EU Spectacle
The word spectacle is carefully chosen, since this is what the current drama of which Greece is the symptom, not the cause, has become. It no longer bears any relationship to coherent democratic leadership or process of governance in a workable political and currency union. The cancellation at a moment’s notice of a summit of all EU leaders is extraordinary.
There is a problem with Greece, but it is not that difficult to solve. Indeed this blog working alone would be able to negotiate a workable solution. What is proving impossible is to find an acceptable solution, because the institutions normally established to process decision making at national and international levels are not there, or there in such abundance nobody can detect who is in charge. And to make matters worse the structure of the currency itself is unsustainable as it lacks a treasury and a finance minister answering to an elected government. A committee of finance ministers at loggerheads, elected by only one member state in each case, on conflicting mandates and to differing electoral timetables will work only in the good times and becomes dysfunctional under pressure.
So all we know at this moment is that Greece may or may not go bust tomorrow, the euro looks more like an impediment to growth than an engine of it, and the reputation of the EU as a coherent political union is severely damaged. Beneath that a big gap is developing between the north and the south of Europe, between the politicians and their electors everywhere and between those in the eurozone who want to stand firm to high principle even if it brings the whole thing down, led by the Germans, and by those who feel pragmatic reality demands compromise, led by France and Italy.
At the heart of of this crisis now engulfing the whole EU are three violated principles. You cannot have a democratic political union without an elected forum from which all authority flows. You cannot have a currency which cannot be printed. You cannot have capitalism which does not permit debtors to go bust. The first is violated because the whole EU is wrongly configured. The last two are rescinded because Germany says No.
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Linda
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Sep 06, 2016 10:38AM
I remember peacocks from plantation houses in Virginia. Nasty birds. Liked to peck at you. Alas! I don't think that roadrunners go after Gila Monsters. Just snakes. But I'll have to check. Gila Monsters are left over from the age of the dinosaurs.
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Gary does this a lot. But I never do. I don't use the phone for much besides a hot spot and various aps such as the garage door opener, the temperature controls for the house, Arlo which is the surveillance camera, etc. And I also use the camera.
In your Left book you say, “In SE union disputes make them late for work”. What does this mean? Do strikers block the roadways or something? Picket in the shopping centers? What is going on? I remember when I was in Charlottesville one weekend the grocery workers at the local A&P decided to picket. The shoppers in their cars in the shopping center had so little sympathy for the workers that they tried to disperse them by coming after them with their cars. I actually witnessed this. So think twice before you decide that you like Virginia best of all the states.Goodreads post: You seem to like unions to say the least. Did you ever belong to one or something? I come from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is like Union City USA. Nurses belonged to unions. Teachers belonged to unions. Steel workers used to belong to unions when they still existed. But probably because they surrounded me everywhere all the time when I was a kid I grew to hate them. I wish they could be abolished. NLR Act passed in the 1930s during the Roosevelt administration should never have been. Labor unions are corrupt. I know this from personal experience. My mother was forced to join a teacher’s union when she worked for Bethel High School. They deducted money from her paychecks even though she wanted nothing to do with it. It was a “closed shop”, non right to work state. This was one of only two states at the time where teachers had the right to strike. My mother refused to picket. She got on the black list because of that. She had to hire lawyers to defend her against the abusive unions.
They kept teachers employed there who could never be fired because they belonged to the union. It didn’t matter what they did unless the committed a crime and were arrested. The teachers at the high school were the worst group of teachers I have ever encountered with a few exceptions. They hired their friends. It didn’t matter if you were qualified to teach a subject or even had a degree in it. It mattered more who you knew. They sometimes picked who had which class by drawing straws. Once when I was visiting Bethel Park they told me they needed a Latin teacher and remembered that I had taken Latin in high school. They wanted to hired me. I said I had no degree. They said it didn’t matter.
The teachers’ unions in Pittsburgh got so bad that finally the state restricted their right to strike which they abused all the time. They could have cared less about the students or their educations. They held up school for months with strikes, making it hard for students to get diplomas.
School taxes are astronomical in Bethel Park because of the stupid unions. They have their own local property tax. As soon as somebody buys a house they bring a lawsuit against them to increase their house’s valuation.
Need I say more?
What are “working classes”?
In the case of the rental car last summer, we thought we understood where to drop off the car keys. The man behind the counter told us to drop the keys at the Hamburg cruise terminal. When we got there, we didn't find a dropoff box. It was as simple as that. Nor can you easily call these people and ask them questions on the spot. It seems unavoidable in certain circumstances. You must be lucky. Either that or you only deal with people you know or who are recommended to you.
How do you know that red is communist red? How do you know that May isn't wearing red just to be more visible in a crowd for the purpose of taking photos? Don't the royals do things like that?
There is a drink proof, drop proof model sold to workmen at work sites, you know like contractors and such. But it is heavy, costs a lot of money, and isn't a Mac.
You always seem to have the attitude that everything works perfectly in the UK. Simply I don't believe it. What would prevent British trade unions from becoming corrupt? Do teachers in the UK belong to unions? Do they force the teachers to pay dues even if they don't want to? What if a teacher does not want to picket? And what about hiring? How do the teachers' unions if you have them handle that issue? What about strikes harming the students and their educations and their ability to graduate on time and go to college?What trade union did you belong to? I think the Pittsburgh teachers' union was the AFT, the American Federation of Teachers which is more radical. The conservative one here is the NEA, the National Educational Association.
