"Wolfgang Schwanke" wrote in message
...
"Matt Barrow" wrote in news:22pzh.2865$Ys.1640
@newsfe10.phx:

Privatisation of government tasks is part of neoliberal ideology,

What does the EU see as the proper function of government?

In _classical liberal_ thought, the role of government was police on
the local level, courts of law, and a military.

Misunderstanding. "Neoliberal" is a swear word for Thaterite
monetarism, mostly used by its opponents such as myself; probably
European usage. It has little in common with classical liberalism
anyway.

The EU is basically a contract between the then-EC governments made in
1992, in which they agreed to remove all trade barriers between each
other, to replace all national currencies with a common one and several
other measures. This created a unified market for goods, workforce,
money.

I describe this policy as "neoliberal" because they failed to create a
unified welfare system and common tax system at the same time, which
they could have easily done. This failure creates a pressure on the
member nations to outcompete each other by reducing taxes and cutting
the welfare systems down. This tends to weaken the position ov national
governments and leaves the majority of the population out in the cold.
Of course those are exactly the goals of neoliberalism, but they are
disastrous.

Disclaimer: I'm all in favour of the nations of Europe cooperating, of
extending the community to new member states especially from the east,
of helping them build up their economies to western levels, for free
travel and all that. But this is not the way to do it.

You didn't expend one word answering my question.

I did, though, get a good view of why Europe is sinking.