Funny that you think Spotify is more important than SAP. Also, the basic assumption behind that video is incorrect, a mistake americans and other non EU citizens always make. The EU is not an economic project. It is a political project that aims at preventing another war between member states by strongly merging the economies. Guys like you sometimes forget, money isn't everything.
You forgot the biggest con- Without the endless European wars of continental hegemony, history youtube channels aren't going to have any content 200 years from now!
Consider the religious aspects instead. 2000 years from now, a group of dwarfs will sail to New Zealand pretending it's their homeland. And as a proof for that, they will show their holy book: "The Lord of the Rings". 😤
I'm puzzled by the fact that the difference between EU and Euro zone was not drawn in the video. Not all EU countries use Euro and have ECB as their central bank. They create their own monetary policy. That makes some conclusions fall short on reality.
In my opinion the conclusions are mostly still valid. Some scandinavian countries with a great economy like Sweden don’t use it, while some east countries have an economy that doesn’t match the criteria for Euro. Overall it’s likely not that great of a difference. Also, most charts have only shown Euro countries when they talked about the Euro.
his knowledge of EU is sparse. Also, he failed to explain why Greece is worse off than Germany while having the same currency. And calling that Romania auto wire industry and agriculture(!) are fungible while Germany's auto industry isn't, while auto industry is amongst the most fungible
@@crimsonlightbinderbecause stronger economies have stronger currency. Germany would have a high values currency. Greece would have a middle value currency. On a dollar basis. This give Germany an advantage with having an undervalued currency and Greece a disadvantage with an overvalued. At least for export.
I work in manufacturing and the EU regulations are actually an advantage instead of a disadvantage. Having the same regulations in the entire EU means you don't have to modify your products to suit each individual nation's regulations. The diversity of languages is also mentioned as a disadvantage but I don't personally experience that at all. The most understood language within the EU is English and that is the language that is spoken when working internationally. Our company has offices and manufacturing plants in the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, France, India and many more nations and communication really isn't a big issue.
As he pointed out, manufacturing is the yoke holding Europe down. Technology businesses are much, much easier to expand. Technology does not require the raw materials, labor and capital machinery that manufacturing requires to achieve growth any large amount. Data is cheap and easy. Manufacturing is costly and messy. The EU missed the boat on technology by clinging to quality manufacturing when people prefer the cheap China products because of price. We will see in a century if the EU made the right choice but for now, growth is king not quality of product.
That is good for established players but too much regulation makes it hard for new players to even start which is what stifles innovation and competitiveness. That said I think the main problem is the mechanisms to comply with those regulations (Paperwork, burocracy, low government digitalization) and especially explaining those regulations well to entrepreneurs so they can be sure they are not breaking any rules that will grant them big fines. The language problem I don't think you grasped it fully. Yes, we can communicate with each other. But having a large pool of people that not only communicates but thinks in the same language is a big advantage, one that we don't have in Europe. I would add that the cultural boundaries between counties also add to this. We still think of individual countries and not in the EU as a whole. A great example is shipping. I live close to a border and the parcels I receive need to go to a distribution center deep in my country before arriving at my door even though I have a distribution center much closer to me, just on the other side of the border
@@diogocarvalho2934 My experience is that these EU regulations are very clear and easy to work with. Government digitalization is, at least in the Netherlands, great. Whenever we need to comply to US regulations it's always a big hassle because you're dealing with organizations like the NFPA, the USDA and the FDA which all seem to be stuck in the past.
You are talking about business.There are ethnic divides that involve values not just language.Saying "language" is just a nice way of saying prejudice happens.
Odd, the most relevant Pro for the EU is not mentioned. Stability and countries not going to war with each other like they have done for centuries. If the price is mediocre economic growth i sign for that any day as Dutch citizen.
European union is not a novel diplomacy. Remember crusades? You guys were always supportive with each other when it comes to a common enemy. I’m pretty sure without a union Europeans would still not fight with each other in 21st century
The reason why the Europeans no longer go to war against each other has nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with the Pax Americana. The US is bigger than the entire EU in both economic and military measures. And the European empires are over (except the French Empire
It's not odd. For some reason, the question asked here is "What problems did the EU cause to its member countries?" It's right there in the summary. It's mind-boggling how this video can be called "Has the EU been good for Europe?".
@@user-je3sk8cj6gThe reason Pax Americana works is because of NATO and the EU. The EU has eliminated the bilateral allegiances which led to arms races in Europe. This has allowed the US to consolidate the military industry. Arms races between smaller powers that ballooned out of contrl happened even during Pax Britannica, so having a massive powerful player is not sufficient deterrant.
@@user-je3sk8cj6g The US did help to prevent war, but let's not kid ourselves, the EU had a massive impact in reducing the chance of war among EU members. The entire idea of the Coal and Steel Community decades ago was to pool those resources together as one so as to make it far harder to go to war with each other as it would be harming your own interest. So the Americans did help to stabilise things in the early days after the second world war, but the EU has had a massive impact of making it almost impossible for EU countries to go to war with each other.
Thumbnail is ridiculous - Poland, Sweden, Czechia, Spain, Croatia have benefitted massively from the EU's cash injections. Arguably more than even France, which has been stagnating for the last 15 years, while Poland for example has been the fastest growing economy in the bloc.
and for me (as a citizen of a country paying more into the EU than getting back from it) it's worth it. seeing the transformation of Poland from being a puppet under the USSR to a nation worthy of being called a First world nation, shows what the EU is about. lifting up the people in Europe to a common high level of quality of live. and everyone in Europe deserves that. and even looking at it form a purely economical point of view. if those nations get richer they will buy more stuff from the more developed European nations. so in time the nations paying more than the get back will get their investment back.
France inject 25+ billions in the EU system in 2021, and it's going up. Also the EU electricity market have destroyed french competitive advantage of extremely clean and cheap electricity from nuclear energy.
@@kk22383 don't be ludicrous, if Ireland was a 3rd world country before joining the EU, then Congo, Myanma or Somalia are literally 20th world countries
Sweden is not getting more money from the eu than they give to the eu. Sweden was the fourth richest country in the world before joining the eu. Now sweden is an average european country
Brits, Americans and Australians always forget this little point when they predict the demise of the euro....the people want it. Surveys show 80% + of people want to keep the currency, including in countries hit by crisis like Greece and Italy. Ultimately the euro is about both politics and economics - not just economics. If the people have faith and ascribe value to it, then it will "exist".
The main negative about the EU as a construct is that it undermine the sovereinty of member states ... especially the "poorest" ones and is overall bad for democracy imo: How can non-democraticaly elected personalities make and approve decisions that undermine the opinion of democratically elected people in their own "sovereign" state? Also the EU is devolving into the "United State of Europe" as they have an army (NATO), economic zone and a "parliament" ... this is not a positive as the EU behave itself as a "vassal state" of the U.S.A and actively defend US interest ...not EU interest!
@@ulrichleukam1068 You are wrong. For example, in Switzerland people vote on everything, except on their federal Government. They cannot remove people from the government nor vote people in. Everything is decided by the Parliament and are not related with the elections in any way. Most decisions are made by the Kantons, just like the different EU members states, and then the Federal Governemnt makes a few big decisions, just like the EU central government.
@@ulrichleukam1068 The European Parliament is democratically elected. The councils consist of ministers and heads of states elected through each country's national election system. You are factually incorrect. NATO and the EU are completely different things. There are individual countries, inside and outside the EU, that cater to more US interests than they should. That has nothing do to with the union.
I think the real issue is that people see things in a short term lens, the Euro being a new currency, any slight problems and the septics are quick to jump on it and make it seem like it's going to fall apart. The reality is, there's no risk to the Euro, the people want it, the EU wants it, and it's just a matter of making the Euro more effective for its members in boosting economic growth, which that takes time.
Exact same situation for Ireland. We've been absolutely thriving thanks to the EU. We've gone from practically being a third world country to being one of the richest countries in the world and much of that success is due to the EU.
I usually love the videos here but this oe mixes the concepts of EU and Eurozone too much to make sense, if it weren't for few sentences I would think they got the tittle wrong and were talking about just the common currency.
Indeed, this video would have made sense if it had been about the pros and cons of the Euro. But talking about the EU as if without the EU there would have been a single state with a single language and a single market (and peace) is utterly silly.
VERY strange to say the companies now have to adhere to an extra set of regulations in the EU over how it used to be. its gotten SO MUCH easier, that was the entire point and it worked
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890 Because of rapidly developing globalization, huge companies would win even faster, had there been no regulations! I can order my socks through internet in Greece, Finland or Portugal and they will be in the post the next day. Why shop in my village fashion store? And with CE certification I know what I get.
yup. one of the biggest advantages in fact...instead of every country having it's own set of standards. we consider advantages and disadvantages and pick one.
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890 "And those regulations enhance huge corporations while destroying small businesses" That is completely wrong. Being outside the single market favours large businesses against small businesses. Look at how hard it is for small businesses in the UK to export to the EU after Brexit. Many are just giving up or going bust. On the other hand large businesses can employ staff to handle the extra work required to sell to each individual country. Because if you;re outside the EU single market and comply with the regulations to sell into Spain, that doesn't allow you to sell into France, you have to fill in extra forms for France. Being inside the EU single market means that any small business in the EU can sell to anyone in the EU single market, without having to fill in forms to comply with each individual country's regulations. That is the whole point of the EU single market. Which is why small companies in the UK that used to sell into other European countries before Brexit, are now giving up or going bust, because they have to fill in forms for each individual country, which they didn't have to do before.
@@JohnSmall314 Large business can just open a subsidiary within the single market, like Apple and all the other "Irish" tech companies. That way, you only need the bureaucracy to import components to that subsidiary, because you can have that subsidiary focus on single market compliance and exporting the finished product to the single market.
EU despite being a collection of highly educated nations has missed the last tech revolutions, no big social medias platform, no big IA systems, no big semiconductor manufacturer, it goes on and on....
@@Kabodanki The EU has ASML which make ALL other tech-industries possible. The EU also had plenty of social media platforms before facebook even existed. it had ebay's before ebay was a thing ect. But they were all local, and so smaller, and then the much bigger American companies came along and destroyed them, either by buying them, or undercutting them until they could no longer survive. And those US companies were allowed to get that big because US anti-trust regulators have been asleep at the wheel for decades. Having a single company dominate a market is not a good thing. But as the US is unwilling to act, the EU has to.
@@Kabodanki Europe didn't miss it, it was all destroyed by US companies that were allowed to get far bigger then is healthy for the market because US anti-trust has been asleep at the wheel.
The map at 3:23 showing the GDP PER capita for european union countries is completely wrong. In what world is Poland’s GDP less than 10k$? And since when is Spains gdp higher than Germany? I see that the source is world bank but check your sources man.
The answer is: Yes, absolutely. It brought prosperity and unity on a continent that up to that point was a global center for wars for over a millenia. Sure it's not perfect...but which organisation is? It brings prosperity and improvement to life not only in Europe but all over the world, since if anyone wants to sell products to EU they have to follow EU standards and since it's pointless to have separate production lines for local and EU markets, local populations of those countries also benefit from better quality products.
Anectodal argument: even the states (governements) that despise the EU and what it stands for (Progress, Equality, Rights, Democracy etc) dont dare to leave it:, Orban in Hungary, PIS in Poland and that russia-lover in Czechia Sure they bark all the time about eurogays and stuff, but they quietly enjoy all the prosperity of the EU and all stick to populist argumetns but dont actually act. even Sultan Erdogan the Great and the west balkans all try to get into the EU. Brexit sure did teach everyone a very valuable lesson. EU is the most popular statecollection i can think of. USSR had to annex neighbour countries with tanks and shoot citizens trying to leave it, now all these coutnries join voluntarily. Its truly THE bastion of progress and democracy of our time.
