I SEE NO SHIT

Everyone who manages the household budget and juggles the bills know all too well what a tricky business making ends meet and keeping the books balanced is. There are some bills which are constant which can be budgeted for in advance, such as regular standing orders, direct debits and the weekly shopping bill, then there are others which are not planned. If the car breaks down and the garage presents a large bill, or the telly packs up halfway through Coronation Enders and a replacement is required – these situations can push the budget way over limit.

In such cases for most families the only option is to wave the bit of plastic or negotiate an overdraft agreement with the bank, which means borrowing money and incurring interest. The sooner the loan is paid off the better and the interest accrued may not be too much, but if disasters keep happening and more money needs to be spent than is coming in, then the loans get bigger and the interests begins to stack up. Finally, a point is reached where the money owed becomes unmanageable.

When this happens there are three options. One is to go and talk to those owed money to see if an arrangement can be made to pay off the debt in stages, the other is to consolidate the debts into one repayment loan over a period of years with set payments and interest, then live within your means, and most drastic of all is to default on your debts which will bring bankruptcy and the possible loss of your home and possessions.

Finally, if you are fortunate enough to earn more than you spend, you are one of those lucky ones who can save money and always have a reserve to pay the unexpected bills. The nice thing about this situation is you may have money to invest which then means you benefit from the interest made on that money.

All over the world families are dealing with these situations every day, go to any ordinary street and some families will be coping, some struggling and some doing very nicely thank you. Other than looking at how well maintained their properties are and the age and condition of their cars, it is hard to know who are doing well and who is struggling as each family manage their own affairs in the best way for them.

If you look at a continent of separate nations they are like that ordinary street, each country is a family which balances its borrowing, saving and spending in its own way. Like good neighbours they all get along with each other, possibly visit each other and do things together from time to time, but at the end of the day they all deal with matters that affect them in their own ways until one day some of the neighbours start to discuss ways they can get closer together.

Now think of that street if they remove their fences so they can all wander from garden to garden unhindered, they all decide together their homes should have the same colour schemes and their furniture should all be up to a certain standard and style. Suddenly their homes don’t quite feel like their own as much as they used to.

Next the neighbours decide that they should all make decisions that affect them collectively and all comply. A new bank account is set up and a system of payments into the account is devised so the richer families pay in the most, while the poor families are beneficiaries from this account allowing them to spend money they would not normally have. All well and good so far.

However, some families are not too happy with the colour scheme for their homes that has been decided by the group, they begin to grumble as they are forbidden to make changes. They are not happy with the furniture but are told they have to stick with it. The kids from the larger families begin to run riot over the now fenceless gardens of other families, who complain but are informed those kids have the right to go anywhere they like within the community. Bit by bit each family begin to feel their homes are no longer theirs.

Suddenly hard times begin to fall on all of them, the poor families, who by now are used to being helped out begin to complain when their budgets are cut. The rich families try to negotiate a cut in their payments as they are struggling to make ends meet themselves and are having to borrow money to keep up their payments, and a debt accrues collectively against all of them. Before they know it they are all in the mire together. Some of the poorer families, despite being the beneficiaries of the collective budget have still gone and borrowed money, which then becomes a debt for all. This means the richer families have to borrow even more money to pay the debts of the poor families and the misery for all steadily grows.

What began as a way of keeping good neighbours together and to prevent fights and arguments between them, which never happened anyway as they all knew their own boundaries (which have now gone), begins collapse as arguments, fights and squabbles break out as they all blame each other for the mess they are in.

Finally, each family in turn begins to default on their debts and the bailiffs move in, foreclosures are put on them and each and every family lose everything. Had they remained as individual families some may have gone down during the recessionary period, others may have struggled but stayed afloat and some may have coped without too many problems. The end result would have been the bankruptcy of a small number of families but the rest would have survived. But because they all decided to pool their household sovereignties they all go down together with the end result of everyone losing everything.

This piece of fiction is all basic stuff, the old adage about good fences make good neighbours is as true today as it has always been. Sadly, the fences across Europe have been coming down and each country has had its powers to self govern removed and handed to the collective in the European Union as they all pooled their sovereignty.

With the introduction of the single currency, just like those poorer families, some nations which relied on bailouts they had not earned, or paid for, have borrowed money and got everyone into debt. The snag is none can deal with their own debt problems individually – all are in a sinking ship called ‘SS Federal Europe’.

If the meddling bumblecrats of the EU had not insisted that along with all the other vanity trappings of a nation, such as a flag, Parliament, laws and of course, a currency, the mess the nations of Europe are in today could be quite different.

Each nation would have had its own currency and interest rates. As the poorer countries such as Greece experienced problems their interest rates could have been cut and the value of their currency lowered. This would have been good for those nations’ exporters as their goods would then look cheap on world markets allowing them to compete globally. Their companies being able to borrow money at low interest rates would be able to do so to invest in new products and machinery, thus creating jobs and preventing a downward spiral eventually helping their nation to recover. Having their own laws and sovereign government helps too as overbearing and restrictive legislation that stopped growth and job creation could have been eased.

Sadly, those nations trapped in the eurozone all have one currency and one interest rate – which they are not allowed to change – neither can they change many of the laws and restrictive bureaucracy which spews forth from the EU too. The interest rate is set mostly for the benefit of Germany and France and as Germany is a powerhouse of Europe, its economy helps to keep the value of the euro high. For Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and other nations – including Italy, this is bad news. Their products, due to a high valued euro are too expensive to compete on foreign markets and even though the interest rate in the eurozone is not that high, it is still too high for these nations and prevents investment. What a mess.

At some stage, which is inevitable, each and every nation within the EU is going to sink under a mountain of debt, regulations, bureaucracy and overbearing legislation – this is now inevitable.

In reality those who can should be seriously considering emigrating to anywhere that is not in the EU. There is little point in having loyalty for your nation as it no longer exists – other than a name on a map. Since the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty we are all European citizens and we are all in it together – right in it! We are passengers on a doomed vessel that headed for the iceberg without our consent due to the decisions of an elite few who thought they knew better – sadly – they still do even now. We are all screaming and warning them of the crap we are heading for, and like Nelson they reply: ‘I see no shit’!