Certainly the Blacklight test show that Microsoft EU respect way more the privacy (forced by law) than Microsoft US.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    224 hours ago

    So, abandon the EU? Abandon the concept of the USA? My comment was tongue in cheek but deep cooperation can be a good thing. It’s part of the reason for the EU. Mutual dependency reduces the risk of war. Isolationism, like the USA is tending towards leads to more war.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      514 hours ago

      The EU is not an alliance, since member states give up a good portion of their sovereignty to the block. It’s much closer to a “loosely bound US” than a “NATO on steroids”.

    • queermunist she/her
      link
      fedilink
      1322 hours ago

      The EU as a whole is an interesting project, but the Eurozone currency bloc was a mistake. All it did was surrender everyone else’s currency sovereignty to Germany and France.

      And death to the US.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        419 hours ago

        The currency is only one aspect and a quite recent aspect. Many other aspects of sovereignty are ceded as a condition of joining. However, the pros outweigh the cons.

        The point of the increased cooperation is that everyone is better off, with less risk of war and better protections. The EU sets many minimum standards for goods, services, interoperability and budgets, legislation, courts etc that countries cannot override.

        Death to the US is reductive and inflammatory.

        • queermunist she/her
          link
          fedilink
          518 hours ago

          Ask Greece or the other Mediterranean nations if they are better off without their own currency (hint: they absolutely aren’t)

          Death to US is a basic statement of understanding that the US empire is the primary contradiction.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            213 hours ago

            Ask Croatia, Ireland, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia andSlovenia if they are? Hint, they absolutely are.

            Any union with such a variety of policies will have winners and losers for every project and legislation. Sometimes that will be individuals, sometimes countries. The point is that most are better off in general and that every country is better off from the sum of policies.

            Countries have less control of their individual exchange rate. That was problematic for Greece, who underwent austerity, successfully I might add as access to the EU wide economy and trade, including (over)tourism is what’s taken them back from the brink.

            In terms of larger countries, it has been beneficial for France and Germany, less so for Italy, but also less of a problem and less of the fluctuations the lira used to suffer.

            • queermunist she/her
              link
              fedilink
              23 hours ago

              In terms of larger countries, it has been beneficial for France and Germany, less so for Italy

              It’s just a way for the wealthy metropoles to turn poorer members of the EU into neocolonies. Yeah, it’s great for rich Europeans! Not so much for everyone else. Without the ability to deficit spend (because they lack currency sovereignity) they are forced to do austerity and privatization. It’s just financial imperialism.

              It’s a bad system and it will collapse.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                141 minutes ago

                You do know that these wealthier countries pay more into the EU and the poorer countries get structural funding for infrastructure etc to help them catch up to the wealthier?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              29 hours ago

              problematic for Greece, who underwent austerity,

              Imposed by the EU. There’s nothing holy about the EU and no, he IMF is not helping those in need. Nor is the ECB.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                142 minutes ago

                Which worked. It also worked for Portugal and Ireland. Greece may or may not have been able to correct their issues on their own. However, there were lots of structural issues, including cultural issues around taxation.