@@blitzerblazinoah6838 Yea, sure ignore the millions of deaths, forced relocations to Siberia, millions of political prisoners and a stagnate and backwards economy that could not provide the most basic needs to it's population.
Yeah as other people say it has it's pros and cons. As a Greek, many people argue it has destroyed us further, although in everyday life, travelling, career opportunities etc, you see and feel the privileges that it provides.
Greece should be taken with a puthc of salt. As they entered to the EU without beeing on point with econòmics, Greece crisis would have been a lot less important if it had waited a few years to join as expected
@@joelimbergamo639 You do not know what you're talking about. Greece joined the EU in 1981 (before Spain and Portugal, being the 10th member of the EEC) by being completely ok regarding the requirements. The whole "cooking the books" part was in regards to the Eurozone, not the EU as a whole. And keep in mind, that "cooking the books" was a usual economic practice at the time, other Southern EU states also "cooked the books" and the governments of other major EU countries (Kohl and Miterrand for example) were aware of it but what mattered at the time was the expansion of the Eurozone. If Greece hadn't joined in 2002 (as well as the other Southern countries and Ireland in 1999) they would've joined just a few years later. It wasn't that hard, for example newer EU members joined pretty quickly and with no problems (like the Baltics).
Same feeling in Slovakia. Many people here have anti-EU opinions (and unfortunately it goes hand in hand with pro-russian narratives), while enjoying the higher standard of living, travelling, better job opportunities etc etc
Something being a double-edged sword does not imply that the pros and cons are equal, it only means that there are distinct pros and cons and that it's not entirely good or bad. No idea where the AI comments come from. They have too much to lose from pivoting hard into AI content generation, as I doubt AI is particularly good at explaining economics.
@@jasminrausier I already watched them, and they didn't seem particularly different from videos before that. So no, it isn't all AI. That's ridiculous.
So? They were efficiënt in maximising its positive aspects. Which can not be said about a lot of the southern European countries who continuesly vote for short term politicians who neglect long-term apsects such as the economy.
While in the short-terms EU regulations seem to be limiting and disadvantageous, they support long-term sustainable economy. For example, just compare Boeing and Airbus! Having US government backing them in every incident, Boeing lost a culture of innovation and ethical business, which in short run helped them dominate the global and local market, but today even local all-Boeing carriers are looking for Airbus models for their future developments! EU sure has a lot to do to keep up to its vision and promise, but it definitely is a positive force in today's world.
@@Mahdisabamehr I don't care about the world. I care about Europe. I'm a European first and foremost. And tripolar? The EU has no power projection whatsoever. It's a collection of American vassal states.
You are missing an important point regarding the regulations on businesses. Before the foundation of EU every European country had its own set of regulations which made it practically impossible to export to other countries, as you would have to adjust your product, your marketing, etc, etc. to each and every country's separate set of regulations. What is happening now is not that there is one set of national regulation and on top of that EU regulation. The system is set up so that regulation which is passed through the European Parliament has to become implemented into the regulations of every single country in the EU. This has greatly increased business opportunity and smoothed competition in Europe.
@@Wendeta-hq2cp Give an example. Before EU harmonisation, countries would set up their own laws to try to benefit their own industry. By having uniform regulations, the market becomes much more free, which is good for competition and innovation.
@@ronald3836 Having each set of regulations means each country can flourish, which means local markets have room to grow to the point that the regulations of another country would not be a problem. The Harmonisation just made it easier for US and CN to take over, meaning that we barely produce our own stuff. The E U is behind on AI, robotics, mili tary tech, social media platforming, streaming etc. etc.
The thumbnail coloured Ireland as one of the losers. Ireland was a poor ex-colony before it and the UK joined the EEC in the 1970s. It has been transformed into a wealthy nation since becoming a member.
Romania and Bulgaria are not yet full Schengen members, while Croatia joined just last year. This imply huge costs for businesses compared to those within the Schengen area. This is something that should be kept in account.
Unironically, the EU in its current stage is very similar to what the US founding fathers saw for the federal government -- relatively small (by budget) and mostly pro-people (by legislation). And that was achieved in much more difficult circumstances -- dozens of different languages and deeply established national cultures with millennia long of "toxic" historical baggage. While the GDP numbers are in favor of US for various reasons, the economic inequality and tax burden is far higher, the corporate special interests has captured most of the regulatory institutions with all the consequences for the average citizen. Still America is the land of opportunity by many metrics for anyone with entrepreneurial spirit and motivation, but the scope for success has definitely shrunk quite a bit.
It's even funnier. The EU is way more cohesive and stable than the early US of A, even though the latter was supposedly created from scratch. There are actually policital science papers on that topic.
No, it isn't like the US of the founding fathers. The EU is an institution that influences the politics of its rather diverse member countries. Also, if one talks about inequality one should also consider the inequality of all EU countries seen together, which most likely is rather big
One aspect you did not touch on is the reduction in European wars the EU likely prevented, especially between major powers like France and Germany. In Canada, this was the major benefit we were taught when discussing the creation of the EU. It creates a situation where any European country declaring war on another, basically declares war on themselves economically. The US does not have a history of states constantly waring with each other for land and resources the way the EU does, from the beginning the US viewed itself as a collective, where as the EU got pushed into it by economic convenience.
NATO has been the ultimate guarantor of stability and peace within Europe since 1945 The EC / EEC / EU in comparison likes to claim credit when in reality it’s deserving of none. The EU cannot even agree a unified approach to supplying arms to Ukraine and its approach to non member states such as Switzerland is bullying and discriminating. Now the EU doesn’t know what to do except fall apart in the face of the growing threat from Russia and mixed signals from US politicians along with blundering approach of punishing the U.K. post Brexit that caused the population there to care little if the Baltics or the EU’s South Eastern flanks are invaded. The EU was always out of its depth trying to be world power without the military might to back it up. It’s snobbish attitude to its two main nuclear powers USA and England that guaranteed its survival is now questionable. The unspoken reality is neither the US or England will rush to shed blood for Europe now. The EU should have stuck to setting farming quotas and organising song contests. Realpolitik was always beyond them.
This might have an effect on the periphery, but I don't think there's any situation in which the larger Western European countries going to war with each other in the past 70 years.
I think you may have missed the biggest positive of the EU, it effectively made it impossible for France and Germany to wage war with one another. THIS alone is worth having the EU.
Yeah, the biggest point of the EU was making it financially suicide to wage war with other members. Just the prevention of wars makes the whole thing worth it alone.
Yes, it has been a huge succes in that aspect, but that was almost 80 years ago. If the EU would collapse this wouldnt mean tensions between them would rise again. England has left the EU, this doens't mean that tensions with France has started to rise, if anything, they have been lower.
@@guus5504 You're telling me that the UK *hasn't* become a fascist, imperialist, far right, gaslight, gatekeep girlboss after Brexit? That's not what the Guardian told me!
Well, that EU is not as economically competitive, that's true. Yet, unlike other countries, EU is valued for its stability, regulations and standards of living. If EU never happened, I doubt that would have been the case.
@@BozeboFor example Real-term wages are still below their 2008 average despite higher inflation and greater cost of living across most of western Europe. This issue is getting worse with an ageing population and a smaller tax base to support vital functions of government. And to answer your question, compared to the US
Your video contains several inaccurate things presented as facts. Not all countries in the EU actually have Euro as their currency. The EU is nothing like the US in terms of organization or economy, this is why a USE is such a hard thing to achieve. Maps are also not accurate as someone else mentioned already. And you forgot to mention that for most of the East European countries the alternative to EU is Russia. And that says it all in terms of how good the EU is for smaller countries. I’m almost inclined to think that this is a video that covertly helps the Russian narrative. I really hope it’s an honest mishap, not a deliberate one.
He spends half the video talking about why the single market has been difficult to achieve. And no, the alternative to the EU is not 'Russia'. The EU is not protection against Russia, NATO is. The tone of language here is so patronising.
@@willbentley8856 The alternative to the EU IS Russia, at least for eastern countries. The fact that NATO is the protection, doesn't make NATO the alternative.
@@radue In what sense? Russia doesn't provide any economic opportunity, nor does it really have means to make Eastern Europe dependent on it that it doesn't already utilise.
@@willbentley8856 Russia does not have the power to make these countries dependent on it now, with the EU in place. They tried and still do, but can’t keep up. The open European market is just too attractive for businesses in those smaller countries. It’s hard for Russia to compete as an outsider because they have all kinds of taxes working against them and lack innovation. But with the EU out of the way and a country like Romania being on its own, they will immediately ‘flood the market’ with companies and brands that are just cheap clones of the original west european ones. A trip to Chisinau will reveal what all Eastern Europe would look like without the EU. A trip through Moldova now is like a trip through Romania 25 years ago.
What's important is the relative prosperity and happiness of the people, compared with USA etc. Mention that. Normal people don't care about GDP stats. This video doesn't answer the actual question in its title.
You're right about that. However this channel is all about economics, so when it asked if the E.U is good or bad it's from an economic perspective therefore it actually does answer the question.
@@MabDarogan2 Again I agree with what you're saying but I think that you misunderstood me. This channel is called Economics Explained, so when it address a subject, it will do so mostly from an economic perspective and yes even if sometimes it misses the big picture.
@@jaypea35 but he didn't come close to answering the question. It was all high level economic stats, with no link to anything meaningful on the ground. This is why people don't follow economics. I'm from a country that's just been dragged out of the EU because the English wish they still had an empire. They're completely out of touch. So the title of this video sounded useful to me, but proved to be pointless. I gained nothing from it. And more so, it makes the entire field of economics look pointless. As a biologist, the thought of producing a 13 minute video of stats and graphs with no meaningful conclusions is inconceivable. No biologist would think that stats and graphs are inherently interesting, because they aren't. So what's wrong with economists?
For me, it was amazing when driving thinking I was in the North of France and actually being in the Netherlands, then drive a little bit further and then Germany. Trucks going and coming, and people carrying on with their lives, not thinking they are crossing borders several times per day. Of course, it's an opinion, but I think the EU has done a lot of good. I am sure the EU has drawbacks, and may need to change. With respect to different layers of laws, in general EU countries are very old, and many of them composed by different nations, i.e. here, the UK when it was a member, you might have some laws in Scotland, and different ones in England, but both aligned with the EU guidelines, so not an issue having the EU legislation on top, so commerce between countries is not really an issue.
I know, but we can have that without the policy making. We really need to go back to being an economic alliance and that's it. No politiks so that we can make the rules according to our interests again.
I think people massively forget something that is explaining most of the current situation worldwide : Nearly none of developped country have seen any major growth for the past decade. Aging, being at capacity already, industry not having undergone any massive boom ... Most if not all of growth worldwide is : Developping economy catching up, and the humongous tech bubble that is anything but susainable
@@julian5345See my previous comment : if you look at the US economy, none of their sector have seen growth any more impressive than the UE appart from two : tech, which is a hugely inflated bubble (even if worth a lot once it'll deflate) and healthcare, which, in the USA, is more of a tax system on the population than an actual industry
How come Poland is colored red at 3:26, when it has a GDP per capita of $18.7k? It also has a higher GDP per capita than Romania, which is colored orange for >$15k
Your point with the euro currency is half true. Not all the EU member countries use it as national currency. Their bonds are at a higher premium than the countries using the euro. But also they have their own monetary policy which helps them.
