The E.U. Experiment Has Failed
This article by Bruce Thornton on the Hoover Institution website that discusses the issues with the EU and how it has failed. The article begins by listing different statistics such as that compare the United States to the EU as both groups recovered from the Great Recession of 2008. Overall based on the statistics it is clear that the EU has recovered much slower than the United States and links it to the different believes that each individual state in the EU has a different view on how to solve the issues that have arose.
While the recession has caused issues, Thornton brings up how the EU will only continue to slow growth. He cites that by 2030, 25% of Europeans will be age 65 or older which would not be such a large issue if the birth rate in Europe had been at each woman having 2.1 children after the 1970s. Europe's birth rate in 2014 was 1.6 while 2.1 is the standard that is needed to refresh the population. Because of this aging of the EU, younger people will be overused for the economies to be as productive as the United States or other countries. In addition to aging, the EU is also dealing with issues of more immigrants coming in that do not share similar beliefs to the countries that they are attempting to move into. This is causing more nationalism to arise in European countries which directly counters the larger state mentality that the EU has been attempting to create.
I feel that Thornton brings up a lot of interesting points however I wonder if the states that make up the EU are to intertwined at this point to separate. The time that I feel the split would have happened would be when the Southern European countries economies were having their major issues and Northern Europe was succeeding but the split clearly did not happen. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years and whether the EU will break apart or split in anyway.
Why do you think they are so intertwined? Is it an economic things? Political? Cultural?
ReplyDeleteProfessor, I feel that it is mainly an economic reason that they are intertwined. European nations in the EU still have maintained their own national identities but they are economically dependent on one another. States like Greece and Spain are fully dependent on the EU and cannot thrive without being involved with the other states.They have also remained separate politically and have taken different stances on political issues within their own borders. If the EU continues, I could see political involvement amongst all of the states in the EU but I feel that the nations will maintain their own cultural identities.
DeleteI found this article very interesting and I think that it brings up many valid points about the conflicts that Europe is facing. I do find a problem with this statement: "Europe and its nations were forged in the matrix of ideas, ideals, and beliefs of Christianity, which gave divine sanction to notions like human rights, the sanctity of the individual, political freedom, and equality", specifically the later part of the statement. I am not so much arguing that the principles of Christianity do not advocate these things. I am more concerned with the idea that Europe used Christianity to form these ideals. If it indeed did, they were formed on a very unstable foundation and perhaps that is the reason why we are seeing so many problems today. Internal conflict and economic fluctuations has faced Europe throughout its history, the crusades being an example, and many of these human rights and importance placed on the individual were thrown out of the window even when the church was the pinnacle of society. Perhaps its not that Europe is all of the sudden facing problems but that the joining of countries into the EU has exacerbated problems that already existed.
ReplyDeleteIncreased immigration in Europe will offset their slumping birth rate in terms of have a a large enough work force. We have seen this phenomenon in the United States for years with undocumented workers from Mexico or other Latin American countries taking. US birthrates have been below replacement for decades, but our population continues to grow from the net increase in immigrants (relative to emigrants). I think native European growth will be slow, but populations will continue to crow as foreign birthrates and immigration rates stay high. I believe Thornton's argument is flawed and there are other factors the contribute to the slow recovery like austerity measures or interest rate manipulation
ReplyDeleteAs for the ideological and religious segregation of muslims, is it really that different from the aftermath of 9/11 in the United States? We have multiple groups who have blatantly state their outrage for the Muslim religion. Also, I think the EU needs some changes, but I do not believe they are as far behind as this article portrays. With different austerity measures, time, and economic policies we could see the European Union members back on their feet.
ReplyDeleteIn agreement with Noah's main point, while the natural increase rate of European states may be dwindling, the population growth rate continues to rise due to the up-welling of immigrants to these areas. As immigrant populations enter the work force and contribute to the economies of the states to which they move, the economy has the potential to achieve stability (or possibly improve) rather than shrinking into an "overused economy" as suggested by Thorton. While I understand that the situation of the EU is delicate with regard to austerity measures and fiscal sovereignty, I think that the failures which Thorton suggests are imminent are somewhat superficial.
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