this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Europe

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[โ€“] [email protected] 220 points 11 months ago (5 children)

These kinds of charts are a bit dangerous, as it will be used by anti-EU folk in net contributing countries to say look at how much money we can save when we leave the EU. But this looks only at money being shipped back and forth. The EU has so much benefits in terms of trade and collaboration, it's a steal at any price.

[โ€“] xkforce 77 points 11 months ago (3 children)

All people have to do to refute the leavers is point to the UK

[โ€“] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago

These people are usually reality deniers, so showing them anything is a no go.

And you know how they do it too.

First they do a whole FUD campaign, which get the people riled up and polarized. Up till the point that it doesn't matter what the truth is, it's tribalism, us against them etc. This phase is in full swing in Europe right now. Next they say well what if we do a non binding referendum? It shows the people we are actively taking an interest and we get to see what people think. If everyone votes remain, the issue is done and buried. Then leading up to the referendum they do a massive misinformation campaign, with TV ads, social media ads and posts, etc. Everything they can do to misinform the public, with Russia footing the bill for most of it. Most people aren't interested enough to dive into such a complex topic (and I don't blame them, it's very complicated), so they'll go off their gut and their gut is influenced by their experience in the world and on social media, so they will vote exit. After the referendum is done and the outcome is 50/50, they'll go yell: "THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN". And before you know it your whole country goes to shit and you are leaving the EU and basically committing economic suicide. By the time people realize what happened, it's much too late and all the shitbags responsible have gone away.

If you told me this before Brexit, I would have laughed and told you it's total BS. But then it happened in real life and I don't know how to deal with that.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It would be interesting to see this chart when the UK was included.

[โ€“] CAVOK 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The UK would have been on par with France.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ugh this country is so dumb

[โ€“] LordOfLocksley 3 points 11 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Exactly. Germany makes way more than 25 billion Euro by being able to freely trade with neighbours.

[โ€“] Bigmouse 3 points 11 months ago

Not to mention the fact that the โ‚ฌ's low value makes german goods much more competitive for international export.

[โ€“] Spaceballstheusername 26 points 11 months ago

Also by improving struggling countries it means you have more and stronger markets to sell to. When you empower your neighboring countries everyone is safer and stronger.

[โ€“] anewbeginning 2 points 11 months ago

Also, Germany has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the euro so it all evens out.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

But this looks only at money being shipped back and forth.

Not even that. It only looks at money being shipped back and forth via one specific channel.