“The Virtuous North and the Sinner South”
The Eurozone is a bit of a mystery to me.
All those countries, with countless years of history,
binding themselves together…
I think it’s a lot like the United States. We just came
along at a later date. In simplicity in extreme, Europe took our idea of the
good of all states through a central government with the same currency.
Europe though, has been inhabited for thousands of years.
Each country passed on for generations upon generations, each country, or
state, sovereign unto itself. Some rich some poor, all with traditions and
culture. The European Union, or Eurozone was created recently, where the rich
states (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, etc) and the not so rich states
(France, Belgium, Spain, Greece, etc) became equals. Their money was now the
same. What made it unworkable was that their debt was now the same too. When
one country accounted for a percentage of the debt payment, another country
accounted for much less. While one country produced and invested, another
encurred more and more debt through spending.
Now in 2012, The EU is embroiled in a feud over “austerity
measures”. These are painful cutbacks in spending. Austerity is being plain
with no sauce. You get what you need but that’s it - until these measures are
lifted by the shrinking debt.
Germany and the
Virtuous North are demanding that the failing economies of EU member states
such as Greece, Ireland and now Spain (whose credit rating was recently
downgraded 2 notches!), must take on these harsh cutbacks. This is looked upon
with contempt from the Sinner South, who resent being told what to do by Germany. In the linked article,
France is close to electing Francois
Hollande, an opponent of the EU agreement and of Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he’ll
replace as France's new President.
But what do I know, I’m just a hick from the sticks.
-katykarter
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9234926/Hollandes-Growth-Bloc-spells-end-of-German-hegemony-in-Europe.html
