Paul Buitink talks to former Greek Minister of Finance (2015) and author of several books like ‘Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism’ about the risks of modern technofeudalism in which cloud capitalists extract rents from the public and distort public discourse. He says we need to tax big tech to the hilt since privatizing wouldn’t work. Also he proposes how cities should create their own tech alternatives.
The gentlemen also talk about the euro, why Bulgaria shouldn’t join and Greece should exit. The Netherlands should perhaps try to reform it or join a union with other hard currency countries. Yanis would like to federalize the EU but realizes it’s maybe time to dismantle it. Also he laments Europe’s military Keynesianism and thinks it’s not wise to spend all that money on defense. The EU has taken the wrong turn and each path since 2014 when it comes to the war in Ukraine Yanis believes.
Ok, there’s a big disconnect here. I’ll try to convey what I’m seeing when I read that sentence:
“Here’s this complex and unique alliance structure, a transnational proto-pseudo-state, brought into being over the course of generations of humans, not only to keep the most wartorn region on a planet full of quarrelsome monkeys at peace - a task at which, through its multiple iterations, it has excelled at for almost 80 years - but also to slowly put its constituent nations into a mindset of cooperation instead of competition.
… anyway, let’s apply some completely different arbitrary success criteria, determine this arguably staggering and most unlikely achievement of the human race a failure and suggest to tear it down, what could go wrong?”
So much this. I hate how slow or even backwards the EU is on some topics, but people forget so easily the crazy amount of good things it brought us as well, simply because they are considered normal now.
I’m strongly in favor of some deep reforms (and even think it’s one of the most important things to get on now), but I am definitely not in favor of just dismantling the EU.