Not in my books. I'd take USA or Australia any day for the higher standard of living - and , of course, ICE forever. Just about anywhere in the OECD would be preferable to the over-taxed and over-regulated EU. Britain finally came to their senses and ditched 'em.

 

Yea and that has worked out great for Britain….

 

The baby boomer generation was given an "contract" with North America after ww2 (1947-1970 / 80 ish) which was come here, work harder than most and you will be rewarded with a higher standard of living than any where else on the planet and gain wealth. For the most part they kept their word and this was held true. Fast forward another 30 years and many parts around the world have caught up to our standard of living and in some cases surpassed it. The American/Canadian dream of immigrating to this country, work hard and you will be wealthy is no longer the rule but the exception. We are more inline with Western Europe and other parts of Asia, where you work and make enough to live, but not gain wealth in the same ways as before. Albeit, the USA is at one end of the spectrum and Canada on the other, but it is still trending in the same line. (think California, NYC etc.) The question then becomes, if you're just working to live and not developing wealth as before, why not do it in Europe? Better food, beautiful culture and beaches. Or other parts of the world? Canada of the 1960-80's vs ROW is not the same as today and we have to come to terms that other places have caught up to our fortunate situation. A lot of things can happen to change course, but at the moment this is the situation for the average person. Maybe not felt so much on rennlist lol. Another caveat to this, we are fighting for immigration against many other economies (Germany, France, UK, Japan etc.) that are facing population collapses/declines. We never had this problem before either. While geographically we don't have the same problems with illegal immigration, so that gives us a helping hand in not dealing with border issues like Europe or Southern US states. But if I was a doctor in India or Brazil or Colombia and someone said come to the UK and earn pounds, Germany and earn euros or Canada.... I would have to think about that.... in 1955 it wasn't even a question. The biggest points Canada/US/Mexico have is we are a fully capable of surviving on our own. We have abundance of food, oil, gas, land, lumber, fresh water, manufacturing etc. and can run our standard of living for the most part without a world wide effort. This is a big deal don't get me wrong, but Europe (apart from oil - even tho Norway and other parts of EU do have oil) also has this covered. If Europe can convert to a more green infrastructure over the next 20-30 years, I can't see how it would not surpass North America as the worlds #1 Economy. The big IF being a green, fully capable infrastructure... or Nuclear power plants if the have too....

 

Europe’s immigration policy or whatever you want to call it, is a disaster. Countries like Belgium are f’d. I wouldn’t want to be living there in 10 years.

 

Not to take the thread way off track, but EU's GDP is 20 Trillion... Belgium is 580B. It's like comparing New Brunswick's economy and extrapolating it to the rest of Canada. Anyway, Europe's immigration issues stem from large amounts of illegal migration from Africa and mid east. It is a BIG problem they need to sort out, but not an impossible one.

 

How do you know?

 

how do I know what?

 

That it's not impossible to sort out...

 

Any country or in this case EU can fix illegal immigration. Especially considering geographically there are not many land entry points and mostly coming across the Mediterranean. It just takes the will of the EU to lock down and treat illegal immigration's as an invasion and not be a sanctuary. Change a few laws and give the military's power to stop it. Not saying it will be nice. But they can stop it if they want too. No different than if a foreign country wanted to invade a European country via the Med. They have enough naval resources to deal with it, if they wanted too.

 

Ever heard of the term short term pain for long term gain? Out from under the EU's economy destroying tax and regulatory burden, particularly the ruinous green policies, the UK will chart its own successful future. "The impact on trade overall appears to have been broadly consistent with predictions so far, that on immigration much less negative (and perhaps even positive) and on investment somewhat worse. Perhaps the best estimate of the negative impact on Brexit on UK GDP to date is 2–3% of GDP." That's 2-3% NOT points, so little impact.

Refusing to adopt green policies, the whole of Asia is well on its way to prosperity and will overtake the EU in the not-too-distant future. As far as the US is concerned, its economy has grown 16% since 2015 while Canada has slipped backward. Their average income is 40% higher than ours. They have been the world's economic powerhouse since WWII and will remain so. Very sad and lucky for Canada at the same time.

 

Asia will certainly do well in the coming decades, I mean they have done very well already. Yes, the US is dragging the Canadian Economy along at the moment. My personal opinion is the EU in 20-30 years will be the Economic super power in the world. Especially if US leaves NATO and forces the EU/UK to ramp up their militaries. The only reason I believe Europe should look to transition into green energy as much as possible is due to the lack of abundant natural gas and oil reserves. Which at the moment are vital. I suppose if they decide to invade Russia it would solve that problem, instead of going green... ( I am also assuming green tech will be much more advanced in 20 years from now)

Next big prediction from me, and this not based on any fact..... Russia joins with EU within 20-30 years if not sooner. Most likely after Putin.

 

EU will dissolve within 10-15 years...

 

EU doesn't need any petrol reserves, though there is the North Sea. There are lots of friendly and unfriendly countries with centuries of reserves which are way cheaper than any existing green options. The cost of going green is so high, any country going that route will destroy their standard of living. You can see the trend away in the EU already. The next US President is fully aware that the climate change movement is a neo- Marxist fraud and, other than ethanol production, will abandon the whole thing. EV's are failing as some of us always predicted they would for the obvious reasons and will mostly disappear. Some will remain for their fad value, but any company that goes all in will suffer and probably go belly up. I think the risk of the EU breaking up in the next decade is quite high but then that's a whole other discussion. But then I don't have strong opinions on anything!

 

I don't disagree, the option of non-green is the WAY more economically sound way. But I think the EU has realised depending on foreign countries for oil does not bode well for its energy independence and security. The only options I see is adopt some type of hybrid of green/nuclear/North Sea and spend an unreasonable amount for the next 20 years to make it happen.... or invade Russia / remove current government and put in one that will join the EU. From North America's perspective having Russia integrate into the EU would be the worst possible outcome. Hence why they would sabotage Nord Stream and continue the Ukraine situation for as long as possible, pushing Russia further away from the west and more to China. An alliance of EU/RUS would certainly change the world's power dynamic, and let's be honest the Russian people IMO would embrace positive relations with the EU at the expense of the US. I think Moscow seems them more as Europeans than Asians. (which they are) I see a changing world... who knows how it all shakes down, but the demise of the European Union is something the USA would want to see, not necessarily something that will happen.