SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Some of the great moments of history sneak up on businesspeople. Two years ago, Britain looked to be Europe's most economically rational country; now its companies seem to be rolling from one economic earthquake to another, with Brexit looking increasingly likely to be followed by the election of a near-Marxist prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn.
Looking back, two things stand out. First, there were some deep underlying "irrational" causes that business ignored, such as the pent-up anger against immigration and globalization. Second, there was a string of short-term political decisions that proved to be miscalculations. For decades, for example, attacking the European Union was a "free hit" for British politicians. If David Cameron had it to do over again, would he really have made the referendum on whether to stay in it a simple majority vote (or indeed called a vote at all)? Does Angela Merkel now regret giving Cameron so few concessions before the Brexit vote? Would the moderate Labour members of Parliament who helped Corbyn get on their party's leadership ballot in the name of political diversity really do that again?
Now, another rupture may be sneaking up on Europe, driven by a similar mixture of pent-up anger and short-term political maneuvering. This one is between the old West European democratic core of the EU, led by Merkel and increasingly by Emmanuel Macron, who are keen to integrate the euro zone, and the populist authoritarians of Eastern Europe, who dislike Brussels. This time the arguments are ones about political freedom and national sovereignty.
Eastern Europe's gripes are nothing a little anschluss couldn't cure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @08:27AM (2 children)
Suppose you put California's coastal counties in one state, and then made separate states out of all the non-coastal counties. That would be a huge number of republican senators. Most of California is actually republican. The coast controls everything due to population density. The non-coast is pissed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @01:03PM (1 child)
So the dirt gets to vote? I thought it was people who voted.
Such nonsense! You think that largely uninhabited areas should have MORE say than the ones where the people live?
Your argument is typical Republican claptrap, a loser's argument to find some way to be in the right.
California is OVERWHELMINGLY (almost comically) Democratic, and there is no argument that can credibly say otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @05:22PM
Everybody sometimes goes to a city, but many city people never leave. City people seldom have much empathy for the non-city people.
Without "the dirt" getting a vote, power snowballs. City cost-of-living and other misery rises as the entire population crams into the cities. Cities already have network advantages that encourage growth. You end up with lots of homeless people, and lots of people with multi-hour commutes, because non-city living becomes unviable.