Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Macron to push Eurozone reform" video.
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Thatss likely true or something along thoes lines, at least in the Eurozone but that was never going to be an easy task and they knew right from the start that it wasn't going to be easy hence why they left it to a later stage because as the cracks start to show, it will make it easier for the members to come up with something that works then when things are going alright, the EU always seems to do best when things are going wrong.
Also, I should point out that the EU isn't trying to follow the model the US have got, that doesn't really work that well for the US and clearly wont for the EU, what the EU and it's members are trying to do is create a new system that works, that takes time and careful planning, the real advantage the EU and it's members have is that this union is being formed over like 100 years which more likely means they are better likely to get it far more right then wrong where most union are rushed.
As for China, they do have a big advantage over the west with central control, it means they have longer term thinking whereas we in the west with goverments coming and going, they think more on the short term, but I suspect in the longer run, China will have to open up if it really wants it's economy to catch up to the west, I also think sooner or later the goverment is going to have to lose it's grip on it's central control power for them to really become modern, afterall, we should remember that it's easy for them to try and catch up to the west when they are more or less copeing all our ideas, it's a diffrent story if they become moden and have to lead.
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It's hard to say how the EU is going to turn out in the longer run because it really does depend on the members and thats always changing.
As for China, a one party rule system will continue to work effectively as long as they can copy all the ideas of the west to modernise, in other words, it will likely work for a few more decades, but once they are leading the pack, I suspect a new system will be needed, either way, they easierly win out compared to the US and EU in economic terms, population and power around the globe.
As for the USSR, they could never really compete with the west long term because of it's economic model, they had to spend way more on the militery of it's gdp, China doesn't have that problem long term as they are modernising fast.
As for the EU, it can't ignore the members, it only takes a few veto's to black things from happening, more so from two or so big members, then they have the EU parliament which needs to pass it.
As for democrary, I do agree with you that it's more of an illusion in a sense a bit like how the Roman Empire was made to seem like the public had a say but really they didn't but just like in Rome and today, the people or the mob as they call them always have the power if they rise up in enough numbers.
The real problem I find with voting and asking the public to vote on anything is that most of them don't really know what they are voting on, they don't do there research, many of them don't seem to care and many more are misinformed by the right wing media, democracry is only really an effective system if you have a public that turns up to vote and have all the facts on what they are voting for, clearly that isn't the case in the west.
In other words, democracry would be one of the best systems we have if the public was better educated and had all the facts on what they are voting on, as it is, too much power is in the media which are able to munipulated the minds of many.
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All the evidence says otherwise, the west is getting into a mess thanks to irantinal voting habits from the public and even before all this, the public keep crying out for change and what do they do, they keep voting for the same paries over and over expecting a diffrent result, if the public really wants change, there are many options out there to get them, either new parties or big protest and so on, goverments always listen when enough of the mob wakes up, a lession even the Romans knew.
In any case, it's clear there is problems with how goverments are run, they rarely feel like they respensent the intrest of the public and this is the case with most goverments, as for the EU, they can't really do anything without enough of the members onside as well as the European parliment, so the EU isn't really the problem but some members are with the tug of war that keeps going on that doesn't help to serve the publics intrest.
In any case, why do you think the EU is used as a scapegoat by so many? anything that goes wrong in any members country, the EU gets the blame even thought the EU doesn't have the power in many of the areas it gets the blame for, the UK does this a lot because it's easier to deflect blame elseware for ones mess they got themself in, in other words, national goverments are the real problem not the EU, a bit of research on all this and you would know this, if you are open minded that is.
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Yeah I remember once Farage complaining about the system that Ukip would of won more seat if the system was more fair at the time.
Anyway, this two party system we see in the UK and US isn't really a good thing for democracy, it really limits the choice. it is one thing I feel they do a better job around Europe in many countries that we see a lot more parties that are able to get into power.
I also think that when it's election time, they really should be held to account with what they promise the people to win the vote because too many times they lie and tell us what they think we want to hear, not on what they can deliver and this is why so many people are getting so disilussuioned with politics of late, the public don't know who to trust anymore.
So Brexit or no Brexit, unless we change the way the system in the UK works, nothing is really going to change but the truth is, we can do all these changese whiles being a EU member but too many in power don't want the UK system to change.
