If it doesn't come with improved wages, healthcare and housing, that's a recipe for disaster.
Has the US awakened the sleeping giant?
- Thread starter Rams
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That would be great, I'm hoping that this whole debacle will make enough Norwegians want to join the EU.
Well they’ll either find the money, or develop an architecture to maintain welfare, or they won’t. Defence spending will increase. Whether revolutions happen or not I don’t know. But yes, this is the sort of stuff that happens when the world richest economy threatens to rip up the existing global order and long standing security and trade agreements.
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It could well be the death of the EU imo. Time will tell. The future is blocs for a time (regional and otherwise) so you'd assume the EU would hold. But it is in self-immolation mode if you ask me. Some think a mandate for increase defense spending, and not small figures, is how to resolve this. These people, not you, for yours is nuanced, are entirely wrong. Not all states are equally "sold" on this for geo-historical reasons. And rightly so.
Agree with this. The EU is in a very precarious position.
Isn't Reform leading the polls in the UK? With MLP slated to do well in France? Italy is under a popular PM who didn't condemn Trump's statement?
City sucks
Francis dies. New Pope gets elected. 1st action in office: Council of Clermont II - Electric Crusadealoo
This guy
Where do they have 4 day working weeks? I’m thinking you’ve never been to Europe at all.I do enjoy all that cozy healthcare though tbh
THEY'RE IMHO ALREADY TOO COZY WITH 4 DAYS WORK, LAID BACK WORKING ENVIRONMENT, HEALTHCARE ETC
Yeah, it’s served me well on my way through life! I know it’s a bit sad I didn’t go bankrupt when I broke my foot last year, but it’ll take some time before we catch up to the utopia that is emerika.
Interesting question from the OP. Is it implying Europe will rally to counter Trump’s America both economically and militarily as if it was a beacon of morality to oppose the monster that the US has become?
This could be great. Maybe the European countries can all meet in Berlin like they did in 1884, when they divided Africa up amongst themselves?
This could be great. Maybe the European countries can all meet in Berlin like they did in 1884, when they divided Africa up amongst themselves?
The problem Europe has is not because it can’t defend itself, it’s because it’s not unified enough. Ironically, one of the general criticisms of the EU is surrendering power to Brussels…
I think the new norm going forward will be that Europe has to ramp up its combined military capabilities outside of NATO. As for Europe being a sleeping giant that has been awakened, I wouldn't quite go that far given that Hungary, Slovakia, and probably soon Czechia, will be led by politicians more sympathetic to Putin's narrative, and will likely spend their time attempting to thwart EU solidarity on Putin.
So in the end, anything Europe does will have to be a good old fashioned "coalition of the willing", led by the UK, France, and Germany; alongside a number of eastern European countries. For the past 8 decades, NATO would've been the model to address someone like Putin, but the US can simply no longer be relied on to underwrite European security anymore as long as Trump and Vance are on the scene.
Wohoo, you're back. Glad to see you again, with your disappearance coinciding with the LA fires.
I work 60 hour weeks every other week. 48 hours each other week.This guy
Where is this 4 day working week utopia that clown speaks of? I want some of that.
If Western Europe, Southern Europe, Scandinavia & Finland, Poland and the Baltics rearm, that’s plenty enough to obliterate Russia in a conventional war. And we don’t need the EU to rearm. And if the will is there, it could even be done in months. We’d definitely need to increase the nuclear arsenal though to be a deterrent to Russia, that’s a different ball game.
Agreed. The question will be whether the publics in these countries will be galvanized to support a potential conventional war with Russia, or at a minimum, whether said countries are willing to actually put peacekeepers in Ukraine while the war is still ongoing.
I think the people are more onboard than they were last week. But with such short-termism who knows how they'll all feel in a month.
Yes, not matter what people’s political views are, in general people over here overwhelmingly don’t want another Hitler or Napoleon conquering Europe.
Hah! Agreed! I’ve 50 hours a week usually, one week a month 6-days of work, just to get that one weekend off a month! And I live in Norway, not Moldova!
