Message from @HyperGrapes
Discord ID: 676547471840772116
It would be different because there could be tariffs and government subsidies, they could prioritise their own economies, they could restrict immigration, its bizarre to claim that Greeks and Italians would happily fuck their economy like that if it weren't for the EU
Tariffs become less feasable if you break up the common market
In a way it forces you to do away with protectionism in certain cases
Immigration restrictions are easier to coordinate too on a Schengn wide basis
The issue is that establishments across Europe are thoroughly rotten
Kicking the EU to break into pieces will just give you rotting pieces
I think if Southern Europe and Eastern Europe were in their own versions of the EU they'd do better, but they all become economic vassals to Germany, who needs to prop them up to perpetuate their massive trade surplus
Britain will probably demonstrate this best once out
We had our trade surplus for a while before the EU
Since we're competing on quality, not price having the weaker Euro is pretty much incosequential
In fact it makes things more expensive for us
Anyway overall it was a net benefit for everyone
The EU reinforces bad things in the economy of Europe, of course neoliberals and internationalists would reinforce them anyway, its still an inherent problem with Germany's economic position that it is causing most of the other European economies to decline to barely keep its own going.
There's a reason why even the most ardent euroskeptic parties outside Britain don't actually want to leave
They like the common market at the very least
Afaik eastern Europe's economy is doing more than fine
It's only the countries that overspent consistently which fucked up
And even those are beginning to recover
define eastern Europe
Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltics
Actually the emigration trend is declining
Some are starting to return
And even without Schengen I doubt they wouldn't leave
You keep saying that but i just disagree, there would be an incentive not to without free movement, so less would
The incentive would still be there just with more paperwork
Arguably some of the unskilled workers might have stayed
But those aren't the ones which are critical for developing a country
Their remittances probably also did a lot to grow Lithuania into the position where now people are startign to return
Arguably the EU should've done more to grow their economy so there's less reason to move though
so to the east of Germany and Austria
I think there should be an industrial policy of tariffs and less primary sector subsidies to turn the more low waage areas of Europe into the workshop of Europe so to speak
But they're not going to do that
Instead of the whole importing cheap stuff from China shtick
The EU actually supported steel tariffs at some point
But Britain vetoed it
And then complained about not having steel tariffs later
the eternal strikes again
50% of Germany's GDP is exports, they cannot allow the other countries to have their own high skill industries or they run out of places to send German produce
Yes but we don't need to be very concerned about that
Germany focuses on medium sized quality manufacturers mainly, not lowering costs
It's not Germany holding Europe back but free trade