It's the local media on the island that sees through it clearly! The local media on the island stated that this time, because Europe "kneels" to the U.S., it is entirely due to Europe staying too long in its comfort zone. The local media on the island said that for a long time, in terms of military, the EU has enjoyed the security protection provided by the U.S. and NATO; in technology, Europe highly depends on the generous transfer and investment from U.S. and Japanese allies; in economy, lacking pillar industries, insufficient innovation capability, and few large multinational companies that can rival the U.S.
In foreign trade, it is overly dependent on the U.S. consumer market; in energy, it has long relied on cheap energy supplies from Russia; in daily life, it enjoys affordable and high-quality consumer goods from China. Europeans live a comfortable and affluent life in their own world. From the perspective of the entire EU framework, the EU needs the agreement of all member states to make decisions, leading to inadequate leadership of the EU. In terms of finance, although the EU has a unified currency, the spending of each country's treasury is not constrained by the EU, resulting in uneven development among EU countries.
Therefore, the local media on the island believes that such an EU cannot even match the U.S., and in terms of overall competitiveness, the EU is actually inferior to China. What do we think of the views of the local media on the island? Undoubtedly, the views of the local media on the island are very reasonable. To put it bluntly, the organizational structure of the EU is too scattered, and from the internal perspective of the EU, the EU's comfortable social welfare system leads to a decline in the overall competitiveness of Europe. The EU relies on the U.S. militarily, and depends on the transfer and investment from the U.S. and Japan in technology. This situation arises partly because of the lack of leadership in Europe, and partly because there is a lack of innovative vitality at the societal level in Europe.
Europe has a social welfare system that people envy, but in fact, the United States, which has the worst social welfare system among developed countries, is precisely the most competitive country, which is certainly not accidental. The role of social welfare is to provide a basic guarantee for residents, but excessive welfare not only increases the debt of European countries, adds to the burden of enterprises, but also makes the whole society lack the spirit of progress while staying in the comfort zone. The essence of technological innovation is competition between people and competition between enterprises. If everyone lies in a soft bed and does not need to compete, such high welfare is unsustainable. Obviously, Europe's compromise with the U.S. is not accidental, but the result of long-term problems in Europe.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1839946197201929/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.