And keeping your own monetary policy is good. Issuing bond with low premium can be stupid. Greece did it and it worked like getting addicted while being enabled to do so by other players
"A stabilizing force across the economic world" is exactly what I want to hear. A large enough market force to play hardball with corporations with regulations good for the consumer, the enviroment, and slows down the boiling over power of big-tech. A tech crash would leave Europe mostly unphased. The US and China are going to continue to bow down to corporate overlords, but if the EU stays strong, they will have to comply globally. It's been said countless times that GDP does not equate to a happy and comfortable workforce, and it seems the collective of the EU understands that more then the US or China. The biggest question I have left is how much does the US's military acting as "world security" effect the EU's options? The total-spending graph speaks a lot to that, and Eastern Europe has concerns entirely reliant on US support.
" A tech crash would leave Europe mostly unphased.", as a tecchie, I am also pretty sure we are over due a huge one, and it will mostly affect the big Chinese and American companies.
Without another Carrington event, there won't be any "tech crash", since it has become interwoven into our entire daily lives and economies. If you're referring to the stock market, the cycles are a well known process.
3:23 This map is deceiving. Portugal GDP per capita is 24.5K USD, in the map orange means >15K USD, so its not wrong (24.5K is higher than 15K) but Its deceiving because Portugal should be in blue or purple.
Talk about Slovenia (developed country) and Romania (quite quickly grow but still developing country) like similar economies is weird. The author used GDP for conparasion of countries, why so old data? I checked the used data and for example Czechia in 2019 - 23,664 dollars per capita. It could be in a different category so far... Purple no orange... On the other hand how could be Greece purple when It had according the same metric 19 144 dollars that year?
It is really not surprising at all. If you look at the comments at a lot of the videos you will see people validly disagreeing with the contents of the videos. I don't understand why the channel has such a high following at all.
You are forgetting the biggest pro is the regulatory bodies for customers which are awesome. Before legislation, we payed over one euro per minute for a phonecall home if we walked one km over the border of the neighbouring country. Now we pay the same as domestic rates in the whole of the EU. Same goes for data rates. Also food safety, agricultural toxins etc are very well regulated. It could never work this well within a single member state. And nature protection is also very well arranged.
I am Greek and truly believe you got this map wrong. EU is good for Greece ! If Greece wasn't a member of the EU it would be a Country like Lebanon by now.
@@reggiebuffatwrong again! I am Greek, I feel our monetary policies while you can only read statistic lies, when A Greek Party forms our Government I know better than you, how much of our Country's future they are ready to sacrifice in order to please their voters-customers now. In other words I know better than you that in the case of Greece your map is wrong. Euro or Dollar , Bitcoin, or Ethereum , everything is better for Greece as long as Greece has small or better absolutely no way to enforce its own monetary agenda on its currency. In my point of view this is the best way for all FAILED States , not only Greece, failed States mustn't have their own currencies. Greece is a Country always better to have Euro instead of having its own currency no matter what.
@@Unisoft-data states like Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece but also France decrease the value of the Euro as they are service based economy in preponderance. This benefits exporters like Germany and the Netherlands. Your economy suffers from this, theirs benefits greatly because of this.
@@reggiebuffatCyprus is a Country even more based on services than Greece, but if you compare Greece and Cyprus you will find out that doesn't suffer as Greece does. NO, my friend , as I already told you ! Corruption is the problem of Greece and the currency the escape goat only.
@@Unisoft-data the EU does nothing with respect to corruption, that’s an internal cultural problem, it can only be solved internally by Greeks. EU is helpless to solve it.
10:35 yes, there are few well-known european tech companies, but it's not like Spotify is the only one dominant outside the EU: SAP, Nokia, Ericson, ASML
I can say, EU is the best thing that has ever happened to Europe, for peace, stability, human rights , freedom of movement. Europe has never been more united
Ya, but the regulations are killing the economy, Europe completely missed the previous tech wave. Their first response to AI, something which will fundamentally change our economies, was to regulate it to death. If Europe doesn’t change direction fast, they will completely miss out on the AI revolution as well. They are basically regulating themselves into irrelevance. It could barely afford to miss the last tech wave, it won’t be able to afford to miss the AI one. Once that happens, what happens to all the social programs in Europe? They need a strong economy to function, and Europe just seems to be getting poorer and poorer
This is a joke. The EU has killed individual economic opportunity, created an unelected ruling class that actively hurts and suppresses its people, all while ruining household purchasing power and inflating living costs to those that resemble the USA. This was unheard of before the EU started ruining Europe. So sad....
If it was only for Europeans I would agree, but that's not the case. Every featherless biped can cross Europe's external borders and become " European". If the EU wants to survive this madness needs to end.
I wish! It's leaders ensured that we now have another continental blunder, so we have neither peace nor stability. It's leaders are allowing those that do not subscribe to human rights enter unchecked, which is a problem of the freedom of movement. We are currently more disunited as ever. Or, rather, we are the most united in ending this entire "Union" experiment!
What I’m missing in the conclusion is the contrast between how European markets were functioning pre- and post EU. Because taken that into consideration the conclusion should be that the EU is, in fact, a net positive.
Another important point is that economic, political and social interdependence reduces the chance of future wars. The European Coal and Steel Community was also founded to prevent future wars. No wars also means no major economic delines due to that. So in the long run this fact makes the EU also pay of economically (in addition to the social factor of peace)
Dude, a little more research. Main reason for EU was to prevent future wars in Europe. Also, many countries in EU are don't use Euro. And Poland is in "loser" part of the map, but since we joined EU economic growth was quite good, thanks to common market access and EU funds.
Yep that was an odd part in this video. Poland is doing great. ++ Got a great new government in the last election. +++ Have built up the military to a super good level which will be needed and boost the status on Poland further when one of our neighbours will start a completely idiotic campaign of trying to regain lost territory. (I really wish that was not true but...)
The Union has brought us peace, prosperity and power. It has made our continent stable and strong, united under a common flag while simultaneously protecting, promoting and cherishing our distinct cultures.
What cultures, more exactly? Christianity is part of the culture of a few countries, yet it is put aside and isolated by the EU. How about each country gets to celebrate **its own** culture? It's easy to celebrate a culture after dictating what it should be, isn't it?
@@Hardcore_Remixer The EU doesn't dictate any culture. Just as Countries don't dictate cultures. Customs and traditions are there and the only reason for the EU to counter them is if they defy core values. When it's a tradition to "cure" homosexuals for instance then taht tradition will be repressed. For good reason. But Bavarians celebrate Oktoberfest just as the French celebrate July the 14th.
@@DommTom And how about traditions which ignore the existence of more genders than there are s*xes? Just tell it straight out that EU doesn't care about traditions and could turn against any of them if it becomes convenient to do so.
As an Estonian, I am saddened by the fact that the two North European islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, are grayed out despite being part of the European Union.
Larger than consumer, but probably still not larger than US by most measures. Only SAP comes to mind as a really big player from EU. Whilst many American companies like Microsoft and Amazon dominate both in B2C and B2B.
@@manicka111 EU companies tend to dominate their markets but have a lot less reach across different markets, and so usually don’t hit the company-wide scale of MS or Amazon. So you don’t see the trillion-dollar giants there, but, that doesn’t mean those aren’t great businesses, employing a ton of people, and making great profits. The obvious example here is ASML dominating the lithography market, but I’d also flag elastic in search, and Nokia and Ericsson were both huge in communications before the waves of mergers and acquisitions (and windows phone debacle). Even SUSE is gaining in importance outside of their core EU customers, although that’s arguably more to do with red hats stumbles than anything else. Mistral also needs a mention for defying everyone’s expectations and managing to seriously compete with both OpenAI and anthropic on a much smaller budget. (This is really the most impressive)
The analysis here was significantly weaker than in an average EE video: the title was provocative but the content did not deliver on the question. I appreciate the need for some simplification, but the EU is not the same as the Euro monetary zone. And high tech industry is not just software: there are incredibly strategic hardware investments with significant capital and marginal costs. Overall, I was deeply disappointed by the quality of analysis
Tech regulation in Europe has also never stifled any innovation. As someone in the space for over 20 years I can't think of a single example. Infact the regulation does not go far enough to allow more innovation (for example, nobody should have to compete with any company that makes money off tracking cookies at all, they should just be 100% banned along with all data brokering and all spyware).
Italian here. Italy is a net contributor to the EU budget so it's nice to know that despite all our problems we still manage to be useful to the whole Union, even if we're the stupidest member inside of it (besides Hungary of course) and we've been stagnating for more than 30 years. I'm grateful for the EU because it keeps Shitalians pliant and doesn't let them act out and ruin our country like we've been doing since 1861.
@@ashokathegreat4534 I don't hate Italy. It's a beautiful country and I see myself living here forever, honestly. Despite all its problems (and the low salaries), it's still a European country. However, Italy is also full of stupid people, old people, and stupid old people. And they're too many for us to just wait till they die off. So we're stuck having to put up with them and their shenanigans. This is what irks me the most.
I really enjoy the format of these videos, they really feel like essays, with how they spell out what they'll discuss, discuss it, and at the end recap it. Very refreshing from the more off the cuff essays you find on TH-cam.
I don't think the EU doesn't have big tech sector because of regulations. They would have big tech companies if they banned foreign tech companies like China does.
We don't have a big tech sector because, comparatively, the U.S. not only offers far greater wages, but the U.S. also have far lower energy prices (among other things). There's little point for IT experts to stick around when they can make more money elsewhere, and where regulations aren't as crippling to growth in the tech sector to begin with.
Compared to China and the US, the EU has better laws to protect workers, such as more vacation days, a better healthcare system, etc. These soft-pull factors attract skilled workers to move to the EU. Some member states such as Germany benefit greatly from this influx of skilled workers.
@@icu17siberiathere is still private hospitals here, if people travel for non life threatening procedures its to save money so they go to a cheaper place
Those 142 billion USD for the EU budget *do not* go into administrative functions but quite well-directed where they are needed to support regional development, subsidize agriculture, as well as support research & development. It's very odd that this gets completely misinterpreted in this video.
Yes, but what research and development? Money is power and the EU budget mostly is about the Commissioners exercising power. It would make more sense if the EU just finances the admistrative stuff and maybe some funds for the lesser rich member states
The United States started as a mess of an union between 13 colonies turned states which later on had to fight a big war over slavery, yet the United States is much stronger today than had it separated into smaller states. A united Europe is an idea worth fighting for, and it is a project that was paved with the millions of deaths of the Second World War, that shall not come to an end. Without an united Europe, Ukraine wouldn't have had as much aid for one
Your explanation of fungible in this video about corn and wires as opposed to planes and cars has been the first time I actually understood what “fungible” really means. You had entire videos, and there are entire articles related to this topic that make the term more convoluted than understandable. I’m not sure if this is a compliment or not, but thank you for managing to explain a term in 10 seconds after years of trying to explain it in other ways.
I love how you mentioned Romania a few times throughout this video. Maybe you will make a dedicated video about Romania in the future? It has a fascinating economy which really overperforms in some areas and really underperforms in others
EXCELLENT point at the very end! Obviously economists look at things like the bottom line and yes, tech booms really help out (financially) a small portion of society but failure and success in life cannot be measured just in dollars and cents. Living in the EU offers great cultural growth and things like heathcare and retirement are much more secure than in the US. sure not as lucrative but much fewer people are left behind.
What cultural growth? Also, US Healthcare is a very low bar. Western Europe (including non-EU countries) has a high living standard because the US gov helped them while neglecting their own citizens
Funny how the designer of your maps can never make up their mind whether Slovakia is in the EU, but is absolutely clear that the Balearic islands are not.
Funny that you think Spotify is more important than SAP. Also, the basic assumption behind that video is incorrect, a mistake americans and other non EU citizens always make. The EU is not an economic project. It is a political project that aims at preventing another war between member states by strongly merging the economies. Guys like you sometimes forget, money isn't everything.
Why is it that the World Bank’s 2019 GDP/capita data (available on their website) show completely different numbers than what you had on the video??? You guys do know LLMs tend to hallucinate, right???
