alt Hacker NewsTo be blunt, the major countries in the EU have not adapted to their diminished status in a world where economic and military power have concentrated elsewhere.
The EU has lagged the US in economic dynamism (link below). This deficit drives the inability to project economic or military power, forcing the EU rely on the US to support its foreign policy objectives in Ukraine - a conflict considerably more relevant to the EU than to the US.
Couple that with unaffordable, state-funded entitlements, and massive immigration significantly burdening (some) exchequers, and you end up with active urban conflicts in major EU cities, forcing a diversion of resources, and even more dependence on US military support.
None of this comes for free.
And Applebaum, playing the role of a wide-eyed ingenue, claims that the EU is "being bullied", instead of presenting it as the inevitable result of decades-long unwise, failing stances taken by the bloc.
A more interesting question is whether the current political, economic, and social model of the EU is compatible with the desire to be a major global power.
https://nextbigteng.substack.com/p/american-vs-european-star...
Replies
We don't have a huge immigration problem. The immigrants are blamed for everything by the fascists, just like in America. Yet their numbers are far too low too explain that.
We have serious issues like housing shortages but if we kicked out all the immigrants (which we shouldn't because they are helping our economy by doing jobs we don't like!) we still would have that problem, just a few percent less. This is the fallacy in that narrative.
And life isn't all about who has the most money, that's a US-Centric view. The poorer countries in Europe are better places to live at the moment and cost of life is lower there too. Besides, those 'entitlements' really add to our quality of life. We don't have to worry about going bankrupt over a medical issue. That's much more important in my life than being able to buy a new iPhone every year and pollute the world.
It's very telling of the US to always consider everything some kind of race or competition. Whereas we're not trying to win but to live together. Really if I make enough money to live comfortably without having to waste all my life at the office I'm doing well. Life is a balance of work and personal life. The US has never had this kind of balance. Everyone's in a race to make it 'to the top' but most people never do. I hear of people in the American big cities having to take side jobs because cost of living is so high. Our American-centric HR is always pushing me to 'challenge my career path' and move up into management but I would utterly fail there due to just not having those skills and talents (Peter principle). I'm just happy being a top technical expert for the rest of my life. I would detest being a manager and I would suck at it.
If anything Europe is getting too American. Too few people are holding too much of the wealth, this is why people are protesting.
The lack of economic dynamism is a consequence of demographics. When the population grows older, the society naturally shifts resources from building the future to sustaining the present. Which obviously sucks if you are part of the generation that would prefer building the future.
Everyone saw this coming decades ago. Immigration has been the only serious solution that has been proposed so far. Unfortunately many European countries are not very attractive to those immigrants who can afford to choose.