http://www.irishexaminer.com/busine...-finance-minister-alexander-stubb-378593.html And all that WITHOUT corruption? How did they manage THAT?
Indeed. But a country of the (self)righteous North screwing up (pardon the language) financially? I thought it was only the "corrupt" South countries that did this.
Do you see any serious future for Europe? Politically? Socially? Economically? Financially? Can someone point me to any European country thriving? I hope I'm wrong - seriously hope it - but I think Europe has had it.
Personally, I do not, and this is a good thing IMHO, because Europe is fast becoming a 4th Reich of bureaucrats who are completely distanced from reality, and do not seem to possess the IQ to even grasp it. They merely wish to control every aspect of the lives of its minions, be it countries or individuals. From a financial-administrative point of view, we are facing a peculiar mixture of socialism and neoliberalism. Europe seems to be bent on attacking small to middle private enterpreneurship with ridicilously high taxes, while at the same time letting big corporations off the hook (eg Siemens). At the same time it is all too happy to promote and encourage ruthless Muslim invaders, naming them immigrants and financing them through European taxpayers' money.
This is a bit old (from November) but it does show something: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-after-disgruntled-citizens-force-debate.html
Bad politicians or their corruption are not sole privilege of the south. We have been doing so good for so long that the politicians have become accustomed to the method "do not speak of the bad things for if we do not address they may go away, since we have enough money". Idiotic policy, if my opinion is asked, but we still have enough money to keep it running, and with that I refer to our welfare system. But truth been said, that cannot be the case for much longer in the near future, or we share the fate of Greece and Ireland. (Tiocfaidh ár lá!) Over half of our exports went to Russia and now none, thanks to the sanctions, and our entire economy rests on export, so yes, we are knee deep in shit. What comes to Nokia, at its prime, it was five times larger than our entire nation, tax wise. Loosing that kind of a tax payer did sting, a lot. Europe is where the roots and foundations of the entire "western civilization" rests upon, where the remnants of the Pantheon, the St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel and Parthenon stands, and that is only the cultural view. The majority of human population resides in India and China, the billions. Yet the "great 8 nations" are predominately European, yes the US and the Canucs are there, but these are the economically strongest nations, and globally thinking Europe is over represented, but is that a bad thing? IO76: Missed you and the very great conversations with you so much. Nice to be back and this time let us converse more, btw I lost the links of those great Greeck metal bands, care to give new links?