Oh I hate the EU, make no mistake about it. I believe its primary objective has always been to further the goal of socialism. European leftists have always known the great danger to their social welfare states would be other European countries that adopted much freer markets and less regulation. The socialists have always known they couldn’t compete. There is no doubt the EU acts as a big bully too.
Still, I’m sorry, but Europeans are not forced to vote irresponsibly. In fact, even the EU busy bodies of all people, have been chiding some of these countries again and again to spend less and get their debt under control. But the people won’t do it. Good grief man, look at Greece right now. The people there STILL don’t really want to cut anything. Slashing some public service jobs is like pulling teeth with the deepest roots ever. The Greeks want to blame everyone but themselves - and the same thing is playing out in the rest of the debt crushed European countries. No one has to take a bailout. They can default and leave the Eurozone, but they won’t do it because it would require too much cutting that they don’t want to do.
We are doing the same thing here in the US. We are not that far behind Europe - maybe a generation or less. People are voting for big, bloated government because they believe politicians that tell them we can live far beyond our means. People have bought the drug of socialism and, just like Europe, it won’t end well - and it will be our own fault.
The vast majority of member states of the EU do not get a vote, either way. The only country that ratified the Treaty of Lisbon by referendum was Ireland, due to a requirement in their constitution for a popular referendum on such matters. And they were forced to revote due to the first vote being “no”. In the European Parliament, nobody has the power to write any laws—that power is held by the European Commission, which is also the executive body (i.e. no separation of powers; Montesquieu would have a fit).
Yes, nobody has to take a bailout (which are loans and not grants); but look at the record. Ireland’s government was highly resistant to any loans to bail them out, and that resulted in the government falling and being replaced with a government that was willing to take the loans. Same thing happened with Portugal and Spain. Both Greece and Italy were worse off; they have had their prime ministers appointed for them by the EU in order to artificially create governments that were receptive to bailout loans. Definitely a power play from the top, FWICS.
The USA isn’t a member of any imperial-like socialistic body with the cohesion of the EU, but we do have our own socialists that are bent on wrecking our economy (via borrowing, spending, taxation, welfare giveaways, illegal immigrant amnesty ad nauseam), mainly because the USA is still seen as the last major opponent to world socialism.
What’s missing from this is e human element. When you go after depositors for cash, you are violating a kind of trust that has been built up for over a hundred years. That’s the main crisis point here not who should pay for insolvent banks. You’re protecting the taxpayers but at the expense of public trust in the banking system.