Idea for my next video: take any mildly federal country (such as Australia) and ask if it is still worth it. For the thumbnail, paint areas that are more populous and mildly richer in green and all the rest in red. Lol
Macroeconomers hate the answer but as a European the EU is invaluable. Having the freedom to be able to visit anywhere, move anywhere, study anywhere is invaluable. Just last year my gf moved from across the Baltic sea and the process was almost painless. Just slightly more paperwork than moving nationally. If we had to wrangle with visas and green cards we probably wouldn't be able to live the life we are currently. So to me the EU is worth it. I mean grrrrr happiness isn't an economic output
Yeah, sure, the EU economy is not booming as the US one but that's only because in Europe we actually have work life balance and worker protection regulations, mostly enforced by the EU and we also have health care that's more affordable which of course will have a bit of an impact on the economy and we have legislation protecting our data which yes, makes tech companies less likely to thrive here for stealing data. But all of that is good. I'd take Europe's economy anyday over the chaos that is US.
As a Polish Citizen, EU is the best thing that have ever happened to us, nobody from United Kingdom, France or US can even imagine what sort of a difference EU brought to Poland. To give you a perspective, before Joining EU, Polish PKB per capita was lower than that of Ukraine, now some speculate Poland will overtake United Kingdom's economy by 2050.'s
[The EU promotes and enforces stakeholder capitalism for the collective good] "...and sometimes that's more important than headline economic figures that only really benefit a small handfull of highly skilled workers and already-wealthy capital investors." Well said, good to see you have a solid grasp on the nature of the thing you study and comment on.
The US is the place to be if you want to be rich, The EU is the place to be if you want to be happy. Many would say that quality of life of it's citizens is a far better indicator of a nations prosperity than financial profitability. Economists though rarely see that.
Social mobility has never been high in the US, the "American dream" has always been propaganda. Social mobility says something about how likely it is that you'll be richer than your parents, and how much richer, in Denmark that is *far* more likely and far higher than the US. Sure, there's many more millionaires and billionaires in the US than elsewhere, but that's still not within most people's reach, other than by sheer luck.
@@jesperburns The US has a higher median household net worth and a lower median disposable household income to median home price ratio than the entire EU. It is far easier to go from the renter class to the homeowner class in the US than in the EU. Also, mortgages in every EU country (except France and Belgium) are typically variable rate mortgages that can spike at any given moment due to rates going up (see what's happening right now) in the US it's almost exclusively 30 & 15-year fixed rates.
@@good8072 As I have already typed out, social mobility is concerned with where you start out in life versus where you end up. I made no comment about housing or mortgages, but the "housing crisis" is very new (~2016 onward I guess) and I admit that I have not read any recent studies. Not sure where you got that from but there's more countries where fixed mortgage rates are the norm, like Germany or the Netherlands (where I'm from). Adjustable mortgage rates like in Italy were usually fine because they'd on average still be lower, not sure how that is today - how often it spikes. In Eastern Europe, house ownership is also north of 80% most of the time - much higher than the US. In fact, I think only Switzerland, Austria and Germany have lower home owner rates than you. _"It is far easier to go from the renter class to the homeowner class in the US than in the EU"_ Considering the numbers, I doubt that's true but if it is, only very recently. And home ownership is a very narrow and hard to compare picture.
@@good8072 What good is homeownership if that wealth is taken away once you retire? Super common in the US. If you end up getting really sick, good luck. You'll need it.
Nowadays, language is not a barrier, especially when discussing technology, where the EU is lagging behind. Bureaucrats in the EU often use this to justify the problems that regulations and taxes are causing for the economy.
Re: large EU tech companies, SAP comes immediately to mind, and in many industries they are seen as a much more trustworthy and reliable entity than Oracle.
@@Mo-mu4er not sure i'd call it a miss, just misphrased. There are EU tech companies. They are old established ones, not huge consumer startups. And they are focused on b2b in narrow niches that grew out of local needs and went global. There is no equivalent of San Jose CA in the EU.
nokia and siemens are only behind huawei in 5g, we work more in b2b than b2c nowadays, fintech is been quite suceessfull here. We can´t have silicon valey we because we would need to agree in one country,so instead we have various mini silicon valeys.
Another pseudo serious video. The EU is THE single most important reason why Europe is thriving. For us here in Poland, joining the EU was like development on lightspeed. Everyone who tells the opposite doesn't know reality
2:51 Im not sure where you get your maps, but Slovakia is part of EU since 2004. These things can really undermine the reliability of the rest of the information, so please pay attention to details.
7:09 I wonder why NY is fairly green, most of the NY state economy is in NYC, which is very wealthy and I would imagine pays way more taxes than it recieves in benefits, and I can say based on my grandparents' farm in upstate NY, the government certainly isn't pouring money into the rest of the state
The EU has been great for the centralization of control which allows them to enact changes across all its countries instead of having to deal with individual leaders and their pesky people that want to govern their own countries. Plus, it makes it a lot easier to destroy Europe once all the pieces are in place.
I am proud to be french but I am also very proud that as europeans we are able to put a good use to our ancestors' heritage of history. The EU is a geopolitical marvel, the last time something like this happens is when the USA became a nation state with a totally new system of governance, hundreds of years ago, the EU is even more ambitious but still very young it will take generations before it comes to maturity.
Well, I disagree. Being a new or complex thing doesn't make anything a marvel. The EU had its best time in the 2000s up until the financial crisis. From there on things have deteriorated
Didn't you just state in a recent program that consumers willingly pay more for the same product if it's 'made in Germany' for a car for example? Which contradicts your statement here that consumers will go for the lowest price for products which causes a loss to the country with thr more expensively-produced car.
But a lot of the "made in Germany" cars aren't. BMW and Mercedes build cars in several countries, including the USA. Economists always make assumptions.
That's only in certain areas, such as EU foreign policy and constitutional matters (e.g. FTAs and new members). Most executive decisions are made by the Commission, while legislation is made by qualified majority between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
Yeah, lets avoid solving the disagreement, right? It was made so the EU cannot be used **against** any of its members. Pushing laws on members can be seen as one such example when EU is acting **against** one or more national governments that were voted in by the people of the country **the national government** is supposed to lead. EU does need some kind of control, but it should be nowhere near to total. Yeah, some people want to keep their country and it's nothing bad about that.
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Your videos are amazing
Germany a winner??? Germany is the biggest looser in the EU. We pay for everything and support financially our own competitors.
Something is not right with the values, 3,27... You may be reffering to euro's and not dollars, I am not sure, or you are using 2011 usd..
Funny that you think Spotify is more important than SAP.
Also, the basic assumption behind that video is incorrect, a mistake americans and other non EU citizens always make. The EU is not an economic project. It is a political project that aims at preventing another war between member states by strongly merging the economies.
Guys like you sometimes forget, money isn't everything.
SAP, Software AG, Marsek, Airbus.
Life is too short to understand complex reasoning behind everything. Just blame Belgium and move on
That's my boi.😂
and Canada
HEY! I grew up and LIVE in Belgium!!!!
And I'll have you know
that i agree.
yes
I agree. 😤👍
You forgot the biggest con-
Without the endless European wars of continental hegemony, history youtube channels aren't going to have any content 200 years from now!
Consider the religious aspects instead.
2000 years from now, a group of dwarfs will sail to New Zealand pretending it's their homeland.
And as a proof for that, they will show their holy book: "The Lord of the Rings". 😤
@@danielefabbro822New Zealand is the holy land.😂
Don't worry the west is destroying itself by allowing outside cultures that do not fit flood them, the wars will be back soon enough.
@@FictionHubZA it is written in the holy scriptures. 😤👍
Don't worry, they've very good at covering the same topics again and again.
I'm puzzled by the fact that the difference between EU and Euro zone was not drawn in the video. Not all EU countries use Euro and have ECB as their central bank. They create their own monetary policy. That makes some conclusions fall short on reality.
In my opinion the conclusions are mostly still valid.
Some scandinavian countries with a great economy like Sweden don’t use it, while some east countries have an economy that doesn’t match the criteria for Euro. Overall it’s likely not that great of a difference.
Also, most charts have only shown Euro countries when they talked about the Euro.
his knowledge of EU is sparse. Also, he failed to explain why Greece is worse off than Germany while having the same currency. And calling that Romania auto wire industry and agriculture(!) are fungible while Germany's auto industry isn't, while auto industry is amongst the most fungible
@@crimsonlightbinderbecause stronger economies have stronger currency. Germany would have a high values currency. Greece would have a middle value currency. On a dollar basis. This give Germany an advantage with having an undervalued currency and Greece a disadvantage with an overvalued. At least for export.
I work in manufacturing and the EU regulations are actually an advantage instead of a disadvantage. Having the same regulations in the entire EU means you don't have to modify your products to suit each individual nation's regulations. The diversity of languages is also mentioned as a disadvantage but I don't personally experience that at all. The most understood language within the EU is English and that is the language that is spoken when working internationally. Our company has offices and manufacturing plants in the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, France, India and many more nations and communication really isn't a big issue.
As he pointed out, manufacturing is the yoke holding Europe down. Technology businesses are much, much easier to expand. Technology does not require the raw materials, labor and capital machinery that manufacturing requires to achieve growth any large amount. Data is cheap and easy. Manufacturing is costly and messy. The EU missed the boat on technology by clinging to quality manufacturing when people prefer the cheap China products because of price. We will see in a century if the EU made the right choice but for now, growth is king not quality of product.
That is good for established players but too much regulation makes it hard for new players to even start which is what stifles innovation and competitiveness. That said I think the main problem is the mechanisms to comply with those regulations (Paperwork, burocracy, low government digitalization) and especially explaining those regulations well to entrepreneurs so they can be sure they are not breaking any rules that will grant them big fines.
The language problem I don't think you grasped it fully. Yes, we can communicate with each other. But having a large pool of people that not only communicates but thinks in the same language is a big advantage, one that we don't have in Europe. I would add that the cultural boundaries between counties also add to this. We still think of individual countries and not in the EU as a whole. A great example is shipping. I live close to a border and the parcels I receive need to go to a distribution center deep in my country before arriving at my door even though I have a distribution center much closer to me, just on the other side of the border
@@toddtheisen8386 These are good points and I have nothing to add.
@@diogocarvalho2934 My experience is that these EU regulations are very clear and easy to work with. Government digitalization is, at least in the Netherlands, great. Whenever we need to comply to US regulations it's always a big hassle because you're dealing with organizations like the NFPA, the USDA and the FDA which all seem to be stuck in the past.
You are talking about business.There are ethnic divides that involve values not just language.Saying "language" is just a nice way of saying prejudice happens.
Odd, the most relevant Pro for the EU is not mentioned. Stability and countries not going to war with each other like they have done for centuries. If the price is mediocre economic growth i sign for that any day as Dutch citizen.
European union is not a novel diplomacy. Remember crusades? You guys were always supportive with each other when it comes to a common enemy. I’m pretty sure without a union Europeans would still not fight with each other in 21st century
The reason why the Europeans no longer go to war against each other has nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with the Pax Americana. The US is bigger than the entire EU in both economic and military measures. And the European empires are over (except the French Empire
It's not odd. For some reason, the question asked here is "What problems did the EU cause to its member countries?" It's right there in the summary. It's mind-boggling how this video can be called "Has the EU been good for Europe?".
@@user-je3sk8cj6gThe reason Pax Americana works is because of NATO and the EU. The EU has eliminated the bilateral allegiances which led to arms races in Europe. This has allowed the US to consolidate the military industry. Arms races between smaller powers that ballooned out of contrl happened even during Pax Britannica, so having a massive powerful player is not sufficient deterrant.
@@user-je3sk8cj6g The US did help to prevent war, but let's not kid ourselves, the EU had a massive impact in reducing the chance of war among EU members.
