The euro was strategic for some, and a fad for others. Those that took it on with an air of apathy, as a "yeah, lets" attitude are all folding now. The Euro didn't make anyone stronger or weaker, win or lose. All it did was create a scapegoat, somewhere to lay the blame ofr the economic carnage. (my opinion only, but I don't think this "carnage" exisits, I think it's a way of getting people to tighten their belts, and listen up to the "experts")
Well, when it's an unpaid 12 year old cutting the wood and working it, it's true, labour costs are less. How can a country afford to better the price on EVERYTHING.
In our Breton village which is surrounded by granite outcrops and huge rocks they repaved the square with granite setts from......China. A friend buys oak in France, sends it China and sends it back to France as flooring strips......
something that I get a kick out of... living in the french alps, and seeing people here buying CHINESE pine.
http://sel.leforum.eu/index.php
try here, I know that a local plumber does it in his spare time, as does the roofer. I have given time contre goods, by weeding and watering someone's veggie patch/watering flowers/feeding dogs while they were away, and, although I asked for nothing in return, they geve me a LOT of walnuts, and pumpkins,lol
Why buy rubbish furniture made out of MDF or plastic with terrible joints etc shipped from far away and delivered in plastic, foam etc when you can buy decent "brown" furniture in France or the UK for far less and you will still be using it in 20 years (if you are still alive!). As an architect I did hundreds or renovation projects where perfectly good things were taken out of apartments and houses, often to be recycled by the architect! You can funky up the old stuff if you want. So many people in the UK spent fortunes on their kitches and still couldn't produce a half decent snack let alone a proper French family lunch.
yes Zoe that's it..... these systems do work but roll it out to cover babysitting - housework - accountancy - legal advice - french lessons (hmm self interest there lol!) etc etc - all time shared at an equal value - consider the collective skills of SFN network members and all the need that could be met - as a community (albeit virtual) we can do so much... could establish a SNF LETS system....
Brian, Scotland won't be "allowed" break away, no more than the UK. There are in a good position right now, to step up, and say "ok, we're out, look,we got our own currency, and are good for trade, so, ciao".... but they won't. Why not?? Because the people who put Cameron in place will not let him do that.
The United States of Europe has been bought, and paid for. there is no going back on the deal.Especially if this latest treaty they're posing is signed.
http://www.alternatives-economiques.fr/systeme-d-echange-local--sel-_fr_art_223_31353.html
like this?
I got the honey,gardening,bit of DIY, and possibly more covered... looking for potatoes (being Irish,lol)
Lol, Gretchen, I'm hearing you. I know that big companies hire psychologically targetting advertisers, to hit big. Coca cola, Disney, McDonalds. they play on weaknesses that some people have. At the same time, weakness is literally indoctrinated into us, as is materalism, and many other problems we face. Who will explain to their child that "yes, Max nextdoor HAS got every toy under the sun, but, dear, his parents make twice as much as us, and so, this christmas, you can't have the latest games console, and will have to settle for second best."
there is always a LETS (local exchange trading system) where people sign up to exchange goods/services - i like the system where everyones time is valued equally, so an hours babysitting/childcare is equivalent to an hour accountancy/teaching etc etc... i think something like this would work really well on SFN - if we get our act together! (and give it time to establish) il est possible n'est-il pas ?
We just give people honey,pollen,propolis and they give us their veg.We're also just "good neighbours" That's the point of it all, when there's something you don't have, someone, somewhere is bound to have it en trop. Pity you lost the apples, they'd have been good in your area and with the pollination.and that's part of the ponit I'm making, you're spending euros on having the apples you'd normally eat free- TRUCKED, PACKED, and TAXED, not to mention the other costs, such as the cut that carrefour/Auchan take, and so on.
Almost forgot,
et bon appetit
Yep! Back to cooking dinner... all of which cost us precious Euros and would have been nicer your way... Our garden is done bar potatoes and leeks, many left, honey crop low this year, apples died in the drought but loads of stuff in jars. Except that the children wanted overn chips (from a bag - real ones!!), breaded fish (bought done) and tinned peas... One must try though! Watch the clip, too true, just plain too true.
