Can the US/EU be Self-Sufficient? | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Can the US/EU be Self-Sufficient? (none / 0)

It doesn't matter how much it "costs" to make things for internal consumption in a self-sufficient system. It is just cost shifting from one sector to another.
"Subsistence level" is the crux of my argument. Even the Inuit in northern Canada were self sufficient (before the white man), but most people wouldn't want to live the way they did. So how much would we have to give up to be self sufficient?
The edge of Europe seems to be the stumbling block with the EU. I wondered the other day whether the EU was trying to become a modern version of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to counter a modern version of the Ottoman Empire. The situation with Turkey and several of the former Soviet Republics highlights this problem. Does the EU still think of itself as "Christian"?

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Sat Jul 19th, 2008 at 11:02:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Can the US/EU be Self-Sufficient? (none / 0)

Your perspective of the EU needs to be disaggregated. What the EU is and how it should develop is a subject that is politically contented within the EU. The conservatives are more agreed on keeping Turkey out than they used to be, but membership negotiations for Turkey are still ongoing.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Sat Jul 19th, 2008 at 04:48:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Can the US/EU be Self-Sufficient? | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)