The entire idea of the Coal and Steel Community decades ago was to pool those resources together as one so as to make it far harder to go to war with each other as it would be harming your own interest.
So the Americans did help to stabilise things in the early days after the second world war, but the EU has had a massive impact of making it almost impossible for EU countries to go to war with each other.
Thumbnail is ridiculous - Poland, Sweden, Czechia, Spain, Croatia have benefitted massively from the EU's cash injections. Arguably more than even France, which has been stagnating for the last 15 years, while Poland for example has been the fastest growing economy in the bloc.
and for me (as a citizen of a country paying more into the EU than getting back from it) it's worth it.
seeing the transformation of Poland from being a puppet under the USSR to a nation worthy of being called a First world nation, shows what the EU is about.
lifting up the people in Europe to a common high level of quality of live. and everyone in Europe deserves that.
and even looking at it form a purely economical point of view.
if those nations get richer they will buy more stuff from the more developed European nations. so in time the nations paying more than the get back will get their investment back.
France inject 25+ billions in the EU system in 2021, and it's going up. Also the EU electricity market have destroyed french competitive advantage of extremely clean and cheap electricity from nuclear energy.
Include Ireland please, 3rd world country before joining the EU and now one of the most well off. I'm from Ireland
@@kk22383 don't be ludicrous, if Ireland was a 3rd world country before joining the EU, then Congo, Myanma or Somalia are literally 20th world countries
Sweden is not getting more money from the eu than they give to the eu. Sweden was the fourth richest country in the world before joining the eu. Now sweden is an average european country
Brits, Americans and Australians always forget this little point when they predict the demise of the euro....the people want it. Surveys show 80% + of people want to keep the currency, including in countries hit by crisis like Greece and Italy. Ultimately the euro is about both politics and economics - not just economics. If the people have faith and ascribe value to it, then it will "exist".
The main negative about the EU as a construct is that it undermine the sovereinty of member states ... especially the "poorest" ones and is overall bad for democracy imo: How can non-democraticaly elected personalities make and approve decisions that undermine the opinion of democratically elected people in their own "sovereign" state?
Also the EU is devolving into the "United State of Europe" as they have an army (NATO), economic zone and a "parliament" ... this is not a positive as the EU behave itself as a "vassal state" of the U.S.A and actively defend US interest ...not EU interest!
@@ulrichleukam1068 You are wrong. For example, in Switzerland people vote on everything, except on their federal Government. They cannot remove people from the government nor vote people in. Everything is decided by the Parliament and are not related with the elections in any way. Most decisions are made by the Kantons, just like the different EU members states, and then the Federal Governemnt makes a few big decisions, just like the EU central government.
It doesn't matter if the people want it if it's unsustainable.
@@ulrichleukam1068 The European Parliament is democratically elected. The councils consist of ministers and heads of states elected through each country's national election system. You are factually incorrect.
NATO and the EU are completely different things. There are individual countries, inside and outside the EU, that cater to more US interests than they should. That has nothing do to with the union.
I think the real issue is that people see things in a short term lens, the Euro being a new currency, any slight problems and the septics are quick to jump on it and make it seem like it's going to fall apart.
The reality is, there's no risk to the Euro, the people want it, the EU wants it, and it's just a matter of making the Euro more effective for its members in boosting economic growth, which that takes time.
As a romanian, an EU citizen, the union has been the best thing that has happened to us.
Would love an explanation!
Yes if you are in Bucharest...or west of the mountains.
For the rest of us it's just more bullshit laws and nothing else.
@@Lelende it's a positive force against corruption. That alone makes the EU a net positive in Romania.
Exact same situation for Ireland. We've been absolutely thriving thanks to the EU. We've gone from practically being a third world country to being one of the richest countries in the world and much of that success is due to the EU.
@@verigumetin4291 oh you sweet innocent soul, hahaha
Seriously guys is it that hard to get the EU map right? It's wrong on numerous occasions and animations.
The map is not the only thing that is wrong in this video.
@@sagichnicht6748 But how to fix a disturbed mindset?
Slovakia should be in. Where else is it wrong?
@@sbackhaus I saw Turkey in one of the EU maps shown..
@@sbackhaus Balearic islands which belong to Spain aren’t included in the EU zone at the first EU map
I usually love the videos here but this oe mixes the concepts of EU and Eurozone too much to make sense, if it weren't for few sentences I would think they got the tittle wrong and were talking about just the common currency.
Indeed, this video would have made sense if it had been about the pros and cons of the Euro. But talking about the EU as if without the EU there would have been a single state with a single language and a single market (and peace) is utterly silly.
@@ronald3836 Looks like Euro bashing from someone who cannot control his jalousie.
VERY strange to say the companies now have to adhere to an extra set of regulations in the EU over how it used to be. its gotten SO MUCH easier, that was the entire point and it worked
And those regulations enhance huge corporations while destroying small businesses
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890 Because of rapidly developing globalization, huge companies would win even faster, had there been no regulations!
I can order my socks through internet in Greece, Finland or Portugal and they will be in the post the next day. Why shop in my village fashion store? And with CE certification I know what I get.
yup. one of the biggest advantages in fact...instead of every country having it's own set of standards. we consider advantages and disadvantages and pick one.
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890
"And those regulations enhance huge corporations while destroying small businesses"
That is completely wrong.
Being outside the single market favours large businesses against small businesses.
Look at how hard it is for small businesses in the UK to export to the EU after Brexit. Many are just giving up or going bust.
On the other hand large businesses can employ staff to handle the extra work required to sell to each individual country. Because if you;re outside the EU single market and comply with the regulations to sell into Spain, that doesn't allow you to sell into France, you have to fill in extra forms for France.
Being inside the EU single market means that any small business in the EU can sell to anyone in the EU single market, without having to fill in forms to comply with each individual country's regulations. That is the whole point of the EU single market.
Which is why small companies in the UK that used to sell into other European countries before Brexit, are now giving up or going bust, because they have to fill in forms for each individual country, which they didn't have to do before.
@@JohnSmall314 Large business can just open a subsidiary within the single market, like Apple and all the other "Irish" tech companies. That way, you only need the bureaucracy to import components to that subsidiary, because you can have that subsidiary focus on single market compliance and exporting the finished product to the single market.
I’m Nigerian & I wish the African Union or even ECOWAS was as effective as the E.U . The E.U doesn’t get enough credit IMO.
ECOWAS brought the civil war in Liberia to a halt in 1990. Starting a couple of years later, the EEC/EU was not effective in the Bosnian war.
EU despite being a collection of highly educated nations has missed the last tech revolutions, no big social medias platform, no big IA systems, no big semiconductor manufacturer, it goes on and on....
@@Kabodanki The EU has ASML which make ALL other tech-industries possible. The EU also had plenty of social media platforms before facebook even existed. it had ebay's before ebay was a thing ect.
But they were all local, and so smaller, and then the much bigger American companies came along and destroyed them, either by buying them, or undercutting them until they could no longer survive. And those US companies were allowed to get that big because US anti-trust regulators have been asleep at the wheel for decades.
Having a single company dominate a market is not a good thing. But as the US is unwilling to act, the EU has to.
@@Kabodanki ASML is founded and based in Netherlands.
@@Kabodanki Europe didn't miss it, it was all destroyed by US companies that were allowed to get far bigger then is healthy for the market because US anti-trust has been asleep at the wheel.
2:52 Slovakia is missing in EU map :(
Lucky Slovakia.
It should be Hungary. We do not need them, anyways.
something something upper hungary
@@suspecm6316 cringe
Sloxit
The map at 3:23 showing the GDP PER capita for european union countries is completely wrong. In what world is Poland’s GDP less than 10k$?
And since when is Spains gdp higher than Germany?
I see that the source is world bank but check your sources man.
The answer is: Yes, absolutely. It brought prosperity and unity on a continent that up to that point was a global center for wars for over a millenia. Sure it's not perfect...but which organisation is? It brings prosperity and improvement to life not only in Europe but all over the world, since if anyone wants to sell products to EU they have to follow EU standards and since it's pointless to have separate production lines for local and EU markets, local populations of those countries also benefit from better quality products.
USSR 2000000.0… the USSR was an absolute shithole country
Anectodal argument:
even the states (governements) that despise the EU and what it stands for (Progress, Equality, Rights, Democracy etc) dont dare to leave it:, Orban in Hungary, PIS in Poland and that russia-lover in Czechia
Sure they bark all the time about eurogays and stuff, but they quietly enjoy all the prosperity of the EU and all stick to populist argumetns but dont actually act. even Sultan Erdogan the Great and the west balkans all try to get into the EU.
Brexit sure did teach everyone a very valuable lesson.
EU is the most popular statecollection i can think of.
USSR had to annex neighbour countries with tanks and shoot citizens trying to leave it, now all these coutnries join voluntarily.
Its truly THE bastion of progress and democracy of our time.
@@blitzerblazinoah6838 Yea, sure ignore the millions of deaths, forced relocations to Siberia, millions of political prisoners and a stagnate and backwards economy that could not provide the most basic needs to it's population.
@@pintiliecatalin oh don't you worry, the EUSSR will soon get around to doing all that themselves.
@@blitzerblazinoah6838
You know full well you've suffered a case of misidentification and don't want to admit it 😂
Yeah as other people say it has it's pros and cons. As a Greek, many people argue it has destroyed us further, although in everyday life, travelling, career opportunities etc, you see and feel the privileges that it provides.
Greece should be taken with a puthc of salt. As they entered to the EU without beeing on point with econòmics, Greece crisis would have been a lot less important if it had waited a few years to join as expected
@@joelimbergamo639 You do not know what you're talking about. Greece joined the EU in 1981 (before Spain and Portugal, being the 10th member of the EEC) by being completely ok regarding the requirements. The whole "cooking the books" part was in regards to the Eurozone, not the EU as a whole. And keep in mind, that "cooking the books" was a usual economic practice at the time, other Southern EU states also "cooked the books" and the governments of other major EU countries (Kohl and Miterrand for example) were aware of it but what mattered at the time was the expansion of the Eurozone. If Greece hadn't joined in 2002 (as well as the other Southern countries and Ireland in 1999) they would've joined just a few years later. It wasn't that hard, for example newer EU members joined pretty quickly and with no problems (like the Baltics).
I'm not sure though if the Greek government could have maintained it's previous politics for decades, if it didn't join the EU
Same feeling in Slovakia. Many people here have anti-EU opinions (and unfortunately it goes hand in hand with pro-russian narratives), while enjoying the higher standard of living, travelling, better job opportunities etc etc
Imagine: would Greece be better off, if it wasn't in the EU?
your table at 3:24 is wrong and old
EE doesnt care
he shows the data is from 2019 and that the data is purely to show GDP per capita discrepancy across the EU countries... not exact figures
It still wrong even then polish and lithuanian gdp pc was higher than that of romania and hungary and still they were marked as porer
Exactly@@shhdj2671
@@tmoosy yet it's still completly wrong
Did I miss the ending? The video kinda just trails off. "The Euro is a double edged sword" makes it sound equal.
This video is brought through AI 🤖 so… that’s normal it misses the end and doesn’t answer the question of titles for awhile now…
Something being a double-edged sword does not imply that the pros and cons are equal, it only means that there are distinct pros and cons and that it's not entirely good or bad.
No idea where the AI comments come from. They have too much to lose from pivoting hard into AI content generation, as I doubt AI is particularly good at explaining economics.
@@Hotshot2k4 watch all the 5-7 past video and you will see the difference of the script. It’s all AI written now
@@jasminrausier I already watched them, and they didn't seem particularly different from videos before that. So no, it isn't all AI. That's ridiculous.
