Quote:
Originally Posted by rogueteens
you are missing a vital point, only about four of the EU countries are able to stand on their own two feet, most of the rest (especially the eastern countries) have a lower standard of living. For the EU to work, there will need to be a uniform standard across all countries which means for the standards of the lower countries to rise, the big four have to fall. This is obvious in immigration, the big countries are suffering badly from immigration flooding from the poorer countries and it has decimated the jobs market in the richer countries - wages have gone down and it is the indigenous workers that are suffering.
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This is not just happening in Europe, it is happening globally. The rise of China, India and others is forcing increase demand for resources, and lower demand for low skilled (and some high skilled) jobs in prosperous nations. This is certainly a period of adjustment, but fundamentally as humans I think we need to accept that having a small percentage of the global population consuming the vast majority of resources, and having a substantially higher standard of living is not something that should be considered fair or even sustainable either.
That said, whilst we are undoubtedly going through a tough adjustment phase now, I don't think this will last forever. At some point, having access to new/larger markets (take China for instance) for our nations/corporations/companies to access will have a positive effect. Demand within China's growing middle class for Western goods/services for instance, in addition to the increased innovation/talent coming from these nations will result in a rise in our standards of living (with resource demand being the one question mark there).
Overall though, I do think that Western nations are going to have to become more competitive. Nations like Greece, or even Australia (which relies heavily on resources) need to push towards a more educated/skilled work force that is capable of competing with the likes of the Chinese. As I said before, Germany is one of the few Western nations that has managed to stay competitive during these times (and in your example overall has benefited from a united European market), and as such I think others should/could stand to follow their lead.