As for less money going to things that you think are more important: there is your first real argument

And it's a valid one - because it's tough to estimate the benefits of something like "reducing emissions"

But just because it's tough, doesn't mean there aren't smart people who haven't done it.

For example, I'm not sure that "better defense" is more important for the Netherlands than this climate change stuff

Nor reduced taxes, and perhaps even the reduced salaries (don't your public servants actually get paid decently over there? It's in the US that they get shafted as far as I know)

Well they could start paying NATO enough, because only the US pay enough, if I'm correct

The US pays the most and it's Trump who wants the rest to pay 2% of their GDP, not "enough" @luduma

It's an agreement that everyone pays a certain amount of money

For an alliance that some European parties and groups are reconsidering its purpose or focus their payments on other services

for the US, NATO was never about economics. It was a bribe to get them into our security plans. They would up their spending if NATO did something more constructive

For the US, it's smarter if we discourage Europe from having an arms race with itself

as with everywhere else. If Pax Americana goes, the old imperial style trading blocs will return

imperialism is dead for the western world permanently as I see it.

Well imperialism as in actual colonization and conquest is over, but a new era of neo-colonialism is in full swing with large Western companies exploiting the third world for profit

GG @The Meme Lord, you just advanced to level 3!

If you regard that as a real thing, which I don't

See Confessions of an Economic Hitman

most left-populism around the world is aimed at the IMF

It happens inside Europe, too. Germany takes advantage of Hungary, Romania, etc. A Romanian lawmaker wrote a good op-ed on it recently, detailing the capital flows

situation in Europe vis-a-vis Greece and similar countries was predictable. It was the situation Germany set up with the EU and the Eurozone, because those countries can no longer devalue to handle their domestic debt and capital flows

IMF does the same thing for the entire Globe, basically

https://www.politico.eu/article/what-rich-countries-get-wrong-about-the-eu-budget-east-west-euroskeptic-cohesion-policy/

```Clotilde Armand is a Romanian MEP with the Renew Europe group. She is a member of the European Parliament’s budgets committee.```
```Between 2010 and 2016, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic or Slovakia received the equivalent of 2 percent to 4 percent of their GDP in EU funds. But the flow of capital exiting these countries over the same period was between 4 percent and close to 8 percent of GDP.```

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/649297420932349952/660585284920147969/image0-417.jpg

Pretty sure she'd get raped if she went to any of those other places

She's doing what she can, mate

all it does is make it easier for the abusers to dominate

less competition in industry

I'm pretty sure people in China are getting tired of breathing literal smog

This place got some peculiar understanding of the world.

GG @huluxer71, you just advanced to level 4!

Not much of a debate on this, regardless of who believes what. Homo sapiens are going to b wiped out by the very “ingenuity” we’ve come to rely on. Earth shall be fine. Now it’s all about whose gunna make enough money off the “Green Revolution” now to get their family on a private island somewhere when SHTF lol

Tinfoil theory

why would a private island save you from a climate catastrophe?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/15-most-ridiculous-things-media-said-about-climate-change-2019

This is pretty bad stuff, trigger warning

But also there is this, to lighten the mood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Bastardi

Idk it's deeply disturbing and upsetting but at the same time also hilarious in a nihilistic sort of way

There are people who tune in to Tucker Carlson and get their opinions on global warming from Joe Bastardi

God damn it Vlad you got me all excited right before bedtime