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Culturally Britain is doing rather well, British music is the worlds number 1, the British TV and film industry is among the best, the English language is the closest thing to the language of the world, English sport is the most watched in the world, culturally Britain is still a 'heavyweight'. I'm not sure what you expect from a small island off the coast of Europe but this isn't the year 1840 anymore! The age of 'Empire' is long gone its 2015 for gods sake, but nevertheless in the modern world the UK still punches FAR above its weight. Surely you still don't expect an island nation of scarce resource to hold any sort of 'power' over countries the size of India do you! For a start modern Britain realises its unethical above all else and with the weaponry of 2015 nobody is going to enforce themselves on ANY first world country without consequencies that simply won't match the consequencies of 200 years ago! British people are richer, healthier, have more free time and live longer than ever before and in the 21st Century that is what really counts.
I'm not sure what you expect from a small island off the coast of Europe after it left the European Union. And I think that was his point.
I'm not sure what you expect from a small island off the coast of Europe after it left the European Union. And I think that was his point.
Let them go. When they notice that nobody really cares about them except for the US they will be crawling back saying "plz let us back, we belong here after all".
The € is a blessing. I've seen Europe evolve in the last 40+ years, and I strongly believe the EU is a better place than if the countries would have gone on their own for all that time.
Look at Poland, the Czech republic, Finland, Croatia, ... all success stories thanks to the EU.
I'm not a EU citizen, but I spent more than half my life overseas and I really think they are better off together. If they should kick out a country, it should be Greece, Italy and Spain. and the UK. The former three because they are economically insalvageable and the latter because they are ungrateful little pricks.
Italy is a net contributor to the EU (she gives more money than she gets back), has never defaulted, has never requested or needed any salvage from the EU nor from any other int'l body.
Let them go. When they notice that nobody really cares about them except for the US they will be crawling back saying "plz let us back, we belong here after all".
This attitude will help deliver a "leave" vote when we have the referendum.
We are the 5th largest economy on planet earth, and have the world language as our native tongue. I don't think anyone is going to be ignoring us. Finland, on the other hand, would disappear off the radar.
...and, considering this is a Europe forum, the poll vote is hardly a ringing endorsement of the EU, is it?
Let them go. When they notice that nobody really cares about them except for the US they will be crawling back saying "plz let us back, we belong here after all".
What is that supposed to mean exactly!! Do you think we have a burning desire to be 'loved'?? And are you suggesting that people dislike the British too??
There you go, cold hard facts. Please appreciate the following analysis:
The chart shows the failure of Italy to grow. It is Italy's real gross domestic product on a semi-log scale. The slope matters here, and the slope is ugly. The level is back to around the year 2000 (red circle). Essentially, the economy has gone nowhere for a decade and a half. The extrapolation of the trend shows a huge gap between what could've-should've been and where Italy is now.
Italy's debt ratio is the second worst in the euro zone, behind only Greece. The country's national debt weighs in at roughly 120% the size of its gross domestic product, or about $2.6 trillion. But that dizzying figure alone isn't what's causing panic in the marketplace. In fact, there was a time in recent memory when the market wouldn't have thought much of it at all. Italy has shouldered debt-to-GDP ratios well above 100% for about 20 years now, thanks largely to a government spending binge way back in the 1980s. In 1999, when Italy officially adopted the euro, its debt-to-GDP ratio was 126%.
Starting in 2001, Italy's GDP growth turned absolutely paltry. It finally plunged below zero during the global recession and has barely recovered since. Now investors are concerned about the country's ability going forward to cover its interest payments without incurring ever-higher levels of debt.
In a way, the easiest and oldest metaphor works best here. It's simplest to think of the Italian debt as a giant, maxed-out credit card tab. The government spent years covering the interest, but barely touching the principal. Then Italy's credit card company jacked up its APR--and we're all seeing the deeply unpleasant consequences unfold.
And to be super thorough on cold hard facts, here is a statement made by yourself:
Quote:
Originally Posted by manbury
GDP data don't lie, Italy is the only developed country suffering from a declining GDP per head. IOW, Italian citizens are getting poorer and poorer each and every year which goes by.
On top of that, the COL in Northern and Central cities is sky-high compared to the miserly low average salary.
To that you can add that the birth rate of ethnic Italians has been at rock bottom level for decades so that the Italian indigenous population is going to diminish dramatically in the next future.
Now you get the picture why every thinking Italian cannot relax at all.
You admit your economy is all but FUBAR...
Last edited by beachrr; 11-10-2015 at 08:15 AM..
Reason: More hard facts.
Italy certainly has it's problems, but it's phenomenonally wealthy in private terms. More so than even Germany. If they could just shift a small portion of private assets into the public coffers, they would be laughing.
I agree the Italy's economy is all but FUBAR, basically because the southern part of Italy is a failed economy, a failed society and a failed state (or a sum of failed regions).
Still, during this most severe crisis Italy is a country who has been salvaging other EU countries, instead of been salvaged, since she is and has been consistently giving more that she got back from the EU.
Until now, she has been an ASSET to Europe, on par with Germany and France.
So there is no compelling economic reason for the EU to kick Italy out. The EU needs to find some other excuse, and must kick out many other countries before it can ask Italy to leave.
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