Piwin -> RE: UK votes out of the EU (Jun. 26 2016 10:22:20)
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I see very little to no connection at all between the EU and class warfare. If the intent was to strike down the rich, the closest we've got with this is striking down our political representatives, that many perceive as being part of the rich. However, where the actual money lies is not in politics, not by a long shot. There are systemic issues to be addressed, and plotting the poor against the rich "bastards" does nothing to solve these. There have been a few interesting studies that suggest a correlation between increased wealth and lower empathy and an increased sense of entitlement (i.e., the richer you are, the more you feel that you "deserve" what you earned). These results would have to be reproduced to have any validity but they do suggest an interesting side effect of wealth on the human psyche. In the ten years I spent as a conference interpreter, I've sat in on countless meetings with the top brass from both the political world and the corporate world, from shareholder's meetings to G8 meetings, etc. etc. The image that some have of the rich and powerful secretly plotting against the world in a dark room is simply wrong. These people are after all human beings, and have that little voice in their heads like the rest of us. What you do see is the same flaws that afflict the rest of humanity, from self-interest to greed, etc. etc. But you also see the same qualities that the rest of humanity can display, generosity, selflessness, etc. etc. The solution to all of this is not to replace one set of individuals by another. To do so would simply be uninformed. I have quite a few complaints against the French government, and against Brussels for that matter. A lot of it has to do with how wasteful they can be, and this is a problem that is recurrent in the public sector. However, I needn't remind you that even just 25 years ago, 75% of the entire budget of the EU was allocated to the CAP, i.e. subsidies to help EU farmers survive in a globalized economy. There are reasons to criticize this, but EU farmers are hardly rich fat cats... Finally, I'll just add this. Over the years, as a freelancer in France, I've lost on average from a few hundred to, in the worst cases, a few thousand euros a year because of union strikes. I should add that I'm very much part of the middle to lower-middle class. Each time the SNCF (train service) went on strike, I'd have to book a hotel, in some cases take a cab over long distances, just to get to work. In those cases, I was often working at a loss. I'm all for the right to go on strike. What gets to me is that every single time the union reps say that they are doing this for everyone, to defend the rights of all the French people, etc. etc. I would just like them to admit that they are defending their own rights, their own little group, in the exact same way as some wealthy corporate groups do. They couldn't care less about the rest of us. The truth of it is, there are no more bastards among the rich than there are among the poor. And no more good people among the rich than among the poor. What any of this has to do with the EU vote, I honestly have no idea. So goes it...
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