Posted on 07/31/2015 5:45:30 PM PDT by NRx
Everything I needed to know about why the European Union would fail I learned at a truck stop.
It was in 2001 when a bus tour I was on stopped at a truck stop on the German Autobahn. For the American readers, you must understand that European truck stops are much different from what you get in the states. In Europe, the facilities are clean and the food is actually decent. They dont have the same hot dogs sitting in the cooker for five days. And no, you cant buy six gallon soda cups.
As it were, in this truck stop the inside was what you expect to see in Germany. It was clean and efficient. You grabbed your tray, stood in line quietly, pointed to the food for the scowling German lady cook to serve you, and moved to the next station. It had just enough order, cleanliness, and gray color inside to remind you that you were in Germany, but without making you feel like you were in East Germany.
As the bus wound its way across Europe we eventually stopped in Italy at the identical chain of truck stop. This is where I had an epiphany about the European Union, the Euro, multiculturalism, and why its all a bunch of garbage.
Italy is a great country, but nobody is going to tell you its like Germany unless they are a completely clueless moron. Instead of the quiet line of people collecting their food and proceeding to the next station, you instead had a mob of people yelling, waving their hands, and rushing the counter in a huge mass. If you didnt push forward, you didnt get food. In other words, it was Italian.
This is when I realized the EU and the Euro would never work. The idea that you were going to get Italians, Germans, Spaniards, Greeks, French, Dutch, etc. to live under one government and one currency is simply madness. Not only are the Germans far too impatient to deal with the hyper-emotional Italians, but the Italians are far too laid back to want to deal with a bunch of controlling Germans. This of course applies to the other countries as well. The Dutch really dont like the French telling them what to do. The French dont like the Germans. The Germans dont like the Spaniards (or anyone else), and everyone dislikes the Swiss mostly because they were smart enough to not join the EU and share the misery.
And really how could it be any different? The idea that youre going to put all these different people, languages, and cultures under the same currency and control is just mind-boggling stupid. Now they want to bring in all of Eastern Europe and possibly Turkey to add to the excitement? Yikes.
Culture matters far more than todays enlightened man is allowed to admit. And frankly, most cultures probably are better off having nothing to do with each other in terms of common governance. For starters, having one currency with countries that have defaulted multiple times (like Italy, Greece, Spain, etc.) is like opening up your bank account to your entire extended family: An extended family complete with check writing privileges to your deadbeat cousin and crazy uncle. Who wouldnt expect that situation to eventually lead to conflict?
Then you have to ask some more pointed questions. For instance, why does Germany want to support Italy? Why should Italians be held hostage to the wishes of German taxpayers? Why should Greek politicians care about spending when they know everyone else will bail them out? The entire idea breeds nothing but contempt and hostility as any collectivist system eventually does.
This is why I thought more than a decade ago (2001) that the Euro wouldnt last 20 years. Im now 13 years into that prediction and each year I feel more certain that the entire thing will fly apart.
The only issue we need to worry about when it does fly apart is whether it will kick off another war, which it very well might. This is no small irony considering the leftist imbeciles that backed the forming of the EU did so with the idea that it would prevent future wars by tying everyone together. Of course what they didnt anticipate is when everyone is tied together they are more able to swing knives at each other.
I like every country Ive been to in Europe. But, the reason I like them is because they are different. Trying to make them all the same in a multi-culti rainbow of happiness requires an all-powerful overbearing government that must rule by lowest common denominator. The different groups, and different group interests, will ensure that fights happen so nobody has it any better than anyone else. By trying to make everyone happy, you make nobody happy. Didnt we learn this already from other failed Marxist experiments?
I left Europe at the time when they were transitioning to their suicidal Euro experiment. I kept some of the old currencies when I was there for souvenirs. Im thinking Ill be able to spend them again after the Euro and EU finally goes away.
It's interesting how long some of those eastern states are in an east-west direction, and how far west the U.S. coastline runs as you go from New England through the Midatlantic states. Delaware and Maryland are the only states south of New Jersey that have any land mass further east than the city of Philadelphia.
Was it around Laramie somewhere?
I seem to remember a Flying J and a TA at Laramie. But I think there was a locally owned place about 10 or so miles west of there.
Agreed.
Getting older sucks big time.
Yep, That would be OH, WV, VA right?
In the beginning of the country, NC, and VA reached all the way to the Pacific.