As for the only time goverments get clear message from the people isn't by refernddums but by a big protest, they always listen if the numbers are big enough, beside, the vote isn't a clear sign with how close it was but many of the hardliners want us to think it is.
In any case, being that the vote wasn't mandatory and with how close it was, that was always going to leave big problems for us, if they won by 60% plus, this wouldn't of been an issue and we would be out but because of all the lies and how close the vote was, it's become a big issue which isn't going to go away even well after Brexit this is likely going to continue on, more so if Brexit hurts the UK.
I'm not oposed to having votes on these kind of things, but the way it was handled was really poor, we can't really have a simply in/out question to something so complex like the EU, it was never going to work, more so when most of the public knows little about the EU to know if it's in there intrest or not, it's also part of the reason why we have elected goverments so they can be the experts on doing whats in the intrest for us, clearly they don't listen half the time but they should and they are likely to know a lot more about the EU then the public does.
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Well we have to do something because clearly the system we have in place is not working for so many people, I think what really needs to happen is that the system needs to be far more open with the public like things like taxes should be accountable for the public to see where the money is going and other things like that, goverments are there to do a public service so it should be a lot more public for us to see, that will likely make them a lot more accountable because it will be hard for them to get away with things, it will also show where our taxes are going as well.
Anyway, the problem is with the Brexit vote, because of how dirty the leave side was playing, it forced the remain side to do the same otherwise the leave side likely would of won by a much bigger margin, people seem to like lies, slogans and things like that, me on the other hand I perfer the truth and facts, even if they are cold and not agreeable to what I want to see, it's better to know the truth then delude ones self.
In any case, the way the goverment is handerling Brexit is a mess and I don't denie that the British people ware made to seem that when we was joining the EEC, they made it seem like we was joining a economic union only, thats the British goverments fault not the EU because the EU have always been a economic and political union way before the UK even joined.
In any case, a lot of the talk we are having on Brexit and the EU over the last two years really should've happened before the vote took place, the results likely would've been diffrent, but in any case, another vote can correct that if the British people wish that.
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Well as a Brit myself, the last thing the Europeans want to do is follow us, as for Norway and Switzerland, Norway is a small country with oil reserve being used wisely, so that wont work for most European countries, Switzerland are one of the most currupt modern countries out there so not really something to follow.
Norway does have a lot going for it but once that oil runs out, the gdp per capita is likely going to fall back in line with Sweden and Finland.
In any case, there is much for the rest of Europe and world could learn from Norway, Sweden and Finland and as for reforms of the EU and Eurozone, it's clear a lot of changese are going to happen over the next 10 years, more so now that the UK can't block any of it.
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Problem is that sarcasiam doesn't always translate well online hence why I don't use it as much online as I do in person because it goes over too many peoples heads online I find.
As for Spain and Italy, they are not bankrupted but they do need to do some major reforms, more so for Italy, As for Spain, they are richer then they've ever been, remember they started out as a poor country before joining the EU and look at them now, far better off, as for the Euro, it seems to work for all the countries that does reforms, Italy and Greece have been lagging in doing the reforms hence why they've fell behind, Germany about 20 years ago was in the same boat as Italy as the sick man of Europe but they didn't complain, they did the reforms needed to get back on it's feet and now look at them, Italy and Greece wasted all thoes years whiles blaming everyone else and not themselfs for it's own problems.
The EU is working really well, every country that joined is much better then it was, even the UK which before it joined was the sick man of Europe at the time and being in the EU became one of the richest countries in the world, then look at the eastern members, they are catching up fast with the western members, to give you an idea of what EU membership does, look at Poland and Ukraine, both had around the same level of gdp per capita in the early 90's, now Poland is about 8 times richer then the Ukraine in gdp per capita, pretty much every EU member is better off thanks to the EU.
As for Switzerland, it's true, you can go and check it out yourself as it's been voted that way and I suspect it's because of the currupted banking sector that seems to protect the rich elites intrest as well as corparations.
You say Germany wants to rule Europe, the irony is that half the time they just want to be left alone but other members keep pulling them back in, also, it only takes two big EU members to vote the other way and Germany can't get what it wants, so Germany doesn't rule the EU, they have one of the bigger says in it and rightly so as they have the biggest economy and population but they are just one member among others, in fact, if we look at the EU, the smaller members get more voting rights per population then the bigger members, if the system was done really fair, the bigger members would have more voting rights then they do now, now compare that to the UK system in how voting is done there.
