The French EU Vote
The EU concept has unravelled another step. In other posts, I have wondered whether the EU could really pull together the nations of Europe, with their diversity, pride, cultures, vastly different economies, and outlooks on politics. A common theme, however, is socialism, and this non vote was supported by those who thought the EU constitution was not Left enough. The Dutch seem to be against the constitution also, and we will hear from them tomorrow. If they vote nay, it will be far harder to pull off the EU as a legitimate government. With the UK now wavering, the whole idea is in jeopardy. I do not think this is necessarily good for the US, but I will wait for some of the informed commentators out there to report.
Socialism
The idea that collectivism and levelling of people's status and income more to an acceptable average across the board, except for the elite few who run the show, is simply not my cup of tea. Then too, this puts industry into a bind in that they must pay for it to a large degree, with benefits galore for their workers, and much lower profit margins. Adding higher taxes, and more generous government benefits to the pot means eventual deficits that can't be coped with. I paid over 62% of my salary in taxes when I lived in Holland.
At the same time, there were 100,000 guest-workers on the dole at 70% of their last pay, out of the 200,000 in the country then. It is much worse now, and practically all of the guest workers were Muslim, hence the strife there recently. It is no wonder that big industry is branching out and developing plants worldwide where they can get a tax break. This in turn hurts the home country, by providing fewer jobs. If the big guys, such as Philips, decide they cannot make sufficient profits in the home country, there is little to prevent them from moving out to another country where they can make a profit. The experiment in socialism will last quite a while, but the quality of life will gradually decay, and the ecomomies will falter sooner or later. There is simply no such thing as a free lunch!
The Nuclear Option
I have been in favor of the constitutional option. I still am in favor of it. Perhaps we must wait a bit for the Democrats to show their lack of trustworthiness once again, before it will be enacted by the Republicans. Meanwhile, I will take what was given -- three conservative judges. Look for it to be enacted when the next appointment to the Supreme Court comes up.
# posted by Mannning @ 4:19 PM
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