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Why Canada Should Join the EU

economist.com

761–770 of 823 posts

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a 90 working, 10 non working people ratio, there isn’t going to be much to export, and hence the local currency isn’t going to buy much elsewhere in the world. Also, at 90/10, the working people will surely start to wonder why they are paying rent (or tax) and who is going to stop them if they don’t. Same for invaders looking at obtaining the natural resources in Canada. I picked an extreme ratio to illustrate the…

> At a 90 working, 10 non working people ratio, there isn’t going to be much to export, and hence the local currency isn’t going to buy much elsewhere in the world. Canadian currency at the lowest in years. But most of the wealth of Canadians is not held in cash and not entirely even in Canadian investments. > It is sort of “land value is a product of labor from decades prior that has accumulated to the orderly, prod…

> The land I live on is worth well over a million dollars and increases at a significant rate every year but has no basis in reality other than demand for land outstrips the supply.

It’s only worth whatever it is because that land has access to utilities, sources of food, security due to social cohesion and judicial systems, etc. Some of that stuff takes decades to build.

And if you stop being able to buy the food you want, get clean water, electricity, all that basic societal stuff because it is getting too expensive because there are too few labor sellers, then the land price (in real terms) will reflect that.

I am not disputing that supply and demand determine price, I am saying demand curves themselves can shift due to demographic changes.

> Canadian currency at the lowest in years. But most of the wealth of Canadians is not held in cash and not entirely even in Canadian investments.

I assume Canadian real estate is a huge portion of wealth for many Canadians. Maybe not nominal amounts skewed by the richest Canadians with international equities.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#762

Does the economist know what time it is? Nationalism is resurgent: nationalist parties now control the U.S. and Italy. Canada seems poised to Poilievre, who has made impassioned appeals to Canadian nationalism. And in Germany, France, and the U.K., nationalist parties have effectively rendered the governing coalitions impotent, even if they cannot yet command a majority. What a time to suggest that Canadians cede the…

This could be seen as a EU-nationalist framing. Just like the United States has shifted from being a federation of states toward being a singular entity.

UK and Ireland can’t even get along…IDK how Canada and Italy are going to manage.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#763

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a common culture to govern a country, and that culture needs to be deeper than watching the same movies and consuming the same flow of cheap Chinese products. If you don’t have a common culture, you need real federalism so people can self-segregate into more homogenous cultural groups and efficiently govern themselves. The U.S. suffers greatly from the demise of federalism and it’s insane that anybody would…

>You need a common culture to govern a country Or, an Empire. The EU is decidedly not that, however. Perhaps this article was published 10-20 years too soon, and one day in the future an Imperial American (or French) bureaucracy decides that it's time to bring the friends across the pond closer into the orbit of the Imperial State. Joking, of course. The problems within the United States today (where I am made to car…

Is this post from 1700?

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> conditional on things like only voting in left wing parties Thefuck? The EU has been making everything conditional on privatization, deregulation and generally adopting more capitalist models in practically every aspect of government. You're calling this left wing?? A few examples of the demands: sell off our largest and state-owned bank; decouple, deregulate and privatize electricity generation and sale; open the…

The EU isn't exactly famous for its love of deregulation, you know. Quite the opposite, especially when it comes to tech. But I'm referring to the withdrawal of cohesion funds from countries like Poland and Hungary under newly invented rules like needing to share "EU values". These values aren't defined or written down anywhere, but the only countries that seem to violate them are those with conservative parties in p…

Some 'values' like LGBT discrimination in Hungary are prohibited by EU directive: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/ju...

So yes they are written down. And rightly so. Being conservative is fine but telling others how to live their life is not.

However this is indeed not the reason for the withdrawal of funds as others have mentioned.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#765

No thanks. Canada is a young kid with a lot of good opportunities in the future. Europe is an old drowning rusty bureacratic ship. It should get their shit together themselves

Nah it's not. It's not all about money. We're doing pretty great in Europe. I wouldn't ever want to live in the US.

We don't have cities full of skyscrapers but we have enough.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#766
post #73

What are the benefits that cannot be obtained by signing trade agreements? Canada is already part of NATO for defence, so joining the EU does nothing for defence. Does Canada want freedom of movement of EU citizens into Canada? They already have a housing crisis. Greece's experience shows a single currency isn't really beneficial to all members of the EU, so Canada would be crazy to give that up.

Would many EU citizens want to move to Canada? When I hear people around me it's not very popular. Cold, far from family, too stretched out etc.

I wouldn't think about it even if I could make more money there.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also a problem for Labour that what’s stopping the right from winning the next election is in-fighting about how far right to go.

No it's not. Left-wing parties got 62% of the vote.

Liberal democrats, who got 12.2%, aren’t a “left wing party.” They were in a coalition with Tories from 2010-2015. The current leader of the party served in the Cameron government.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#768
post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how you can lump Romani and Jews together like that. Jews have a nation state, with "right of return"; a much better deal than the Romani get.

I had not thought about it that way. It's not such a great deal if you feel you belong wherever you are living now in Europe, and view yourself a quasi-citizen and European (even in case if there's no realistic path to citizenship due to your personal circumstances).

Can you explain this in a bit more detail? Or maybe with a hypothetical example?

What do you mean by no path to citizenship?

Are there historical groups of jews somewhere in the EU without any passport?

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#769
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the few tribal populations in Northern Europe generally were and certainly are today treated at least as fairly as anything in Canada. Really? The Sami populations don't have any sovereignty that I know of.

Is sovereignty the criteria for being treated fairly?

Not being treated fairly is a pretty good criteria. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001d059

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that's on top of french speaking people vs. english speaking people. In the EU, of course, everyone is against anglophones.

being "anglophone" isn't the issue. Rather that we're ALL anglophones. But anglophones (or better native English speakers) are only anglophones.

Come again?
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