@@Hotshot2k4 So you can’t make the difference obviously 🙄no need to answer and waste time
Germany built their entire modern economy on the EU... yes they pay a lot of money but they got everything from it.
And Russia and China. 😒
Yes and then they fax the results to us.
So? They were efficiënt in maximising its positive aspects. Which can not be said about a lot of the southern European countries who continuesly vote for short term politicians who neglect long-term apsects such as the economy.
@@cmath6454so you purposely avoided to mention the US.
@@guus5504 It's not just Germany, it's basically the entire Northern half of the EU as opposed to the South.
While in the short-terms EU regulations seem to be limiting and disadvantageous, they support long-term sustainable economy. For example, just compare Boeing and Airbus! Having US government backing them in every incident, Boeing lost a culture of innovation and ethical business, which in short run helped them dominate the global and local market, but today even local all-Boeing carriers are looking for Airbus models for their future developments! EU sure has a lot to do to keep up to its vision and promise, but it definitely is a positive force in today's world.
Positive for who?
@@Stoddardian the entire world to soms extent. A tri-polar world is better than a bipolar one for sure.
@@Mahdisabamehr I don't care about the world. I care about Europe. I'm a European first and foremost. And tripolar? The EU has no power projection whatsoever. It's a collection of American vassal states.
You are missing an important point regarding the regulations on businesses. Before the foundation of EU every European country had its own set of regulations which made it practically impossible to export to other countries, as you would have to adjust your product, your marketing, etc, etc. to each and every country's separate set of regulations. What is happening now is not that there is one set of national regulation and on top of that EU regulation. The system is set up so that regulation which is passed through the European Parliament has to become implemented into the regulations of every single country in the EU. This has greatly increased business opportunity and smoothed competition in Europe.
Ergo the lack of innovation. Smoothing is bad, not good.
It also lowered the quality of products.
@@Wendeta-hq2cp Give an example.
Before EU harmonisation, countries would set up their own laws to try to benefit their own industry. By having uniform regulations, the market becomes much more free, which is good for competition and innovation.
@@ronald3836
AI passed the EU by. Robot tech is behind in comparison to US and China etc.
Military is behind RU of all countries for crying out loud!
@@ronald3836
Having each set of regulations means each country can flourish, which means local markets have room to grow to the point that the regulations of another country would not be a problem.
The Harmonisation just made it easier for US and CN to take over, meaning that we barely produce our own stuff.
The E U is behind on AI, robotics, mili tary tech, social media platforming, streaming etc. etc.
Did poor Slovakia get kicked out of the EU?
@@blitzerblazinoah6838npc moment.
Yeah, they're too poor for the EU.
@@mikitz As a Bulgarian, should I get worried?
Look more closely -- I think they kicked out Czechia as well.
Yes, thank God.
The thumbnail suggested a breakdown for the winners and the losers. Would've been interesting.
The thumbnail is clickbait
The thumbnail coloured Ireland as one of the losers.
Ireland was a poor ex-colony before it and the UK joined the EEC in the 1970s. It has been transformed into a wealthy nation since becoming a member.
@@alphamikeomega5728 It's been transformed into a wealthy nation by defrauding other members, and non-members too. Ftfy
@@alphamikeomega5728 It's been transformed into a wealthy nation by cheating other members, and non-members too. Ftfy
Makes me want to not watch his future videos due to his clickbait thumbnail, I'd always watch his videos but there's no need to mislead viewers
Romania and Bulgaria are not yet full Schengen members, while Croatia joined just last year. This imply huge costs for businesses compared to those within the Schengen area.
This is something that should be kept in account.
Unironically, the EU in its current stage is very similar to what the US founding fathers saw for the federal government -- relatively small (by budget) and mostly pro-people (by legislation). And that was achieved in much more difficult circumstances -- dozens of different languages and deeply established national cultures with millennia long of "toxic" historical baggage. While the GDP numbers are in favor of US for various reasons, the economic inequality and tax burden is far higher, the corporate special interests has captured most of the regulatory institutions with all the consequences for the average citizen. Still America is the land of opportunity by many metrics for anyone with entrepreneurial spirit and motivation, but the scope for success has definitely shrunk quite a bit.
And a wide open Southern border flooding both polities with illegals.
It's even funnier. The EU is way more cohesive and stable than the early US of A, even though the latter was supposedly created from scratch. There are actually policital science papers on that topic.
No, it isn't like the US of the founding fathers. The EU is an institution that influences the politics of its rather diverse member countries. Also, if one talks about inequality one should also consider the inequality of all EU countries seen together, which most likely is rather big
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890 the inequality within europe is the same as between us states
One aspect you did not touch on is the reduction in European wars the EU likely prevented, especially between major powers like France and Germany. In Canada, this was the major benefit we were taught when discussing the creation of the EU. It creates a situation where any European country declaring war on another, basically declares war on themselves economically. The US does not have a history of states constantly waring with each other for land and resources the way the EU does, from the beginning the US viewed itself as a collective, where as the EU got pushed into it by economic convenience.
NATO has been the ultimate guarantor of stability and peace within Europe since 1945
The EC / EEC / EU in comparison likes to claim credit when in reality it’s deserving of none. The EU cannot even agree a unified approach to supplying arms to Ukraine and its approach to non member states such as Switzerland is bullying and discriminating.
Now the EU doesn’t know what to do except fall apart in the face of the growing threat from Russia and mixed signals from US politicians along with blundering approach of punishing the U.K. post Brexit that caused the population there to care little if the Baltics or the EU’s South Eastern flanks are invaded.
The EU was always out of its depth trying to be world power without the military might to back it up. It’s snobbish attitude to its two main nuclear powers USA and England that guaranteed its survival is now questionable. The unspoken reality is neither the US or England will rush to shed blood for Europe now. The EU should have stuck to setting farming quotas and organising song contests. Realpolitik was always beyond them.
This might have an effect on the periphery, but I don't think there's any situation in which the larger Western European countries going to war with each other in the past 70 years.
This is exactly why the EU is important. To stop wars in Europe.
No. Wars were reduced by MAD not the EU.
Actually, he alluded to this when he said that the EU has acted as a stabilizing force in European affairs.
"Has eating vegetables actually been good for your body?"
interesting question actually
I think you may have missed the biggest positive of the EU, it effectively made it impossible for France and Germany to wage war with one another. THIS alone is worth having the EU.
Yeah, the biggest point of the EU was making it financially suicide to wage war with other members.
Just the prevention of wars makes the whole thing worth it alone.
germany no longer invests much into their military so france still would have nothing to worry about
Yes, it has been a huge succes in that aspect, but that was almost 80 years ago. If the EU would collapse this wouldnt mean tensions between them would rise again. England has left the EU, this doens't mean that tensions with France has started to rise, if anything, they have been lower.
@@guus5504 wrong
@@guus5504 You're telling me that the UK *hasn't* become a fascist, imperialist, far right, gaslight, gatekeep girlboss after Brexit? That's not what the Guardian told me!
Well, that EU is not as economically competitive, that's true. Yet, unlike other countries, EU is valued for its stability, regulations and standards of living. If EU never happened, I doubt that would have been the case.
But standards of living are declining fast and demographics and brain drain will accelerate this unless real changes are made.
@@ocanica3184 Declining fast, compared to where exactly?
@Bozebo Compared to itself couple years ago
@@BozeboFor example Real-term wages are still below their 2008 average despite higher inflation and greater cost of living across most of western Europe. This issue is getting worse with an ageing population and a smaller tax base to support vital functions of government. And to answer your question, compared to the US
The EU is not a country
Your video contains several inaccurate things presented as facts. Not all countries in the EU actually have Euro as their currency. The EU is nothing like the US in terms of organization or economy, this is why a USE is such a hard thing to achieve. Maps are also not accurate as someone else mentioned already. And you forgot to mention that for most of the East European countries the alternative to EU is Russia. And that says it all in terms of how good the EU is for smaller countries. I’m almost inclined to think that this is a video that covertly helps the Russian narrative. I really hope it’s an honest mishap, not a deliberate one.
A lot of things in his videos are often quite wrong lol
He spends half the video talking about why the single market has been difficult to achieve.
And no, the alternative to the EU is not 'Russia'. The EU is not protection against Russia, NATO is. The tone of language here is so patronising.
@@willbentley8856 The alternative to the EU IS Russia, at least for eastern countries. The fact that NATO is the protection, doesn't make NATO the alternative.
@@radue In what sense? Russia doesn't provide any economic opportunity, nor does it really have means to make Eastern Europe dependent on it that it doesn't already utilise.
@@willbentley8856 Russia does not have the power to make these countries dependent on it now, with the EU in place. They tried and still do, but can’t keep up. The open European market is just too attractive for businesses in those smaller countries. It’s hard for Russia to compete as an outsider because they have all kinds of taxes working against them and lack innovation. But with the EU out of the way and a country like Romania being on its own, they will immediately ‘flood the market’ with companies and brands that are just cheap clones of the original west european ones. A trip to Chisinau will reveal what all Eastern Europe would look like without the EU. A trip through Moldova now is like a trip through Romania 25 years ago.
What's important is the relative prosperity and happiness of the people, compared with USA etc. Mention that. Normal people don't care about GDP stats. This video doesn't answer the actual question in its title.
You're right about that.
However this channel is all about economics, so when it asked if the E.U is good or bad it's from an economic perspective therefore it actually does answer the question.
@@jaypea35 no, economics is a social science, so just regurgitating stats and graphs without the social element is only doing half a job
@@MabDarogan2 Again I agree with what you're saying but I think that you misunderstood me.
This channel is called Economics Explained, so when it address a subject, it will do so mostly from an economic perspective and yes even if sometimes it misses the big picture.
@@jaypea35 but he didn't come close to answering the question. It was all high level economic stats, with no link to anything meaningful on the ground. This is why people don't follow economics.
I'm from a country that's just been dragged out of the EU because the English wish they still had an empire. They're completely out of touch. So the title of this video sounded useful to me, but proved to be pointless. I gained nothing from it.
And more so, it makes the entire field of economics look pointless. As a biologist, the thought of producing a 13 minute video of stats and graphs with no meaningful conclusions is inconceivable. No biologist would think that stats and graphs are inherently interesting, because they aren't. So what's wrong with economists?
@@MabDarogan2Economists assume Economics is the meaning of life when it is in fact only a means to life.
For me, it was amazing when driving thinking I was in the North of France and actually being in the Netherlands, then drive a little bit further and then Germany. Trucks going and coming, and people carrying on with their lives, not thinking they are crossing borders several times per day. Of course, it's an opinion, but I think the EU has done a lot of good. I am sure the EU has drawbacks, and may need to change. With respect to different layers of laws, in general EU countries are very old, and many of them composed by different nations, i.e. here, the UK when it was a member, you might have some laws in Scotland, and different ones in England, but both aligned with the EU guidelines, so not an issue having the EU legislation on top, so commerce between countries is not really an issue.
You made it all the way through Belgium without noticing?
@@justsomeguy5103I'd be very shocked he didn't notice the roads improve entering the Netherlands
I know, but we can have that without the policy making. We really need to go back to being an economic alliance and that's it. No politiks so that we can make the rules according to our interests again.
I think people massively forget something that is explaining most of the current situation worldwide : Nearly none of developped country have seen any major growth for the past decade. Aging, being at capacity already, industry not having undergone any massive boom ... Most if not all of growth worldwide is : Developping economy catching up, and the humongous tech bubble that is anything but susainable
Except the US
@@julian5345See my previous comment : if you look at the US economy, none of their sector have seen growth any more impressive than the UE appart from two : tech, which is a hugely inflated bubble (even if worth a lot once it'll deflate) and healthcare, which, in the USA, is more of a tax system on the population than an actual industry
How come Poland is colored red at 3:26, when it has a GDP per capita of $18.7k?
