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To: tejek who wrote (66800)	1/1/2002 8:42:53 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

ted, There is a huge movement in Germany and France as well as the north of Italy to make the costs of labour in the 5 countries I mentioned increase to the same as Germany and France. All in the name of harmonization. Same for labor laws, 5 weeks holidays, jobs for life etc etc. What a great driving force for automation and even higher unemployment Bill

To: tejek who wrote (66800)	1/2/2002 10:27:05 AM
From: Charles Gryba	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

ted, having being born in Greece and having lived there for 18 years I must say I will feel sorry for them if they have to end up like us. Currently their per capita income is 50% of ours but their life is a lot better. Everyone has medical coverage, they are not nickeled and dimed for every service they get and they live a long ( longer than us ) and happy life. I am sorry to say but being more technologically advanced does not mean our standard of living is higher. C

To: tejek who wrote (66800)	1/2/2002 1:29:56 PM
From: peter_luc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

OT - Ted, "It seems to me that the Euro may prove to be the great equalizer....forcing the low end of living standards like Spain or Greece and the high end like Germany to move more towards the middle. That would mean that German to survive and coexist in this Union would have to accept willingly a lowered standard of living." We are not yet there in the EU, there is not yet such a level of centralization and harmonization of policies on the European level. But it cannot be excluded that the general tendency may indeed go into this direction on the long run. Just one example to back it up: The former member of the European Commission, Mrs. Wulff-Matthies, (a German, coming from the Unions and responsible within the European Commission for the EU structural policy) developed the concept that structural policy measures of a member State or a region may be taken only in those regions which are beneficiaries also of EU structural funds. The underlying idea was that richer regions should not be allowed to make additional progress by certain State aid (we are not talking about subventions here) while there are still poorer regions trying to catch up. In my eyes, this concept was a clear expression of some socialist thinking. In my opinion, it does not help the poorer regions when you artificially hold the richer regions down. In the end, this concept got diluted a bit but I think it shows in which general direction the EU could potentially move in the future. Peter