They made us give some back. :)
My family traces back to Ireland, and from my research we were given a Land grant by British royalty that equated to most of VA at the time. Mostly I understand because we were hellions, bootleggers, and rogues, and she wanted us out of the UK.
Needless to say we got here and found out what we were told over there was worth a cup of warm spit over here.
I've driven on the German Autobahn. Our highways are absolutely deplorable compared to the Autobahn.
I didn't worry a bit about the condition of the road when the Mazda 6 Turbo Diesel I had rented in Germany was pushing @ 190kmh as I drove to the Netherlands. No potholes, no unexpected bumps or buckling in the road, none of that on the Autobahn.
In fact, the road was so good I pushed that Mazda Six Turbo Diesel all the way up to 220kmn on the way back. Amazing vehicle. A diesel that accelerated, sounded like, and ran like a gas powered engine, able to hit 220kmh (@140mph) and do that all day long.
I wouldn't dare try doing that on the American highway system with how crappy our roads are constructed and maintained.
Little America.
There’s a big hotel, and a really good restaurant on one side, and a huge Truck lot on the other side. The showers were all done in marble, and had tubs in them.
If you didn’t have time for the Restaurant you could get the best charbroiled hamburger from the grill in the fuel stop.
There’s 2 of them, one in Cheyenne, and the big one 60-70 miles out of Evanston.
I was running behind a guy in MT coming out of Billings eastbound, and his engine let loose.
Snowing like a dog, I saw the engine parts coming, but couldn’t swerve for danger of landing in the ditch.
Flattened 2 drive tires with chunks of engine block.
Stopped to help the guy, and his block had a hole the size of a basketball in it.
All of his tires were fine, damnit. I growled about that all the way to Fargo. Quick $600 out of the pocket. GRRR.
There are some roads when you get out west.
Don’t tell anyone, but my rig didn’t have a governor on it, and going through AZ, NV, Some places in MT, I had her up to 120-130 just to see what she would do.
No real weight, 10-12000 lbs of FedEx crap.
Isn't it the opposite. Most long haul goods in the US are sent by train, while in Europe the trains are used to move people?
That's why Eisenhower is one of the greatest Presidents ever. Eisenhower Interstate System is a modern marvel.
They have soda machines with beer as a selection. Drop in your coins and press the button for the local beer and Presto, beer for the road.
Now that is different from American highways.
And if you think that those southern Europeans are troublesome when it comes to waiting in lines then you likely would have issues with those camera toting Japanese tourists. They do not know what a line is. They just swarm.
Cultural distinctions exists. I prefer ours and I disdain others.
Captain Eisenhower was on the 1919 Army Motor Transportation Convoy that took two months to drive across the United States.
In the 30s the War Department sent Ike to Europe map the roads of France and take a look at the surrounding nations roads.
Any route OUT of Chicago is good.
Yeah, what’s wrong with our truckstops? They’re generally always clean although very busy and a vast variety of food that is not grey and nice touristy shops to buy postcards and knickknacks. Also, not a very original point of view if the main point is that the Italians are not like the Germans. And I’ve never seen Italians rush a truckstop. And I’ve been to Italian truckstops.
Did you ever manage any other fast food besides Pizza Hut? Those cravings, you know.
He could just as well have used that sort of argument/reasoning to have been saying that Blacks and Whites will never live in amity - I wonder if he realized this....
Great family history! LOL.
The economies of scale definitely weigh in favor of rail transportation at long distances, but trucks can cover long distances faster in the U.S. — so they are generally used to haul time-sensitive loads even when the shipping rates are lower for rail. Fresh produce from California, for example, is shipped to the east coast by truck even though it would be much cheaper to move it by rail.
That’s why Eisenhower is one of the greatest Presidents ever. Eisenhower Interstate System is a modern marvel.
Ike got the idea from the German Autobahn. Recently I was on it right at the spot where Patton was injured and later died from the wreck with a US Army deuce and a half. Heidelberg..... There are no speed limits on the autobahn until you approach certain exit ramp areas.
Craig is an ignorant provencial that has no clue about that which he writes.
he needs to get out, not more, but at all
A lot of the really long haul in the US is TOFL or COFL now. (Around here, at least, containers on flat cars seem more popular, as they can be double stacked while the trailers go single high. In the east, I understand that there are a lot of tunnels that can’t take the double stacks.)
Ofcourse, intellectually, I KNOW smelly, unprocessed cheeses>than chemicalized faux McDonalds food...But, what can you do?
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