31–40 of 243 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they're cheap and good we'll buy them :) Germans make *some* great cars
German cars aren't what they used to be. I know because my wife owns a Made in Germany Volkswagen that breaks a lot more often than my other car, a US-made Hyundai.
The EU is the most unintentionally hilarious confederation. It's completely inside out. Coordinate foreign affairs? Nope Able to police external borders? Nope Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? Not even remotely But banning IC engines, mandating dongle size, and giving the world cookie popups? You bet!
You must be living under a rock: Coordinate foreign affairs? => Yes (e. g. Russia sanctions) Able to police external borders? => Yes, Frontex Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? => When was the last time anyone attacked an EU country?
US led and coordinated
Able to police external borders? => Yes, Frontex
Famously ineffective in 2015.
Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? => When was the last time anyone attacked an EU country?
The near abroad of the EU is not the EU, they are its neighbouring states.
The EU is the most unintentionally hilarious confederation. It's completely inside out. Coordinate foreign affairs? Nope Able to police external borders? Nope Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? Not even remotely But banning IC engines, mandating dongle size, and giving the world cookie popups? You bet!
The EU's roots are as a common trading block - it is built around the foundation of a single market, removing barriers to trade across countries. A common defense policy isn't part of that, external borders are nominally a matter for those countries - it is internal borders that the EU is centrally concerned with.
Common connectors for phones, clearly falls within the ambit of a seamless internal market, internal combustion engines too - given that the countries have adopted similar positions on climate change and want the market to reflect that.
Cookie popups were a stupid industry innovation designed to try and circumvent EU data privacy rules.
Better than nothing, but the date is a bit far away if we want carbon neutrality before (or even around) 2050. Cars have fairly long service times. Hopefully the market will phase out ICEs earlier than that except for niche uses.
There may be a faster fall-off than you'd think, because of feedback effects. Same way film cameras stopped being popular and then you couldn't get the films, or get them developed, so they got more unpopular, repeat until extinct. If fuel stations start closing down and you can't get the parts, it won't matter if fuel cars have decades of good service life ahead.
The EU is the most unintentionally hilarious confederation. It's completely inside out. Coordinate foreign affairs? Nope Able to police external borders? Nope Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? Not even remotely But banning IC engines, mandating dongle size, and giving the world cookie popups? You bet!
- They police their borders sadly quiet heavily, if you think about pushbacks in greece and the whole frontex operation.
- EU is not a military alliance and doesn't have an army, even though they thought about it. So most states rely on their own army and NATO.
- So why do they care about IC engines, dongle size and cookie? Because the EU is about trading policy, consumer rights, privacy, worker rights and much more.
Is it inside out for you because you misunderstood what's it's role is maybe?
The EU probably needs to worry more about what they are going to power their vehicles for the next few years at least since they don't want to use Russian Oil.
Bad news for Ferrari et al.
A lot of their multi millionaire customers value that these cars have several moving parts that go bang on dead dinosaur juice, causing them to go vroom when you hit the gas pedal while making loud crackling and popping sounds from the exhaust, as the several pistons ramp up to over 8.000 RMP, so they will pay a premium for that in an all electric world (just look at the failure of electric motorcycles in the west).
The EU is the most unintentionally hilarious confederation. It's completely inside out. Coordinate foreign affairs? Nope Able to police external borders? Nope Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? Not even remotely But banning IC engines, mandating dongle size, and giving the world cookie popups? You bet!
You must be living under a rock: Coordinate foreign affairs? => Yes (e. g. Russia sanctions) Able to police external borders? => Yes, Frontex Credible military deterrence in its near abroad? => When was the last time anyone attacked an EU country?
I'd say it's more down to NATO membership than anything from the EU