19 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

After massive issues right? But don't stop cherry picking 

 

The massive issues were following the 2008 financial crash, the effects of which were mostly felt by Greece up to the early 2010s.

 

You stated that Greece had experienced 10 years of decline until 2024. That is incorrect. Apart from the COVID years and 2017, the Greek economy has been growing year-on-year since 2014 so, no not cherry picking, just correcting your erroneous 'facts'.

25 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

After massive issues right? But don't stop cherry picking 

This topic is about the EU. You are only one doing the cherry picking by singling out Greece. Should I single out the worst performing US states? Mississippi isn't doing too well is it. And how is California's budget deficit again? $55 billion last year wasn't it? How many times has it nearly gone bankrupt? (It would have been declared bankrupt several times if not for the fact that states are not allowed to declare themselves bankrupt).

The EU is the world biggest economy. If Greece was flying it would be doing even better!

1 minute ago, josephbloggs said:

This topic is about the EU. You are only one doing the cherry picking by singling out Greece. Should I single out the worst performing US states? Mississippi isn't doing too well is it. And how is California's budget deficit again? $55 billion last year wasn't it? How many times has it nearly gone bankrupt? (It would have been declared bankrupt several times if not for the fact that states are not allowed to declare themselves bankrupt).

The EU is the world biggest economy. If Greece was flying it would be doing even better!

EU isn't a country though. 

2 minutes ago, RayC said:

 

The massive issues were following the 2008 financial crash, the effects of which were mostly felt by Greece up to the early 2010s.

 

You stated that Greece had experienced 10 years of decline until 2024. That is incorrect. Apart from the COVID years and 2017, the Greek economy has been growing year-on-year since 2014 so, no not cherry picking, just correcting your erroneous 'facts'.

You are falsely claiming gdp as a measure of economic health. Typical lefty ignorance.

Here you go:

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115276/unemployment-in-europe-by-country/

 

Massive unemployment across europe 

 

 

Inflammatory comment edited out. 

4 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

EU isn't a country though. 

I know you are, but what am I?

 

Sorry, that's about the level of intelligence of your "debates". Tedious.

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

I know you are, but what am I?

 

Sorry, that's about the level of intelligence of your "debates". Tedious.

Grow a brain then

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115276/unemployment-in-europe-by-country/

6 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

They formed the Eu to try to compete with the USA. It has been a spectacular failure. 

Suuure! And that's why Trump doesn't like it...🤣.

5 hours ago, JAG said:

And screwing the United States is most definitely his job, now he is President"😄

Trump doesn't like competition on any issue! 🤣

4 hours ago, JonnyF said:

 

The EU was formed to screw a lot of people. Primarily the citizens of Europe. But they will screw as many people/countries as they can get away with. 

 

Take it to 'em Donald. 

And on this respect, UK jumped out of the frying pan into the fire! 😆

3 minutes ago, candide said:

And on this respect, UK jumped out of the frying pan into the fire! 😆

 

I would disagree.

 

The first step was to get out of the EU. The second step was to elect a government that would take advantage of that.

 

We did the former. The latter will happen 4 years from now.

4 hours ago, Stiddle Mump said:

Keep the faith RD. The Americans suddenly realised that there is a guy that can save them.

 

The Don will put the US back at the top of the tree. No more playing second fiddle.

You are embracing impossible dreams. I understand why one would want to hope, but hoping against hope is a bizarre and dangerous thing. The US will never ever be the country that it once was, those days are long gone, the 50s and 60s were the heyday and since the 90s the US has been on a slow decline that will not stop, regardless of what this absolute goon promises. 

Let the EU start with stop buying weapons from the USA and stop supporting their wars.

Then the USA can remove all their military bases too.

5 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Sounds like you don't believe in America's strong economy and don't think 'the land of the free' can withstand competition.

 

It can't. The USA has restrictive trade barriers too.  This is nothing new. The USA has been using  subsidies, import tariffs, quotas, packaging requirements and licenses as trade barriers for the past century.  And yet it carries on as if it is a victim.