It also has a higher GDP per capita than Romania, which is colored orange for >$15k
Both numbers are wrong
Poland 23.4k
Romania 20.1k
According to imf site
Your point with the euro currency is half true. Not all the EU member countries use it as national currency. Their bonds are at a higher premium than the countries using the euro. But also they have their own monetary policy which helps them.
And keeping your own monetary policy is good. Issuing bond with low premium can be stupid. Greece did it and it worked like getting addicted while being enabled to do so by other players
"A stabilizing force across the economic world" is exactly what I want to hear.
A large enough market force to play hardball with corporations with regulations good for the consumer, the enviroment, and slows down the boiling over power of big-tech. A tech crash would leave Europe mostly unphased.
The US and China are going to continue to bow down to corporate overlords, but if the EU stays strong, they will have to comply globally.
It's been said countless times that GDP does not equate to a happy and comfortable workforce, and it seems the collective of the EU understands that more then the US or China.
The biggest question I have left is how much does the US's military acting as "world security" effect the EU's options? The total-spending graph speaks a lot to that, and Eastern Europe has concerns entirely reliant on US support.
" A tech crash would leave Europe mostly unphased.", as a tecchie, I am also pretty sure we are over due a huge one, and it will mostly affect the big Chinese and American companies.
Without another Carrington event, there won't be any "tech crash", since it has become interwoven into our entire daily lives and economies. If you're referring to the stock market, the cycles are a well known process.
3:23 This map is deceiving. Portugal GDP per capita is 24.5K USD, in the map orange means >15K USD, so its not wrong (24.5K is higher than 15K) but Its deceiving because Portugal should be in blue or purple.
You meant 3:23.... Map is old (2019) and was painted by a world bank employee kid on a holiday homework.
@@ricardomartins1783 i did, thanks.
Talk about Slovenia (developed country) and Romania (quite quickly grow but still developing country) like similar economies is weird. The author used GDP for conparasion of countries, why so old data? I checked the used data and for example Czechia in 2019 - 23,664 dollars per capita. It could be in a different category so far... Purple no orange... On the other hand how could be Greece purple when It had according the same metric 19 144 dollars that year?
Slovenia is litterally smaller than Bucharest, you're right they are very different countries.
Not much different than comparing Mississippi with new jersey
@@Patson20 Mississippi and New Jersey are the same, both filled with blacks and braceros.
This is surprisingly surface level from what I usually expect of the channel
It is really not surprising at all. If you look at the comments at a lot of the videos you will see people validly disagreeing with the contents of the videos. I don't understand why the channel has such a high following at all.
@@csetircro hmm, perhaps I've missed on more recent videos but it used to be quite decent overall
@@ChangesOfTomorrow yeah there were some factually incorrect maps, but go see the video on the Roman empire and the comments there
You are forgetting the biggest pro is the regulatory bodies for customers which are awesome. Before legislation, we payed over one euro per minute for a phonecall home if we walked one km over the border of the neighbouring country. Now we pay the same as domestic rates in the whole of the EU. Same goes for data rates. Also food safety, agricultural toxins etc are very well regulated. It could never work this well within a single member state. And nature protection is also very well arranged.
Looks like you see cheaper phone calls as a massive plus for the EU ?
No I see good regulatory systems that protect customers as something totally awesome.
I am Greek and truly believe you got this map wrong. EU is good for Greece ! If Greece wasn't a member of the EU it would be a Country like Lebanon by now.
That’s because of joining the EEC in 1981 not because of the euro debacle. There’s a difference.
@@reggiebuffatwrong again! I am Greek, I feel our monetary policies while you can only read statistic lies, when A Greek Party forms our Government I know better than you, how much of our Country's future they are ready to sacrifice in order to please their voters-customers now. In other words I know better than you that in the case of Greece your map is wrong. Euro or Dollar , Bitcoin, or Ethereum , everything is better for Greece as long as Greece has small or better absolutely no way to enforce its own monetary agenda on its currency. In my point of view this is the best way for all FAILED States , not only Greece, failed States mustn't have their own currencies. Greece is a Country always better to have Euro instead of having its own currency no matter what.
@@Unisoft-data states like Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece but also France decrease the value of the Euro as they are service based economy in preponderance. This benefits exporters like Germany and the Netherlands. Your economy suffers from this, theirs benefits greatly because of this.
@@reggiebuffatCyprus is a Country even more based on services than Greece, but if you compare Greece and Cyprus you will find out that doesn't suffer as Greece does. NO, my friend , as I already told you ! Corruption is the problem of Greece and the currency the escape goat only.
@@Unisoft-data the EU does nothing with respect to corruption, that’s an internal cultural problem, it can only be solved internally by Greeks. EU is helpless to solve it.
10:40 SAP is one of the biggest ERP providers in the world (22.3% market share) and is a European tech company…
10:35 yes, there are few well-known european tech companies, but it's not like Spotify is the only one dominant outside the EU: SAP, Nokia, Ericson, ASML
I can say, EU is the best thing that has ever happened to Europe, for peace, stability, human rights , freedom of movement. Europe has never been more united
If you truly believe this, then I have a bridge to sell you in Eastern Ukraine
Ya, but the regulations are killing the economy, Europe completely missed the previous tech wave. Their first response to AI, something which will fundamentally change our economies, was to regulate it to death. If Europe doesn’t change direction fast, they will completely miss out on the AI revolution as well. They are basically regulating themselves into irrelevance. It could barely afford to miss the last tech wave, it won’t be able to afford to miss the AI one. Once that happens, what happens to all the social programs in Europe? They need a strong economy to function, and Europe just seems to be getting poorer and poorer
This is a joke. The EU has killed individual economic opportunity, created an unelected ruling class that actively hurts and suppresses its people, all while ruining household purchasing power and inflating living costs to those that resemble the USA. This was unheard of before the EU started ruining Europe. So sad....
If it was only for Europeans I would agree, but that's not the case. Every featherless biped can cross Europe's external borders and become " European". If the EU wants to survive this madness needs to end.
I wish! It's leaders ensured that we now have another continental blunder, so we have neither peace nor stability.
It's leaders are allowing those that do not subscribe to human rights enter unchecked, which is a problem of the freedom of movement.
We are currently more disunited as ever. Or, rather, we are the most united in ending this entire "Union" experiment!
Am I the only one who feels like EE has had a decrease in quality..?
Leftism does that.
oh the mighty have fallen here....videos have been absolutely flawed and automated recently
You're probably just getting smarter over the time. Economists never know what they're talking about xD
I don't think it was ever very good, but I agree it seems a bit more slap-dash.
@@blitzerblazinoah6838noooo "iT iS DeMoCrAtIc SoCialIsM" 😂😂
What I’m missing in the conclusion is the contrast between how European markets were functioning pre- and post EU. Because taken that into consideration the conclusion should be that the EU is, in fact, a net positive.
Another important point is that economic, political and social interdependence reduces the chance of future wars. The European Coal and Steel Community was also founded to prevent future wars. No wars also means no major economic delines due to that. So in the long run this fact makes the EU also pay of economically (in addition to the social factor of peace)
Dude, a little more research. Main reason for EU was to prevent future wars in Europe. Also, many countries in EU are don't use Euro. And Poland is in "loser" part of the map, but since we joined EU economic growth was quite good, thanks to common market access and EU funds.
Yep that was an odd part in this video. Poland is doing great. ++ Got a great new government in the last election. +++ Have built up the military to a super good level which will be needed and boost the status on Poland further when one of our neighbours will start a completely idiotic campaign of trying to regain lost territory. (I really wish that was not true but...)
@@Aibo-cx9gw which neighbor?
4:19 you explained fungible so that manufactured wire and commodity crops are interchangeable…well done
The Union has brought us peace, prosperity and power. It has made our continent stable and strong, united under a common flag while simultaneously protecting, promoting and cherishing our distinct cultures.
United in diversity. Those who miss the old european ways haven't experienced/suffered them.
What cultures, more exactly? Christianity is part of the culture of a few countries, yet it is put aside and isolated by the EU.
How about each country gets to celebrate **its own** culture? It's easy to celebrate a culture after dictating what it should be, isn't it?
@@Hardcore_Remixer The EU doesn't dictate any culture. Just as Countries don't dictate cultures. Customs and traditions are there and the only reason for the EU to counter them is if they defy core values. When it's a tradition to "cure" homosexuals for instance then taht tradition will be repressed. For good reason. But Bavarians celebrate Oktoberfest just as the French celebrate July the 14th.
@@DommTom And how about traditions which ignore the existence of more genders than there are s*xes?
Just tell it straight out that EU doesn't care about traditions and could turn against any of them if it becomes convenient to do so.
Thanks for tired and outdated slogans and cliches
As an Estonian, I am saddened by the fact that the two North European islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, are grayed out despite being part of the European Union.
Since I don't have to exchange money and I can sell goods over next door and safe to drink water is right I feel its a pretty good deal
Many people don't live in border areas and aren't privileged in terms of being able to travel much.
Also, good drinking water isn't related to the EU
@@qwertyuiopzxcvbnm9890 Universal health codes, traffic laws, security and economic benefits sounds all OK to me
This map from 3:28 is from when, l'm asking because it's not for sure from last decade.
The EU may not have dominant consumer tech companies but they have a much larger presence in B2B tech.
Larger than consumer, but probably still not larger than US by most measures. Only SAP comes to mind as a really big player from EU. Whilst many American companies like Microsoft and Amazon dominate both in B2C and B2B.
@@manicka111 EU companies tend to dominate their markets but have a lot less reach across different markets, and so usually don’t hit the company-wide scale of MS or Amazon. So you don’t see the trillion-dollar giants there, but, that doesn’t mean those aren’t great businesses, employing a ton of people, and making great profits.
The obvious example here is ASML dominating the lithography market, but I’d also flag elastic in search, and Nokia and Ericsson were both huge in communications before the waves of mergers and acquisitions (and windows phone debacle). Even SUSE is gaining in importance outside of their core EU customers, although that’s arguably more to do with red hats stumbles than anything else.
Mistral also needs a mention for defying everyone’s expectations and managing to seriously compete with both OpenAI and anthropic on a much smaller budget. (This is really the most impressive)
@@MikeGaruccio Ericson and Nokia are building hardware for 5g.
The analysis here was significantly weaker than in an average EE video: the title was provocative but the content did not deliver on the question. I appreciate the need for some simplification, but the EU is not the same as the Euro monetary zone. And high tech industry is not just software: there are incredibly strategic hardware investments with significant capital and marginal costs. Overall, I was deeply disappointed by the quality of analysis
Tech regulation in Europe has also never stifled any innovation. As someone in the space for over 20 years I can't think of a single example. Infact the regulation does not go far enough to allow more innovation (for example, nobody should have to compete with any company that makes money off tracking cookies at all, they should just be 100% banned along with all data brokering and all spyware).
Italian here. Italy is a net contributor to the EU budget so it's nice to know that despite all our problems we still manage to be useful to the whole Union, even if we're the stupidest member inside of it (besides Hungary of course) and we've been stagnating for more than 30 years.
I'm grateful for the EU because it keeps Shitalians pliant and doesn't let them act out and ruin our country like we've been doing since 1861.
Why you hate own countrey?
@@ashokathegreat4534 I don't hate Italy. It's a beautiful country and I see myself living here forever, honestly. Despite all its problems (and the low salaries), it's still a European country.
However, Italy is also full of stupid people, old people, and stupid old people. And they're too many for us to just wait till they die off. So we're stuck having to put up with them and their shenanigans.
This is what irks me the most.
Oh boy, that applies to Ireland too. The EU often saves us from ourselves 😂
I really enjoy the format of these videos, they really feel like essays, with how they spell out what they'll discuss, discuss it, and at the end recap it. Very refreshing from the more off the cuff essays you find on TH-cam.
