example
"The problem remains that eurozone voters don't like this.
And there are other problems:
People in the North are savers, this is a cultural thing that is not going to change, and the fact that (healthcare) costs are rising fast in their aging societies, while government budgets are going to shrink (they have large debts too), makes this even worse. So I wouldn't count on more spending.
People in the North have always had a hard currency, something they appreciate, and to stay competitive, in EU and the world, they have decade long policies of keeping wages down. They are not going to give this up to save other countries.
People in the North are export oriented countries, they have had trade surpluses for decades and want to keep it that way. The fact that other countries have trade deficits is not seen as their problem.
If you add it all up, this makes you wonder why the periphery ever signed up to the euro. I guess they wanted the benefits of a hard currency with low interest too, not seeing the disadvantages"
"living in a eurozone country that already had to pay up for Greece, I can assure you there is close to zero motivation among the people to pay more. And this is across the political spectrum.
What this crisis has learned is that the EU as political project is supported as long as it does not cost the taxpayers in the individual countries money. When this changes, the support for the EU drops like a brick. There is simply no solidarity between eurozone nations when it comes to money."
"the euro was sold as a monetary union without fiscal union to the people (see for example the no bailout clause in the Lisbon treaty). If they would have known that monetary union comes with fiscal union, than at least the Germans and Dutch would have voted against the euro, as they are well aware that fiscal union means they need to pay up."
"The Germans and Dutch have always had a hard currency, they see this as the reason for their high living standard! After all, how can you increase your living standard if you keep devaluating your currency? To remain competitive the Germans and Dutch have followed policies of limited wage increases and to invest in innovation, education, etc.. So you can even claim that the hard currency helps them to stay innovative and therefore successful."
