Greece and the Eurozone

The Greek Economic Crisis,The Euro zone, and the UN 精選

已有 1883 次閱讀 2015-7-9 04:33 |個人分類:生活點滴|係統分類:海外觀察    推薦到群組

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The current problem facing Greece and the Eurozone has been dominating the news lately.  The reports people sees in newspaper and broadcasts make the problem overly complex,  difficult to understand and resolve. As a citizen of the US, this is my own simplified view:

1.      In the 50 United States of America, we have rich states, such as California, New York,  and Massachusetts  and poor states such as Kentucky and North Dakota.  The rich states pay far more in federal taxes to the federal government than the poor states.  The government takes the tax money and redistributes it for the good of the whole country.  The poor states receive much more of this revenue back than they contribute.   Most people are not even aware of such re-distribution and certainly would agree that this all  for the greater good even if brought to their attention since we are all part of one country operating under a central government.

2.      The Eurozone can be viewed as an incomplete step toward a “United States of Europe”. The rich state  is Germany and the poor state is Greece. But because of language, history, and customs,  redistribution of benefits are far from automatic. Yes, Greece as part of the Eurozone,certainly deserves of economic help (disguised as loans rather than direct redistribution). At the same time, as part of a union Greece  must obey/conformto certain common rules of economic behavior imposed on every member states.Greece cannot irresponsibly spend Euros and expect other member nation to subsidize her endlessly  and behave as a totally sovereign country. There in lies the problem.  If there were a true United States of Europe and a strong central European government (as in the case of USA), there won’t be a crisis.

3.      As the world globalizes, unification is an irresistible trend. United Nations is an organizational attempt  after WWII. However, it is often accused to be a weak organization that can do little  to resolve  conflicts and wars. However, to some extent we have learned from the failed attempt of the League of Nations after WWI. You can say that the United Nation was deliberately designed to be weak because we realized  that we are not ready for world unification.  On the other hand, we can also say that the economic  unification of the Eurozone was an ill-fated attempt without thinking through all the ramifications of rich-poor countries united under one EURO.

4.      Someday, our world will come under one government and one language. But I certainly will  not live to see it.

 

本文引用地址：http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-904182.html  此文來自科學網何毓琦博客，轉載請注明出處。
上一篇：What a week for the US – Democracy at her best
 

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發表評論 評論 (15 個評論)

[15]李勝文  2015-7-10 16:56

#4 is impossible as documented in Bible due to human sinful nature. "#4 - Someday, our world will come under one government and one language. But I certainly will  not live to see it. "

[14]洪建輝  2015-7-10 09:49

The idea of an united global nation is so remote that it resembles the prediction of the death of the universe due to homogenization of everything in the universe.  We are not going to see it in our life time, for sure.

[13]ahmen  2015-7-10 08:47

In a democracy, people vote for their own interest: high pensions, big defense spending, all kinds of welfare. Nobody cares about who pays for these as long as that group of voters get what they want. In the end, even rich states become poor, like the state of Illinois. where the strange industry of making petro out of corn failed to keep the state afloat.

Nobody can resist using someone else's money legally, for free, never think of paying back. But pay back they must, ulnless you got a navy like that of Uncle Sam.

[12]洪建輝  2015-7-10 07:03

North Dakota is no poor state.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_oil_boom

[11]張能立  2015-7-10 03:41

Someday, our world will come under one government and one language. But I certainly will  not live to see it.
----------- certainly

[10]qzw  2015-7-10 03:29

中國和希臘對全球經濟穩定性的貢獻如何比較？

[9]Yoly  2015-7-10 01:25

Your explain makes it very easy to understand. I am a nobody in China and yes, I fully understand . Thank you.

博主回複(2015-7-10 04:35)：Glad to be of service.