As a typical European this is my daily routine:
I wake up at 11 AM and spend the next 2 hours watching something woke on my phone. Then I take a 40 minute bath. Then I consume an entire baguette and 3 espressos, before I jump into my croissant mobile and drive to work while listening to Vengaboys and O-Zone. My work consists of trash talking any country that isn't mine and drawing cartoon penises. After 2 hours of this hard labor (warning: consists of a 30 minute power nap) I'm done for the day. I slap my boss on my way out the door. Next up is physical exercise, which is just me riding the silliest looking bicycle imaginable in circle around a fountain that smells like piss. Then it's time for dinner with friends. It's all wine and cheese for the rest of the evening. The smelliest fart wins. Then it's back home for some drunken pegging with the missus. After this we lie in bed and plan our next paid holiday (we get around 18 weeks).
Can I get a job at your place?
I'm gonna have to ask the labor union first (my boss obviously has no say on the matter). Last time I checked we were very close to our cartoon penis quota, but I think that Michelangelo turns 48 soon, which means that he will retire. There should be a spot for you then!
Maybe it’s not quite obvious over on the other side of the pond, but Trump’s antics on Friday has completely galvanized the general public against Putin, over here anyway in Holland. Right wing, left wing, all people feel the same.
Europe has 4 times the population of Russia and 10 times the GDP, If it goes to 4% across the board it'll out perform Russia hugely. It also needs to double down on Nuclear power and stop importing Russian gas. Lack of standardisation is killing Europe, even basic things like Britain, France and Germany using different service rifles is mad. There should be one standard, across the continent, made in Europe. Same with vehicles and planes.
Where Europe is already strong is at sea, a combined Euro navy would be a force to be reckoned with.
Where Europe is already strong is at sea, a combined Euro navy would be a force to be reckoned with.
I work a 4 day week (10h a day) but tbh I think, on the technical side of things at least, we're smashing it so it shows me that it isn't a negative for either employer or employee as long as it's implemented flexibly. On the other hand I've worked with companies that do the 996 (or even 997) and I wouldn't say they were terribly efficient by and large. The work generally expands to fill the working week and creativity and good decision making can really suffer.
Also worth noting the Russian military has been severely depleted by this war - both in terms of personnel, material, and weapons; so any hypothetical conventional confrontation with the EU wouldn't favor Putin. At the end of the day, the threat of European escalation may provide sufficient leverage to get a peace deal.
Very good.We'll become the most powerful entity the world has ever known. It'll last about a week until it all falls apart when Italy, Spain and France argue over who makes the better wine, the Germans will get distracted creating a spreadsheet to compare the different wines in a coordinated and calculated manner, and the English will get a headache from all the weird foreign sounds they're hearing. Poland and Ukraine will be left holding back the Russians by themselves wondering why everyone around them is so fecking stupid.
Even if Europe wants to arm itself to try and become a significant military power, wouldn’t it be buying weapons from US? Or are there significant weapons manufacturing facilities in Europe?
Top European weapons manufacturer is lsraeI
Before the October budget, one of the ideas floating around to increase tax receipts was a review of the council tax system. Currently concil tax bands are calculated based on 1990s prices. If instead they marked to market real estate and made council tax a percentage of that value, you'd see a radically more equal distribution of paper wealth and monthly cash expenses. Real estate has grown far in excess of inflation for 40 years so people are sitting on homes, whether first second or third homes, worth millions but paying a couple grand a year to hold on to them. Never got off the ground though and I'm not exactly sure why
I don't think European politicians are ready for the budgetary commitments this will require.
US spends north of $700bn a year on defense. Europe doesn't even come close.
Manpower is another topic for discussion.
US spends north of $700bn a year on defense. Europe doesn't even come close.
Manpower is another topic for discussion.
We’ve only just figured out how to standardise phone chargers. Might take a while for guns and vehicles.
Europe is one of the biggest arms exporter, the UK on its own exports large amounts, it’s an important industry.
European countries already top any global taxation list, so yeah that's not going to work. The UK should provide fair warning as to what happens when you try to target 'the rich'.
The EU accounts for about 15% of global GDP and half its welfare spending. Those numbers are not sustainable in the face of an aggressive Putin and unfriendly Trump.
absolutely, at least in Germany. The Bundeswehr has around 20,000 vacant positions.