Quote:
Originally Posted by nito
CAP shouldn't be even 0.035% of the budget, let alone anywhere in excess of 30%. I have no argument with agriculture being an important resource for any economy.
What I have a problem with is the ineffective measures that CAP and other agricultural/rural policies have generated to manage and protect the sector. We live in a globalised economy where foodstuffs can be transported across the globe, yet CAP has increased prices for the average consumer, damaged the competiveness of agricultural sectors in emerging economies and led to a colossal waste of food (hence the term butter mountains and milk lakes) that is beneficial to nobody.
The simple reason why agriculture would thrive without CAP is that we all need food! The markets and consumer demand would reflect that, lowering prices, forcing adoption of new techniques and technologies and limiting waste.
You talk about Greeks working more than Germans, the French and Brits, yet at the same time they have astronomical levels of tax evasion, an obscenely extravagant public sector with padded pensions and rampant corruption. They didn't get into the present situation due to being unlucky.
Yet after getting into trouble and being gifted a line-line last week to restore some level of order and calm, Greece instead opts to throw it in the face of everyone else in Europe. A Greek No vote would not just send Greece back to the dark ages, but lead to multiple bank failures in France and Germany (high exposure to the country), but send shockwaves through the other PIIGS, with untold consequences. France, Germany and the rest of the EU would enter a significant downturn.
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Good points all. I'm not well-read on the specifics of the bail-out plan for Greece though, but I imagine it's way, way, way to the right of me policy wise (these bail-outs usually are: kill the public sector and give everything to the rich seems to be a common mantra for the people running banks). But given the way they've dug their own hole... Can't say I have much sympathy (in general - there are millions of Greeks I do have great sympathy for, they sure didn't ALL contribute to the crash).
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