The USA demands easy access into the economies of other nations, but erects barriers in return.

 

The USA is not competitive because the typical American worker often does not have the skills for the work that needs to be done. Companies do not invest in training  because they are focused on short term  returns. Americans want immediate  returns. Other countries like China, play the long game and invest in their people.

Look at the defect quality of US built motor vehicles compared to the Japanese vehicles

Look at the quality of residential building construction compared to Germany

Look at the quality of US agricultural products. The USA relies on hormones and antibiotics unlike that the EU and Canada

 

The USA cannot compete because  as of 2024, 21% of adults in the US are illiterate. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level and 20% are below 5th-grade level.   If Trump was serious about making America great, he would focus on education and  teaching job skills. In the USA there is disdain for the skilled trades. Back in America's  growth spurt, kids grew up wanting to be  an astronaut or explorer or builder. Today,  Kids wants to be a rapper, or an influencer. Few want to be the scientists and innovators.

There was a time when the USA was a smart country, where innovation and hard work was rewarded. Not today. it's all about vulture capital, pump and dump and bullying. You can't build with that mentality.

Just now, Patong2021 said:

 

It can't. The USA has restrictive trade barriers too.  This is nothing new. The USA has been using  subsidies, import tariffs, quotas, packaging requirements and licenses as trade barriers for the past century.  And yet it carries on as if it is a victim.

The USA demands easy access into the economies of other nations, but erects barriers in return.

 

The USA is not competitive because the typical American worker often does not have the skills for the work that needs to be done. Companies do not invest in training  because they are focused on short term  returns. Americans want immediate  returns. Other countries like China, play the long game and invest in their people.

Look at the defect quality of US built motor vehicles compared to the Japanese vehicles

Look at the quality of residential building construction compared to Germany

Look at the quality of US agricultural products. The USA relies on hormones and antibiotics unlike that the EU and Canada

 

The USA cannot compete because  as of 2024, 21% of adults in the US are illiterate. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level and 20% are below 5th-grade level.   If Trump was serious about making America great, he would focus on education and  teaching job skills. In the USA there is disdain for the skilled trades. Back in America's  growth spurt, kids grew up wanting to be  an astronaut or explorer or builder. Today,  Kids wants to be a rapper, or an influencer. Few want to be the scientists and innovators.

There was a time when the USA was a smart country, where innovation and hard work was rewarded. Not today. it's all about vulture capital, pump and dump and bullying. You can't build with that mentality.

Absolutely correct. Also, Trump is so worried about steel imports because Europe, Japan, Korea and China have been modernizing plants and production methods for years while Americas plants are now obsolete and can no longer compete on price. Tarifs hold back innovation.

42 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

You are embracing impossible dreams. I understand why one would want to hope, but hoping against hope is a bizarre and dangerous thing. The US will never ever be the country that it once was, those days are long gone, the 50s and 60s were the heyday and since the 90s the US has been on a slow decline that will not stop, regardless of what this absolute goon promises. 

Tthought North America was in its prime before the French, Spanish or British got there.

 

After WW2, the military doctrine took presidence. Do as we say or we will send in the boys.

5 hours ago, JAG said:

https://images.app.goo.gl/WDUp5sdwf3W4AtF98

 

That picture is of slaughtered children, mortared at a crossroads whilst fleeing from the Russians.

 

"Got to take the rough with the smooth"

 

You are in a really dark place!

You need a refresher course in revisionist history with the wisdumb only MAGAs can offer...

 

Central Europe and parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans need to apologize to Genghis Khan for invading his lands.

 

The former Czechoslovakia and Poland need to apologize to Hitler for invading Nazi Germany.

 

Churchill and Lizzy need to apologize to Hitler for letting London get in the way of his V2 rockets during the blitz.

 

Putin is clearly a man of peace. Just ask Ukraine, or Chechnya, or Georgia, or Alexei Navalny, or Anna Politkovskaya, or Boris Nemtsov, or Alexander Litvinenko. or Yevgeny Prigozhin or Viktor Yushchenko.

