dybdal, I think you live perhaps in Norge or Sverige,
Your post requires some corrections:
You don't just outsource on such short distances. Would you call it "outsourcing" when a company in Detroit buys something from a company in Chicago? It's about the same distance from Vienna (former west Europe) to Ukraine (outside EU). It may not always be high tech, what comes from the east, but that's reflected in the price.
It is all about productivity nothing else. Wages and social costs do play a role but unit costs of the produce really decide. This is why factories are moved farther towards the east or even from Czechia to Pakistan and China: If Eastern Europeans do not deliver and here, wages have considerably increased as unit costs, production is gone. With regards to high tech, still employees are moved to Western Europe and not vice versa. High tech means asset lite. Suffice to say Eastern Europe has its strenghts in manufac. and food processing.
France is 15% of EU's economy, and an even smaller part of Europe, and they do have a problem, but it doesn't mean everything to EU as a whole. I know they have problems, but I frankly don't know much about French politics. Seen from a north European point of view, Russia, Poland, UK, Germany and USA are much more important than France, except when buying cheese and wine in the supermarket.
Wrong! France is a key country, it has like UK the absolute highest number of immigrants which support the economy by keeping it competitive. Same business model keeps London up and running. This means that unlike Germany or even Poland, France has plenty of labor and hence is more dynamic. It has a better structure with regard to age.
Anyway, in many east European countries, the aging population is actually in very good health. Otherwise they would simply die - unlike the west Europeans, that have access to modern drugs, treatments and help. If a Ukrainian Babushka cannot walk well, she's got a huge problem, since the toilet is probably outside in the yard, she earns her money on the market or needs to grow her own vegetables.
WRONG!! Please, do a visit of the country side in slovakia, or hungary or come to romania, or to the eastern parts of Poland. Or go to belarus or the ukrajna. You will see unprecedented poverty particularly outside the cities and amongst older persons.
The people here die early: of pollution, of lung inflammation and tuberculosis, of various cancer. Some still literally starve and some die of the lack of prospects. Cernoby´l was only the tip of the iceberg.
No need to belittle an ukrajnian baboushka, those are poor people whom no one takes care of. |