Yes, that's a good idea. You should have a new edition for your Left book. Have you ever thought of sending out copies to other people who have written books about the subject BEFORE you publish it? Then you could use their quotes as recommendations on your website and on Facebook and on Amazon. Gary is about to review the book, but he isn't a pundit about economics.
Don't you consider a strike itself a kind of abuse? Who is allowed to go on strike in Great Britain? Are teachers allowed to go on strike? What union did you belong to and what was your personal experience? Did you ever go on strike? For what? I was trained when I was in college to become a high school teacher. I did student teaching. I held one job briefly after graduation. During that time there was a Virginia Teacher's Union called the NEA, National Education Association, which was available to join. But it was like a club. They gave you bumper stickers for your car with a picture of an apple. They didn't do much else. They weren't allowed to in Virginia. That is why companies in the US like to have factories, etc in the South. The sentiment is anti-union.
I have booked so many trips that sometimes I feel like a travel agent. I always book everything in advance just to price it out. Usually when I do this I run through the list of locales to be visited and book with a chain hotel such as Best Western so I can do it really fast. Most of these reservations are meant to be cancelled if you find something better. If you are staying in the US there aren't any non chain hotels left for the most part, so this is all you need to do. In the case of Europe there are lots and lots of small hotels and B&Bs. So you begin the real work of sorting them out after you have the back up reservations in place.However cancellation policies are important to me. I find that once we start a trip we change our schedules frequently and sometimes at the last minute. For instance last summer in Europe we booked everything ahead of time of course. But once we came ashore, we ended up keeping only one of those reservations, the first night in Oldenburg at the Best Western which is where we had a European fan waiting for us ready to pick up. As far as the other locales, every night we booked and rebooked until we got it right. Frequently we didn't like the hotels we had booked before we arrived in Germany. We drove past them and said, "Oh no!" Stairs, for instance, are always a problem in Europe. You can't see them until you get there. We had the worst time of all in Trier. We had booked an Ibis, but we found out it was still under construction and had trouble finding another place to stay that night.
In the US we try to stay at a chain that you don't have in Europe called La Quinta. We like it because it is on the inexpensive side and it is always pet friendly. There are no pet fees either. Each morning they always have a CP, continental breakfast included in the lobby for free. i have a "points card" and can get free nights.
I didn't think it was a "celebrity thing". I thought the Royals wore certain colors so they would stand out in a crowd.
I also don't know what it means "The Queen never notices what anybody wears". It is obviously not true. And in the case of the PM it doesn't make any sense at all. Not that anything like this would ever happen in the foreseeable future, but couldn't the PM pass a law that dictates what the Queen has to wear? Parliament could pass a law saying that the royal color is red and that every time the Queen appears in public she must wear red, right?Speaking of the Royals, they still have a lot to do to get more up to date, don't you think? I can remember when Prince Charles brought Camilla to America for the first time after he married her. Bush was still President. After everybody greeted them, Bush turned and processed up the steps with Laura arm in arm in a rather informal fashion. But then Prince Charles followed them all by himself! Camilla was left in the dust to fend for herself. She smiled and made a few jokes to the press and those standing on the sidelines. I think she recognized the awkwardness of the situation at least in America. Then she hurried up and followed Prince Charles into the White House. Don't you think Prince Charles should have entered the White House with Camilla by his side?
Have you ever seen the public taking action against a union on strike? I told you that when I lived in Charlottesville unions were very unpopular. The local grocery workers at the A&P decided to go on strike and were carrying picket signs in the shopping center parking lot. I noticed members of the public coming after the union members with their automobiles. Not that they tried to run them over, not that they were going very fast, but they managed to nudge them out of their way and force them to disperse. The union members gave up, put away their picket signs, and left.
Do you think it is ethical for certain kinds of workers to go on strike? For instance, if a teacher goes on strike, she harms the education of the children, sometimes preventing them from graduating on time. What about that?
Really interesting that you belonged to a Union that went to bat for you. I don't know anything about your laws for unions, but if everything works so well why do you need them? All you would have to do is tell the company that you MIGHT form one, and they would agree to whatever you wanted.By the way, I don't think Cunard has unions aboard its ships, and it is supposed to be a British ship. They hire only workers from the Philippines and Eastern Europe as far as I can tell.
If you have unions for teachers, how can they go on strike without harming the pupils and interfering with education? Do your airport workers have the right to strike and ground planes? I assume that by ancient tradition you don't have a union for the army, navy, and air force. That would break down the command structure.
I can remember people in Pittsburgh saying not to drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that weekend because the Teamsters union --- the Trucker's union --- was shooting at passing vehicles and throwing objects down onto the road from overpasses. This is what I remember about unions.
I don't know what I am remembering but I remember a news story where they were talking about the Royals always wearing red on a particular occasion so that they would stand out in a crowd. In the same report they were talking about the then First Lady of the US wearing red on a particular occasion so that she would stand out too. Maybe it was just somebody's impression.
Nevertheless Parliament does have such power. Obviously it is supposed to be representing public sentiment. That goes without saying. The people can't abolish the monarch by themselves. They must do it through their elected representatives.I always get the idea that somehow Elizabeth 2 is going to be the last monarch of the British Isles. Another one may be crowned, but that may be it. He may have to resign when the monarch ends. Charles does not sound like a very auspicious name for the next monarch.
We will look forward to your next sequel for the Left book. You could call it Turn Left Past the Brexit or something like that.