I don't think the EU doesn't have big tech sector because of regulations. They would have big tech companies if they banned foreign tech companies like China does.
We don't have a big tech sector because, comparatively, the U.S. not only offers far greater wages, but the U.S. also have far lower energy prices (among other things). There's little point for IT experts to stick around when they can make more money elsewhere, and where regulations aren't as crippling to growth in the tech sector to begin with.
@@KonsaiAsTai Yup, if you want to work in IT almost everyone knows you move to the USA
Dude, of all the stock footage out there you somehow managed to find a reel from my home village. 8:10. It's surreal to see it like this so randomly.
Compared to China and the US, the EU has better laws to protect workers, such as more vacation days, a better healthcare system, etc.
These soft-pull factors attract skilled workers to move to the EU. Some member states such as Germany benefit greatly from this influx of skilled workers.
Workers haven't needed "protecting" in over half a century. The laws have gone too far towards socialism, and the economy is suffering for it.
@@icu17siberiathere is still private hospitals here, if people travel for non life threatening procedures its to save money so they go to a cheaper place
Fantastic video!
Informative AND visually educational 👌!
Those 142 billion USD for the EU budget *do not* go into administrative functions but quite well-directed where they are needed to support regional development, subsidize agriculture, as well as support research & development. It's very odd that this gets completely misinterpreted in this video.
Yes, but what research and development? Money is power and the EU budget mostly is about the Commissioners exercising power. It would make more sense if the EU just finances the admistrative stuff and maybe some funds for the lesser rich member states
why is Slovakia not marked on the map at 2:51
Anglo education system for ya.
noice@@Fr3nchFlag
@@Fr3nchFlag lol
Guys report the bots.
Let us see wether we can keep
the comment section free.
Who’s da bots 🤖
The bots won a long time ago. Can't stop them.
how do you spot bot accounts?
@@hugithordarsonyou must be new to TH-cam😂
@@hugithordarson what do you expect him to do?
The United States started as a mess of an union between 13 colonies turned states which later on had to fight a big war over slavery, yet the United States is much stronger today than had it separated into smaller states.
A united Europe is an idea worth fighting for, and it is a project that was paved with the millions of deaths of the Second World War, that shall not come to an end. Without an united Europe, Ukraine wouldn't have had as much aid for one
Your explanation of fungible in this video about corn and wires as opposed to planes and cars has been the first time I actually understood what “fungible” really means.
You had entire videos, and there are entire articles related to this topic that make the term more convoluted than understandable.
I’m not sure if this is a compliment or not, but thank you for managing to explain a term in 10 seconds after years of trying to explain it in other ways.
Why is Poland and Baltics red? Their growth has been completely astonishing?;it is hard to imagine that under taking without EU membership:)
I love how you mentioned Romania a few times throughout this video. Maybe you will make a dedicated video about Romania in the future? It has a fascinating economy which really overperforms in some areas and really underperforms in others
EXCELLENT point at the very end! Obviously economists look at things like the bottom line and yes, tech booms really help out (financially) a small portion of society but failure and success in life cannot be measured just in dollars and cents. Living in the EU offers great cultural growth and things like heathcare and retirement are much more secure than in the US. sure not as lucrative but much fewer people are left behind.
What cultural growth? Also, US Healthcare is a very low bar. Western Europe (including non-EU countries) has a high living standard because the US gov helped them while neglecting their own citizens
Funny how the designer of your maps can never make up their mind whether Slovakia is in the EU, but is absolutely clear that the Balearic islands are not.
Funny that you think Spotify is more important than SAP.
Also, the basic assumption behind that video is incorrect, a mistake americans and other non EU citizens always make. The EU is not an economic project. It is a political project that aims at preventing another war between member states by strongly merging the economies.
Guys like you sometimes forget, money isn't everything.
That 'again' on Greece defaults was just a mean shot 😅
Why is it that the World Bank’s 2019 GDP/capita data (available on their website) show completely different numbers than what you had on the video??? You guys do know LLMs tend to hallucinate, right???
Idea for my next video: take any mildly federal country (such as Australia) and ask if it is still worth it. For the thumbnail, paint areas that are more populous and mildly richer in green and all the rest in red. Lol
You forgot to mention a very important detail: not all EU countries use Euro. That complicates things even further.
0:04 Andorra is not in the EU, but uses the Euro.
Macroeconomers hate the answer but as a European the EU is invaluable. Having the freedom to be able to visit anywhere, move anywhere, study anywhere is invaluable. Just last year my gf moved from across the Baltic sea and the process was almost painless. Just slightly more paperwork than moving nationally. If we had to wrangle with visas and green cards we probably wouldn't be able to live the life we are currently. So to me the EU is worth it.
I mean grrrrr happiness isn't an economic output
Is this a reupload? Some of the data (like Russia being a preferential partner and bond prices) seem a bit outdated.
Like any gamble it's worked in many places and not so much in others. On the whole it's been good and the potential for the EU's future is very good.
What future? Economic growth is slow. Southern Europe is a mess and Eastern Europe is still depopulated
What's up with Slovakia missing in the 2:52 timestamp graphic?
and 8:59
Yeah, sure, the EU economy is not booming as the US one but that's only because in Europe we actually have work life balance and worker protection regulations, mostly enforced by the EU and we also have health care that's more affordable which of course will have a bit of an impact on the economy and we have legislation protecting our data which yes, makes tech companies less likely to thrive here for stealing data. But all of that is good. I'd take Europe's economy anyday over the chaos that is US.
Eh maybe if your France or Germany
And because Europe is currently in a proxy war with one of its largest markets and its main energy supplier…
Well done. Good and clear video!
As a Polish Citizen, EU is the best thing that have ever happened to us, nobody from United Kingdom, France or US can even imagine what sort of a difference EU brought to Poland. To give you a perspective, before Joining EU, Polish PKB per capita was lower than that of Ukraine, now some speculate Poland will overtake United Kingdom's economy by 2050.'s
Yep, you Poles are doing great - and got a nice new government + understand the threat we all face. Meaning +++ for Poland on all levels.
[The EU promotes and enforces stakeholder capitalism for the collective good] "...and sometimes that's more important than headline economic figures that only really benefit a small handfull of highly skilled workers and already-wealthy capital investors." Well said, good to see you have a solid grasp on the nature of the thing you study and comment on.
The US is the place to be if you want to be rich,
The EU is the place to be if you want to be happy.
Many would say that quality of life of it's citizens is a far better indicator of a nations prosperity than financial profitability. Economists though rarely see that.
Social mobility has never been high in the US, the "American dream" has always been propaganda.
Social mobility says something about how likely it is that you'll be richer than your parents, and how much richer, in Denmark that is *far* more likely and far higher than the US.
Sure, there's many more millionaires and billionaires in the US than elsewhere, but that's still not within most people's reach, other than by sheer luck.
@@jesperburns The US has a higher median household net worth and a lower median disposable household income to median home price ratio than the entire EU. It is far easier to go from the renter class to the homeowner class in the US than in the EU. Also, mortgages in every EU country (except France and Belgium) are typically variable rate mortgages that can spike at any given moment due to rates going up (see what's happening right now) in the US it's almost exclusively 30 & 15-year fixed rates.
@@good8072 As I have already typed out, social mobility is concerned with where you start out in life versus where you end up.
I made no comment about housing or mortgages, but the "housing crisis" is very new (~2016 onward I guess) and I admit that I have not read any recent studies.
Not sure where you got that from but there's more countries where fixed mortgage rates are the norm, like Germany or the Netherlands (where I'm from).
Adjustable mortgage rates like in Italy were usually fine because they'd on average still be lower, not sure how that is today - how often it spikes.
In Eastern Europe, house ownership is also north of 80% most of the time - much higher than the US. In fact, I think only Switzerland, Austria and Germany have lower home owner rates than you.
_"It is far easier to go from the renter class to the homeowner class in the US than in the EU"_
Considering the numbers, I doubt that's true but if it is, only very recently. And home ownership is a very narrow and hard to compare picture.
@@good8072 What good is homeownership if that wealth is taken away once you retire? Super common in the US. If you end up getting really sick, good luck. You'll need it.
That's not going to last.
Nowadays, language is not a barrier, especially when discussing technology, where the EU is lagging behind. Bureaucrats in the EU often use this to justify the problems that regulations and taxes are causing for the economy.
Re: large EU tech companies, SAP comes immediately to mind, and in many industries they are seen as a much more trustworthy and reliable entity than Oracle.
Or how about Siemens? Huge swing and a miss with that point.
@@Mo-mu4er not sure i'd call it a miss, just misphrased. There are EU tech companies. They are old established ones, not huge consumer startups. And they are focused on b2b in narrow niches that grew out of local needs and went global. There is no equivalent of San Jose CA in the EU.
nokia and siemens are only behind huawei in 5g, we work more in b2b than b2c nowadays, fintech is been quite suceessfull here.
We can´t have silicon valey we because we would need to agree in one country,so instead we have various mini silicon valeys.
a stupid question perhaps, but at 2:53 you show a map of EU without Slovakia, which is a member. Is that a mistake or did I miss something ?
Another pseudo serious video. The EU is THE single most important reason why Europe is thriving. For us here in Poland, joining the EU was like development on lightspeed. Everyone who tells the opposite doesn't know reality
2:51 Im not sure where you get your maps, but Slovakia is part of EU since 2004. These things can really undermine the reliability of the rest of the information, so please pay attention to details.
Hello from Romania, mates!
Hello
One of the bullshit countries in the EU, increasing crime rates in neighbors like Germany
Buna ))
7:09 I wonder why NY is fairly green, most of the NY state economy is in NYC, which is very wealthy and I would imagine pays way more taxes than it recieves in benefits, and I can say based on my grandparents' farm in upstate NY, the government certainly isn't pouring money into the rest of the state
The EU has been great for the centralization of control which allows them to enact changes across all its countries instead of having to deal with individual leaders and their pesky people that want to govern their own countries. Plus, it makes it a lot easier to destroy Europe once all the pieces are in place.
I am proud to be french but I am also very proud that as europeans we are able to put a good use to our ancestors' heritage of history. The EU is a geopolitical marvel, the last time something like this happens is when the USA became a nation state with a totally new system of governance, hundreds of years ago, the EU is even more ambitious but still very young it will take generations before it comes to maturity.
Well, I disagree. Being a new or complex thing doesn't make anything a marvel. The EU had its best time in the 2000s up until the financial crisis. From there on things have deteriorated
Hahaha euroclown
Hoser mentioned 🗿
4:11 romania's main outputs are not commodities even your graph contradicts what you say, why did you do it??!?
Didn't you just state in a recent program that consumers willingly pay more for the same product if it's 'made in Germany' for a car for example? Which contradicts your statement here that consumers will go for the lowest price for products which causes a loss to the country with thr more expensively-produced car.
But a lot of the "made in Germany" cars aren't. BMW and Mercedes build cars in several countries, including the USA.
Economists always make assumptions.
I still don't like the data that is represented at 7:08 because it does not take into account Welfare as part of Dollar of Support.
EU's requirement for a unanimous consensus is the biggest issue since any one member can stall any decision the EU want to make.
That's only in certain areas, such as EU foreign policy and constitutional matters (e.g. FTAs and new members).
Most executive decisions are made by the Commission, while legislation is made by qualified majority between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
Yeah, lets avoid solving the disagreement, right? It was made so the EU cannot be used **against** any of its members. Pushing laws on members can be seen as one such example when EU is acting **against** one or more national governments that were voted in by the people of the country **the national government** is supposed to lead.
EU does need some kind of control, but it should be nowhere near to total. Yeah, some people want to keep their country and it's nothing bad about that.