Clearly the european people are mad at the status quo. We can do both, ie. improve quality of life through higher spending and also spend more on defence and Ukraine aid.

This is achievable if we tax the rich and companies fairly. Of course every single major political party is against this as they are all in the pockets of the upper class and corporations to varying degrees.

[–] brucethemoose 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This is achievable if we tax the rich and companies fairly. Of course every single major political party is against this as they are all in the pockets of the upper class and corporations to varying degrees.

Sorry, but this is a fantasy.

The mega rich should be taxed, but war is expensive and hard, and that alone isn't enough. Europeans are going to have to want to resist Russia with money out of their pockets/a little hardship, otherwise they are going to be pissed when taxes go up. Then they run to AfD and such, like they already are.

Or debt could balloon, I guess, but fortunately the EU is smart enough to be wary of this (unlike the US).

I dunno how to give Europeans existential reasons to support Ukraine, but clamping down on Twitter/Facebook is definitely a start.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

How about some kind of war bond? I was thinking about this earlier.

[–] Buffalox 8 points 1 day ago

EU has already recently agreed on that, using the model from the Covid pandemic.
EU is actually moving faster now, and everybody apart from Hungary and Slovakia are in agreement, and I'm pretty sure everybody have agreed that Hungary and Slovakia will not be allowed to slow Europe down. And AFAIK they weren't invited to the meetings with Macron in Paris last week.

[–] brucethemoose 3 points 1 day ago

That’s a great idea.

Honestly it would be amazing if the US had the same thing.