[8]範傑  2015-7-9 19:16

雖然我相信某一天，one world, one government, and one/three language會到來。但是我也相信中國的古語，“分久必合，合久必分”。在一個強大的帝國之後，一樣會分裂出多個小帝國。看看中國的曆史就很有意思，雖然這個周期正在被拉長。

[7]楊順楷  2015-7-9 19:00

博主提到的較窮的兩個州，即肯塔基和塔科他州（南和北）度是很有意思的，前者曆史上除了數位總統，後者在美國軍事方麵意義重大，該周內的高速公路上在戰時可以直接起降軍用飛機；上世紀60-70年代美國普強製藥公司開發大豆甾醇（豆甾醇和穀甾醇時）作為甾體激素半合成原料時，將大量的廢棄原料堆放在南塔科他州土地上，造成大片土地汙染。

[6]朱傳衛  2015-7-9 18:38

Your comparison between the 50 states of the US and the Euro Union members is really interesting. The complete unification of the Erope needs time in considerration of their diversiies in tradition, language, historical disputes etc. I have drawn a world without gavernments and nations, and people can travel around the world without any restrictions.

[5]袁學波  2015-7-9 17:39

"Someday, our world will come under one government and one language. "   Why?

[4]徐旭東  2015-7-9 16:42

請看林中祥教授的博文"全球統一是人類的唯一選擇",異曲同工.
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=279177&do=blog&id=902724

[3]許培揚  2015-7-9 16:38

百度先生翻譯：
當前希臘和歐元區麵臨的問題一直在控製著這一消息。報紙和廣播中的報道使問題過於複雜，難以理解和解決。作為美國公民，這是我自己的觀點：



1。在美國的50個美國，我們有富裕的國家，如加利福尼亞，紐約，和馬薩諸塞州和貧窮的州，如肯塔基和北的。富裕州政府要支付更多的聯邦稅，而不是聯邦政府。政府以納稅人的錢並重新分配了國家的整體利益。貧窮國家的收入比他們的貢獻要大得多。大多數人都不會知道這種重新分布，一定會同意，這一切為了更大的利益即使把他們的注意力，因為我們都是一國中央政府下工作的一部分。



2。歐元區可以被視為一個“歐洲”的不完整的一步。富裕國家是德國，貧窮國家是希臘。但由於語言、曆史和風俗習慣，利益再分配是遠遠沒有自動的。是的，希臘作為歐元區的一部分，當然值得經濟援助（變相貸款，而不是直接重新分配）。在同一時間，作為希臘工會必須遵守/符合某些共同規則的經濟行為強加給希臘的每一個成員國。不能不負責任地花歐元，希望其他成員國補貼她無休止地表現為一個完全主權國家。有問題在於。如果有一個真正的美國，歐洲和歐洲的強大的中央政府（如在美國的情況下），不會有危機。



3。隨著世界全球化，一體化是大勢所趨。聯合國是二戰後的組織嚐試。然而，它經常被指責是一個組織，可以做一些小的解決衝突和戰爭。然而，在某種程度上，我們已經學會了從國際聯盟的嚐試失敗後，第一次世界大戰。你可以說，聯合國是故意設計的，因為我們意識到，我們並沒有準備好世界統一。另一方麵，我們也可以說，歐元區的經濟一體化是一個命運多舛的嚐試沒有通過貧富國家團結在一歐元的後果的思考。



4。總有一天，我們的世界將出現在一個政府和一個語言。但我一定不會活著看到它。

博主回複(2015-7-10 04:41)：It is obvious that automatic translation leaves much to be desired. This is not a very good translation.w

[2]陸綺  2015-7-9 07:24

Across the United States are immigrants. But across Europe have their own diverse nations and history, there are a lot of historical resentment among the European countries is more difficult to reconcile. Relatively speaking, the euro zone may also need to learn from the past experiences of China, good and bad.
Anyway, god bless the EURO.

博主回複(2015-7-9 10:01)：My point exactly.

[1]邵鵬  2015-7-9 05:32

I am not quite sure if our friends in China an fully understand the crisis. One thing i noticed is the Chinese media is not following on this issue that much as the western media is so closely. I agree, the difficulties Eurozone is facing is really complex due to the loose organization. On the other hand, people are really confused by what the Greek government is thinking about.

博主回複(2015-7-9 06:45)：This article is my attempt to make clear and simple  the basic issue involved from my perspective.