@ Brian,
have a gander at this. towards the end, it touches on how people can stop being addicted to buying crap.It's all tied in, and when I read your wheelbarrow paragraph, perhaps we should go back to filling our wheelbarrow with say, broccoli we grew, or, in my case, honey I harvested, and through "systeme d'echange local", get our baguettes by trading, perhaps, a wooden table that we got in exchange from our broccoli or honey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGab38pKscw&feature=youtu.be
I'm all for "buying new stuff", but there's a point where being "sufficient" is actually not "sufficient"' for some of us.
"Stuff" keeps getting made, and we keep buying it. Then we wonder where the Euros are gone..... You might say I'm missing the point, but look deeper, it's ALL connected.
Interesting Finn. There is some truth in the words you choose. In reality, it is less that Merkel and Sarkozy are running the 'shop' than several other countries have sat on their hands. The problem has been with politicans. Papandreou and Berlusconi are far too easy to go for, since their counterparts elsewhere have also allowed banks and other financial institutions to grab whatever they could and run (not to mention other 'rich' contributors to the mass theft). Spain, Portugal and very politically 'wobbly' Belgium and Ireland are right on in there. The Nordic countries have hardly been assertive. The Czechs and Poles have crept up from 'nowhere' within the EU to being good performers, both have strong but quite unpleasant leadership. Most of the others are small or consider themselves too small, etc. So Merkel and Sarkozy have pushed the others around because of the complacency. The EU is being allowed to go to ruin because too many countries are complacent and now with appearance that the 'two in charge' are running the whole union in fact there is somebody to blame.
In truth, the past and now present governments in London have been playing a nasty little game behind the scenes, using the City of London to undermine other countries. Well, since the coalition took office last year they have taken the UK from bad to worse in terms of hypocrisy since those people are governing the most dirty country for the rich bleeding the place dry of all EU countries whilst rallying against the Euro with a Janus mask since behind the scenes they are promoting its downfall. Credit rating agencies like Moody's and Standard and Poors are rebounding off some of the Westminster malarkies but are also helping the already extraordinarily greedy rich become even more obscenely rich and are now taking the poor to levels that are becoming just like the early 1930s. If you are not convinced then turn to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's new blog 'Welcome to Grim Britain' and read some of the research report summaries. JRF are serious and previous governments used them a lot, so they were very careful which like they trod. Now they are showing teeth I never suspected they had.
Do we want a 'European Spring' to take other countries back down to the level of the UK at present? I wish it on no other nation. For the first time in my life I am becoming very ashamed of being from there. I now really want Scotland to break away and do something far more worthy. I suspect that whatever they do the last hope is merely wishful thinking on my part. Let us hope that the dismally managed Euro can be rescued, revised and revitalised under closer scrutiny but not by Messrs Merkel and Sarkozy and the shadowy figures pulling their strings.
Mark, Greece has a CCC, plenty of other countries share that and more than a few countries are not even rated.
Gretchen, on consideration of the overall picture I think you are right. Thus Finn, Mark and I are relegated to the kind of diagnosing physicians who read the chart at the end of the bed instead of looking at the patient thoroughly.
Then compare the disease itself to a pandemic like the Great Plagues of a few hundred years ago that periodically decimated the world population between the eastern seabord of the Asian landmass to the western edges of Europe and much of Sahelian Africa. Only recently, indeed this year, scientists showed that the theory that rats transmitted it was wrong and that we still need to find out how it happened. Use the analogy and realise that if one is contagious then the risk of any others it touches becoming infected is somewhere between high and certain.
Yes, but they are not players in the league that matters.
What a relief! Patients can die, but diseases are much harder to eradicate!
Do any countries have a "B" rating?
Yes!!!! To wit, most diseases have cures and are are no longer fatal.
Good reminder: the FT is reporting the leak, not issuing a warning. However, the FT is one of those rags that drags entire nations down to serve its masters, Pearson PLC who publish it are hardly known for being pro-EU or Euro and do make large donations to guess which political party?