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0 pointsdukeyukey2y ago0 comments

Yes, and it's doing a mediocre-at-best job of it. You can remove tariffs and harmonise regulations, but the EU is trying to unite countries with cultural borders older than Christianity.

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pell2y ago· 5 in thread

I would argue that the EU is quite a successful organization given the task of setting up general market rules for 26 countries.

Obviously there is a lot to criticize about the EU and I can offer you a gigantic list there too. However, I do not see any clear failure of the EU’s approach as a single market so far. Additionally part of the philosophy was establishing peace in a region that was torn up by wars for a lot longer than Christianity exists. I would argue the EU was quite successful there too.

dukeyukeyOP2y ago

It's definitely successful, and I was probably too harsh there. But I genuinely think the barriers that are left are damn near insurmountable. An awful lot has to change before a Greek tech workers can move to Sweden as easily as a Virginian can move to California.

pell2y ago

What would you change if you could? The EU already offers freedom of movement to EU citizens. Of course the US being a country instead of a connection of countries offers a more streamlined experience and surely the shared language plays a huge role too. But when I want to come up with examples such as a Greek person having completely different retirement, health care and legal schemes in Sweden compared to Greece, it seems the US is not so dissimilar there either given that states sometimes have very different approaches to health care, taxes, labor laws, etc.

dukeyukeyOP2y ago

Mostly stuff you can't really change. Like, the cultural difference between Sweden and Greece is _way_ bigger than between California and Virginia. You've got the language barrier too. This isn't gonna be fixed, maybe ever, but will continue to cause friction.

Hikikomori2y ago

I had two Greeks on my team at a large tech company in Sweden.

dukeyukeyOP2y ago

Do you think there are more Greeks in Sweden, or Virginians in Washington?

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