Europe is a mess. Politically. Economically. Militarily. Socially. You name the problem, they have it.
To fully understand what's going on we need to take a look at the problems themselves, their origin and developments. To fully understand the only viable solution, we need to understand the role that EU governments played in this debacle. To task.
DEBACLES SOUNT NOUS
EU Economy
In the 1960's EU was growing faster than, well, almost any other country in the world including the US. However, this economic development began to slow down around the 1980's and the slow-down continues. European unemployment is consistently very high, particularly in the last 30 years.
European debt (public and private) has nothing but skyrocketed over the last 40 or so years and it has gone ballistic in the last 12 months.
European R&D and technology, particularly in Germany who used to be a powerhouse, is now nowhere to be seen. Sure, EU still produces some R&D and some technology, but there are no mayor world-wide players in this area. And again, this began to happen in the last 40 or so years.
And so the question becomes, what happened about 40 years ago? We are talking early 1970's. Why is that early 1970's is so important to economic issues? Because beginning in the 1960's there was a huge push to create welfare states. Basically, all EU governments became socialists. Mind you, this wasn’t purely an EU phenomenon, this happened all over the world.
Socialist governments (i.e. communist-light) spend. Basically, this is all they do, they spend. And when there isn't enough money, they make extensive use of the unholy trinity: Tax, Borrow and Print. And this is exactly what EU governments did. It took from the beginning of the 1960's -where most governments were somewhat "conservative"- to the mid 1970's to fully cement the change to socialism. Once this was done, there was no going back.
The unholy trinity has a notable economic side effect: it increases enormously the cost of doing business. This is exactly what happened in EU. Due to all those "social loads" it became unpractical to have any business in EU other than those satisfying basic consumer needs (these industries are typically local because they cater to local populations).
The issue of the EU slow-performing economy has nothing to do with EU people being intrinsically incapable of economic growth and it has nothing to do with EU governments being incapable of nurturing EU-based R&D and Tech companies. The EU slow-performing economy has everything to do with governments burning private investment capital to fund "social" programs, process which ultimately destroyed the economy and was the direct culprit of collapsing "social standards".
In other words, when direct or indirect taxes are high, a lot of investment money is used-up by the government and whatever remains simply invest in lower-tax countries. Capitals flee and when this happens economies collapse. This is what has been happening in EU over the last 40 or so years.
EU Military
The current EU military doctrine and forces were forged after WWII and were quickly modeled by the cold war and the USSR "containment" and "detente" strategies. As such there was a very strong US military presence in EU which was (and continue to be) deeply resented by EU people. This fact coupled with the EU's need to have "peace and quiet" after two WW, created conditions leading to massive cuts in their respective military forces. Additionally, it was widely believed that as a new and inevitable "EU society" was just around the corner, it made sense to fight as EU and not as individual EU countries should the need arises. Coordination and pooling of military resources was the most common thinking. As such, individual military forces could be smaller since they would all fight together and not against each other. Therefore, inevitably, military forces decreased all over EU, UK being the only exception (as usual). This decrease in military strength can be directly linked to the ridiculous assumptions that all EU governments made; namely that if invaded by the USSR they would, somehow, be able to oppose the overwhelming forces of the Warsaw Pact without going nuclear. It was a ridiculous assumption but a politically convenient one. Politicians knew that if they would tell people the truth, they would be out of a job instantaneously; therefore they concocted and maintained this illusion. The net effect was that military budgets dropped down to ludicrous levels. The debacle of military strength can be linked directly to political "needs" (i.e. job security for politicians). Furthermore, this decrease in military budget released money for "socialization" programs which played right in the hands of socialist politicians. More money to spend.
Now, let's be clear. We are all for decreasing all military forces anywhere in the world to exactly ZERO. However, many people see the EU military debacle as a debacle and our point being that we agree and that it is directly related to government action due to socialist theories.
EU Society
The peoples of the Europe as a society are in this day and age the most self-centred, egotistical, dis-believing and low-productive population than any other in "developed" countries. Arguably, the roots of such disposition can be found in the utter destruction and pointlessness of not one but two WW. Thesis abound outlining the idea that post WWII generations decided to focus on themselves and focus in the present. Tomorrow, god, country and so on can wait. They want physical happiness now, not future promises. They want physical enjoyment now, not rewards in the next life.
As a consequence of this outlook, they prompted two trends. The first one was the preference for the welfare state that could generate wealth out of thin air and, more importantly, distribute it to EU citizens for their enjoyment. Tomorrow does not exist, only today. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Politicians obliged because it was fully aligned with their socialistic ideas. And so politicians taxes, borrowed and printed to provide this standard of living which is unsustainable.
The second trend was the increasing de-population of "native" people from the Europas. EU countries have a birth-rate crisis today. In 10 to 30 years it will be a full-blown disaster. Because of this reason they have actively engaged in accepting immigration. The problem was that politicians decided to favour Eastern (as in middle-east) immigration over immigration from other regions such as Latin America, Africa or Asia. As a consequence of these idiotic immigration policies, communities of segregated people were created inside of countries. Instead of having a "melting pot", what they now have are opposition clusters of cultures that do not understand EU culture and do not want it.
And so EU countries face the problem of increasing aging (and retirement) of their "native" population, the takeover by "foreign" population, the lack of productivity, the ridiculous demands of both groups, increasing "social" costs to maintain the "standards of living" and social unrest.
But this is not all. The people of the Europe (native or immigrants) have decided that they don't want more immigration. Their twisted way of thinking is a spiral down into oblivion. They believe that if more immigrants are allowed, then there will be less jobs and less "correct, native and appropriate" culture. As such as they push for less immigration this will mean less working people, less economic development, less wealth and therefore lower social standards. These people are unable to see this clear relationship because they have been brainwashed into believing that wealth comes from the government and it is created out of thin air. Within this frame of reference workers are not necessary in order to improve economic conditions. All it is require is for governments to "do something".
But other than that, politicians were spot on, on immigration policies.
EU Politics
Politics in EU has resembled a gigantic non-event since the 1960's. There are no more charismatic leaders or powerful parties or clear directions. What we have now are weak politicians scrambling to form or operating from minority governments and political parties with no substance and only rhetoric left. Yet, they keep doing what they have been doing for the last 200+ years in the hope that "things will get better". Meanwhile, somebody must govern and why not us? Right? That's their point of view. Basically, they don't have any answers and they don't offer any solutions. Yet, they keep going, and going and going and going (if you remember how annoying that publicity slot was). They are locked-into the democratic system because they know that beyond the democratic system they are unemployed and unemployable.
The entire world has watched the collapse of the EU "Country" as they tried time and time again to create an "EU Constitution". The EU "Government" is a pathetic joke full of apparatchiks to the brim rivalling the days when the Nomenklatura was at the height of its power in the USSR, just before it collapsed.
People fully understand that local politicians are powerless and have no answers. Higher up politicians (at the EU level) are nothing but career bureaucrats and in between we have layers upon layers of bureaucracy. All these groups feeding themselves from the financial carcass that is the EU. Meanwhile, the average EU person is left adrift in a sinking economy within a collapsing standard of living. No wonder the peoples of the EU are desperate and EU politics is in "crisis" (or, more precisely, rotting away).
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
