The Great Alibi: The EU

I always thought that someone ought to go and talk to 500 Europeans (across the financial landscape) and ask them their humble opinion of the EU.  You could ask about how the EU functions, or the number of times that the guy/gal voted in an EU election, or ask why the EU needs two capitals.  And the end result would be this 400-page book which detail out some mythical 'Frankenstein-Dragon-like' creature which is mostly misunderstood.

In some ways, the 28 members of the EU need the EU to exist.....to give each country some kind of stupid alibi and just say 'we didn't make that stupid law or regulation' and then kinda grin at the camera while making the statement.

How often does the public news media cover the EU, it's proposed regulations or laws?  In an average thirty-day period, I would suggest that ARD and ZDF (the two public channels of Germany) will cover for the prime-time news and the late news (9:45 PM)....about ten times per month.  Half of these will be some harsh argument that came up in some debate session, and the rest will be some ceremony 'event'.  Beyond that....there's virtually nothing said until after a vote has occurred or some new regulation has been put into place.

You can go and ask a hundred Germans to identify who in Germany is on the EU representative list, and I doubt if you can find more than two of the hundred who can mention one single name.

The money funnel?  Well, the way it works is a devised system where the EU mandates you hand over x-amount of money, which they use to fund their internal system.  Then they go and create a pay-back system to reward various countries or special interest groups with 'gifts'.....so a portion of the money returns.  One hand.....to another, with a guy in the middle.

The intellectual sales game?  The EU is the most wonderful creation in Europe since Espresso.  A regular working-class guy?  He can't really name anything that the EU does to benefit him or his family.

So you arrive back to the title....the great alibi.  If you don't like the EU system, you'd have to go and vote, which just doesn't happen to the degree people think.  In a typical EU election (every five years), you get in the range of 45-to-50 percent of registered voters showing up.  That's twenty points less than the norm.  People don't care because there is no real accomplishment that they see.