15 minutes ago, Stiddle Mump said:

Tthought North America was in its prime before the French, Spanish or British got there.

 

After WW2, the military doctrine took presidence. Do as we say or we will send in the boys.

Well, you can certainly make an argument that North America was in its prime prior to 1492. 

 

But in terms of it's glory years I would say America was in its prime from the late 40s to the early '70s and it's pretty easy to make an argument that for a cup of decades it stagnated, and then as you said it went downhill from there.

 

There is no making America great again, it's never going to happen. America is going to become less significant each year from here on out, no matter what any foolhardy politician lies about or promises. 

7 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Indeed he has and one day he may fall on it.

Nah, He Knows How to use it.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

You are embracing impossible dreams. I understand why one would want to hope, but hoping against hope is a bizarre and dangerous thing. The US will never ever be the country that it once was, those days are long gone, the 50s and 60s were the heyday and since the 90s the US has been on a slow decline that will not stop, regardless of what this absolute goon promises. 

The USA sat on the top of that tree because 1945 left it as the only major economic power. Europe was devastated, Russia and the UK worn out, and China was riven by civil war. By the 60s Europe and the UK were up and running again. China has emerged in this century. As @Patong2021 and @soalbundy have pointed out The US practice of short term profits and "vulture capitalism" (wonderful précis that!) has hindered investment to allow for effective competition, and combined with the failings of their educational system ensured that they will fall ever further behind. Their obsession with maintaining a massive military hasn't helped.

 

For sure, their economy is big enough to sustain itself within any barriers it may erect or has already erected, but it will continue to fall behind the rest of the world. It will trundle along in isolation, and isolation will increasingly make it irrelevant to anyone else; perhaps a bit like the Republic of Ireland was until it opened up and joined the EU. Ireland had the vice like grip of the Church, the USA is falling under the vice like grip of the oligarchs. I am unlikely to be around to seethe word in 30 years, but I bet the red hats will have faded!

15 minutes ago, digger70 said:

Nah, He Knows How to use it.

In ancient Rome generals 'fell on their swords' when they failed.

2 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

EU isn't a country though. 

No, it's the European Union, but going on that measure the United States of America isn't a country either, it's just a union of Separate states.

11 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

In ancient Rome generals 'fell on their swords' when they failed.

No problem ,🙏  that's not going to  happen.   

5 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

No, it's the European Union, but going on that measure the United States of America isn't a country either, it's just a union of Separate states.

With lower unemployment and less fear of Putin.

Just now, Harrisfan said:

With lower unemployment and less fear of Putin.

Well even at the height of the cold war and despite having a land border with the Communists we didn't have  McCarthyism. The US instead is now afraid of China and BRICS. There several good economic programs (by Americans) on YouTube who show that the much praised economy is built on sand, long term unemployment is increasing and a rapid increase in unemployment is expected in the next few months, retail sales are plunging and even Walmart is pessimistic. It must be bad if many Americans can't afford a Big Mac.

16 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

With lower unemployment and less fear of Putin.

Well, there's no doubt that the U.S. fared much better post-Covid. However, leaving the EU doesn't seem to work better, from the only example we know...

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02784/

1 minute ago, candide said:

Well, there's no doubt that the U.S. fared much better post-Covid. However, leaving the EU doesn't seem to work better, from the only example we know...

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02784/

Thats gdp not unemployment

19 minutes ago, digger70 said:

No problem ,🙏  that's not going to  happen.   

Have you been going to Delphi?

List of the 20th happiest countries in the world. 13 are in Europe, the EU or have close ties to the EU.

Join the EU, you know it makes sense!

Finland

Denmark

Iceland

Sweden

Israel

Netherlands

Norway

Luxembourg

Switzerland

Australia

New Zealand

Costa Rica

Kuwait

Austria

Canada

Belgium

Ireland

Czechia

Lithuania

United Kingdom

( UK, surely some mistake,lol)

 

 

12 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Have you been going to Delphi?

Nah ,not worth it.