Let’s Bankrupt Europe!

How much longer can the nations of the European Union continue to pump cash and debt deals into the ailing economies of Europe before the whole thing goes bust? Just recently, the European Union came together to come to a deal on Greek debt, while Portugal, Ireland, and Spain remain grave concerns to the European community. The European Union is a good idea of paper, but I’m not quite sure, if it will end up being a good idea for the long term European future. Many European economies have been hurt by the years of global economic downturn and several economies are knee deep in debt. By these large scale debt deals brokered by the power players in the EU are a recipe for a depressed union.

Working out a debt deal for Greece is one thing, but Spain and Portugal have much larger economies that are “to big to fail” without creating a major economic and social flu. The European powers in the form of Germany, France, and Great Britain cannot absorb the costs of a debt deal for Spain or Portugal, without seriously impacting their own financial health. I feel these bailouts of Greece created bad precedent, but I’m unsure what the alternative would’ve been, as most people with half a soul wouldn’t just let Greece fall into the ocean. The European debt debacle actually illustrates a fundamental problem with the European Union, which I will discuss below.

Union - 1. act of joining together: the act of joining together people or things to form a whole. 2. result of joining together: a result of joining together people or things 3. agreement: agreement or unity of interests or opinions.

I provide the dictionary definition here because the European Union upon formation and ongoing expansion efforts is going to inherit the problems of its’ member states, which pose a very significant threat to the idea of one European community. Although the idea is nice in theory, what if Europe’s powers become weighted down amid debt deals and sluggish economies to the point where the France and Germany become as impotent as Greece or other debt ridden states within Europe?