Cultural divide

European Wheels Spin Faster, Still No Traction


"But being who and what they are, these countries cannot produce electoral majorities to pass and sustain the ‘right’ laws — and much less can they put them consistently into practice." Cultural differences take generations to overcome, if they ever are. I'll bet that most of the differences among European countries in financial solvency-insolvency would be soaked up by a variable representing differences in the degree of tax compliance. That's a cultural matter. Passing a law to increase taxes has no effect if nobody pays them anyway. Putting a country like Greece on the EU dole was a terrible idea, with predictable results. What was the last product you bought that said "Made in Greece"? The Greeks are still rioting for their unalienable right to live off the productivity of Germans and Swedes. Will Italy and Spain be any different?

The historical-cultural differences within the cobbled-together EU are large and historically deep. The Netherlands got rich by investment, manufacture, and trade, the Spanish got rich by conquest and plunder. The Netherlanders got progressively richer as time passed, the Spanish blew their riches on wars and palaces, lost their conquered territories (including the Netherlands), and got progressively poorer. Four hundred years later, that still provides a thumbnail sketch of Northern vs. Southern Europe. The Euro was a bad idea, and an unnecessary one because Europe already had a solid, stable currency. It was called the Deutschmark.

Byron