At 19:55 05/12/2011, Ray wrote:
Keith, you make it seem like the Tower of Babel.
The irony is, however, that all well-educated Europeans speak
English. Even though we're not members of the Eurozone, English is
the language used by officials when negotiating. But this
English-facilitated "European-ness" doesn't translate to the worker
level in the 17 countries!
Keith
REH
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 4:31 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION
Subject: [Futurework] What an interesting week to come!
The Merkel-Sarkozy plan (that of a new Eurozone government with
taxation powers) which they'll be cooking up today at lunch-time is
bound to fail for one simple reason. Indeed, it was for the same
reason that it wasn't dared to be instituted right at the beginning
of the Euro-banknote era in 1999. This is that humans, being an
intensely social species, will instinctively revert to their nearest
convenient denominator when stressed. We clump together even more
tightly. This applies whether we are talking of cultures, or
religions, or languages, or tribes, or social classes, or
professions, or work groups, or neighbourhoods, or ultimately, families.
The idea that Germans, Italians, French, Greeks, Portuguese,
Spaniards, Irish, Flemish, Luxembourgians, and eight more cultural
denominations (at their largest linguistic dimension, never mind
smaller ones) will cheerfully submit to a centralized budgetary
authority is crazy in the extreme. Even if Merkel and Sarkozy are so
desperate to agree today on some sort of formula, and even if the
Eurozone leaders agree to it on Friday, then the only epithet we can
apply is the old one: "Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they
first make mad".
The only eminent politician who has put his finger on the problem so
far is the Prime Minister of the smallest country of the Eurozone,
namely Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxemburg. He recently said: "We all
know what to do, but we don't know how to be re-elected once we've done it."
Precisely. Never mind the social eruptions, revolutions or even
coups d'etat that would inevitably follow such a proposal, it is the
amour propre of the career politicians alone (or even their lives if
they ever wish to show themselves in public in the coming years)
that will prevent any sort of United Europe. What an interesting week to come!
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
<http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/11/>http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/11/
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/11/
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