As for the US, they've not really achived much that Europeans wasn't doing, the only real thing that makes the US diffrent is the size of the population to EU countries and that gives power, it's also the real benefit China have got with it's big population and quickly moderniseing, the point I'm getting at, if Germany or any other modern EU member had the same population size of the US, they would end up being about the same size in economic terms, more so when scale kicks in.
As for the UK leaving the EU, thats the best thing that could happen to the EU, the UK have always held it back, now the EU and it's members can real push forward in areas the UK and for that matter, the US didn't want, in other words, expect it to get a lot more effective from now on.
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What, so being British means I should bend over and do as the goverment tells us to do? they tried that in the US after 9/11 banding people as trators for not agreeing with goverments even thought it was clear what the goverment was doing was wrong.
I'm fully British but that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep an open mind on how things are really going and I look at things for how they are, reforms are clearly needed with the EU and Eurozone for it to work more effectively for it's members, it's clear we need a new migrant policy but the problem is here is with some EU members, it would work far more effective if the EU had the power over that so then Italy wouldn't have the problem they have now.
As for the UK and Brexit, where do I start lol, we've got Brexit so wrong in the UK with our pie in the sky way of thinking, thinking we would get a cake to eat and cheer pick any deal we want which was never going to happen, reality is slowly kicking in as all the lies are being exposed with Brexit and the real impact of Brexit becomes real.
Because I'm British, that doesn't mean I agree with everything the UK does, we do many things wrong just like others do and Brexit is one of our biggest mistakes we've done for quite some time.
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The UK helped but we have to be real, the UK was on it's knees begging the US to enter the war, so the UK helped but it was the US and Russia that really changed the war and what really indicates that is that the Nazia had 60% of it's best troops and equapment on the eastern front, they saw the western allies as lest of a threat and as we know, Russia is what really did the damage.
We should also remember, that if it wasn't for that 20 miles of water devided us from mainland Europe, the Nazis likely would of steamed rolled into the UK just as easierly as they did with France, the truth is, they had a very advanced millitery and we couldn't keep up, we needed time to catch up before we could beat them, thats was why they fell in the longer run.
Anyway, being that I've traveled around a lot, mostly around Europe and America and that I live in the UK, you'll be supprised how many in the UK are disgruntled that Germany lost the war and yet they are more successful now, bigger enonomy, population, have a bigger and more central roll in the EU, thats really the sense many in the UK don't like.
As for the EU falling, euroseptics have been dreaming of that for along time and it never happens, the reason is doesn't is because most don't want it to fall, even now with all the problems going on, not many want to see the end of the EU, they want to see it change not the end of it, this is something I find people in the UK don't seem to understand about euroseptics in the EU.
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The second world war isn't as clear cut as it sound, remember that after the first world war, many other countries wanted to punish the Germans for what happened in the first world war, that helped create the depression and led to Hitler getting into power which restored pride in the Germans, in other words, the western countries actions had a play in all that.
Also we did learn our lessions after the second world war in that we didn't try to punish them but helped to rebuild them and that worked.
We should also remember that the US played a big part in all this because around 1930, they started a trade war by putting tariffs on France and Italy I think, maybe some others as well, anyway, they put tariffs back on the US and then the US put more tariffs on the others, it helped to create the depression and the irony is that Trump wants to do the same thing today.
History is a great teacher if we listen to it, sadly, most of us don't research it and it quickly gets forgotten only for us to keep repeating the same mistakes.
In any case, I really put the blame on our education system, we all should be doing better then this but too mamy people are too easierly fooled which is sad to see because it hurts them the most, also goverments and the mass media don't help with them helping the public to not know who to trust any more so they get disilussuion with everything in life.
As for the euroseptic movment, if you notice, hardly any of them want to pull out of the EU outright, what the real complaining is mostly about is that they want the EU to change, more so over things like migrants, the irony is that the EU have limited power on that area because it's really a national issue and that is where the real problem is, some are being more selfish then others and putting the burdern on 2 or 3 EU members, this is one of thoes cases where the EU doesn't have the power to do much about it but it would be better if they did, the irony in all that.
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