As for independence and making your own laws, independence is a bit of an illusion, the world structure, the laws, regulations and rules are more or less made by the big powers like the EU and the US, smaller countries around the world can make their own rules within reason, but the ones that want to do well usually have to play ball with the big players in the world, there are 3 big players, the EU, the US and China, all 3 are shaping the global rules how they see fit, the rest, for the most part are along for the ride, independence to a degree but in reality, they are in the bubble of power of these big players, we see a lot of this going on in Europe with the EU and Russia with Russia wanting influence in the region but the EU winning out because what it offers is more appealing, this is playing out on a global scale, just look at Australia or Japan, independent on the surface but they are practically in the pocket of the US since the second world war. This is only going to get worse for small to medium size powers as the EU, US and China continues to dominant and become bigger over the decades, and maybe if India gets its act together, maybe they can be part of that club, but for the rest, they are more or less at the mercy of the big players on what laws, rules and regulations they make, and usually, ignoring them usually has a very high economical price. So in the case of eastern European countries that are deciding on whether to join the EU or not, the real question they should ask themselves, do they want to be a decision maker or follower, if they are in the EU, they are one kog in the wheel that can help decide and make these laws, rules and regulations, if they are on the outside, they become followers, we see that already with none EU members, including the UK which is more or less mirroring EU laws, rules and regulations out of self-interest, and clearly geographic plays a part, the EU has more influence in Europe, the US in the Americas and China in Asia with other pockets scattered around the world for them all, some of it is because of history and other ties.
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