Fwd: Erratic thoughts from Greece

[Mike Weaver]

And maybe one day it will be unified economically, but there's a way to 
go on that.
Personally I don't think the language diversity is a block. A few 
hundred years ago if you'd put together a bunch of people from across 
the UK, they'd have have talked a wide variety of mutually 
incomprehensible dialects and at least four other languages.  The US 
more recently was the same with less dialects and many more languages.
The thing with the EU in contrast with the US or medieval England, is 
that the unifying process is riding on economic wheels rather than those 
of conquest.

The EU could well be a failure waiting to be proved but until then IMO 
it just another power bloc in the process of formation.

cheers
Mike


On 20/02/2015 17:02, David Morris wrote:
> There was a war (Civil) that settled the issue.  It was further 
> settled by the establishment of a federal income tax, and all other 
> federal taxes that collects from and redistributes back to the 
> States.  It's the money and federal law that unify the US states, not 
> the culture so much (I misspoke earlier).  If the EU had centralized 
> taxation and redistribution, the whole Greece thing would be moot.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 10:46 AM, Ian Livingston 
> <igrlivingston at gmail.com <mailto:igrlivingston at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     >> The EU can't have a US-like unified currency/economy because its
>     culture will never be that unified.<
>
>     >THIS is doubtlessly correct.
>
>     Yes, I agree, except for the suggestion that the reason the US
>     seems unified is that we are so. The real reason the states of the
>     US agree to taxation and such is that the people within those
>     states will never be unified. European states have their several
>     cultures, whereas "American culture" breaks apart quickly on
>     inspection. You can't confuse Berliners with Parisians, but,
>     without orientation, you wouldn't know a Washingtonian from an
>     Arizonan. Californians are from China, Mexico, Arkansas, Germany,
>     Pakistan, etc., and the same is true in Minnesota, Texas, and
>     Maryland. The old WASP culture has decayed into desperate
>     narcissism of the sort that rejects everything not "me." The EU
>     may never be unified, but neither will Louisiana, Oregon, or
>     Maine. Our self-centered anarchy renders us readily ruled. That's
>     why we are (or seem) unified.
>
>     On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 12:55 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
>     <lorentzen at hotmail.de <mailto:lorentzen at hotmail.de>> wrote:
>
>
>         On 20.02.2015 05:33, David Morris wrote:
>
>         > The EU can't have a US-like unified currency/economy because
>         its culture will never be that unified.<
>
>         THIS is doubtlessly correct.
>
>
>
>

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