Those German hippies are taking it like a Champ. I guess after getting screwed by the UK and France after WWI surrender, nothing phases them... Having no hot water for showers is still paradise. Who needs a shower besides Putin anyway? And then, you have the spoiled UK groupies who couldn't even take a little Tax fiasco by Thatcher without trying to over-throw the damn British government! Obviously this was from the UK, where Police could still HIT people in them days. Today, we just let mobs burn and loot and do what they want, or you're a racist!
if you think they will print a little more euros and buy more LNG for 20x price somewhere in Mozambique they could have from Russia - that's not alternative There is no alternative for Europe - they will be POOR
Wanna bet? Europe is far more resilient than Putin thinks, if he thinks at all. The Germans certainly screwed up shutting down their nuke stations for Russian gaz. But thanks to Putin, they now have another opportunity to think again.
The problem with Europe they are colonized by the USA and are not allowed to make their own decisions. Nord stream 2 waiting a year completely ready. But Europe is not allowed to start it. Ukraine war was totally preventable but Europe just couldn't raise their voice Putin makes them a favor allowing to wake up and make own choices. Although I doubt they will do anything. So I wouldn't have any problems to make a bet Europe will be POOR , No Europe will be VERY POOR
Europe and the US have a good working political, economic and military relationship. What you Russians don't understand is that even strong disagreements are resolved through negotiations. In dictatorships of the right or the left the only way things work is through directives from the top to the bottom with consequences for those who don't obey. I truly feel sorry for Russian, Chinese or North Korean people who are subjected to their rulers.
What counts is the result and the timing. The so called "democratic process" sounds good, but in reality isn't working, as it easily gets "usurped" by the hidden puppet masters... Nowadays it takes more than a decade to get approval for building a highway of just 30 km length. The result of the corrupted and refined democratic process... Nobody needs it... I came to the conclusion that democracy isn't working. Any just alternative to democracy is better, IMO --> take a look at my title... imperator...
I get that you prefer a dictatorship to democracy. Thankfully there are fewer of you than those aspiring to democratic principles. I agree with you that red tape is a major issue in the US, where every conceivable special interest wants their say in anything and everything built. I'm just not sure a dictatorship is the solution to that problem. It's also true that in China the time from ideation to delivery is stunningly short and gives added vibrancy to its dynamic economy. China pulled 800 million people out of poverty in 20 years, something never done in the history of humanity. That achievement has been recognized around the world and China gained huge appreciation capital from it. Yet, China decided to throw it all away over Taiwan. But who wants Taiwan? Is it Xi, or the CCP? Certainly the Chinese people couldn't care less... And that's the problem with dictatorships. One man or one small group of apparatchiks set the course for the country of 1.2 billion people. So what's better? A country no longer able to be dynamic or one excessively zealous?
Friedman was an economist, not a political scientist. His opinion on democracy is no more valuable than that of any other intellectual. But even as an economist he has come under heavy criticism for advocating shareholder supremacy and remains the darling of the conservative establishment for it. I'm not against his approach, but I find it too wanting for something more.
@VicBee, it's all Western propaganda. For example this: in Germany the officials, and with it the majority of the people, as well the official written and taught history says that East Germany (DDR aka GDR) was a bad country where people had no freedom and the state committed many crimes to suppress and oppress the people. In 1953 an uproar of the workers in East Berlin is since then celebrated in the West annually as a holiday to denounce East Germany, ie. their political/ideological system (West against East). The West knows how to make propaganda, how to make an elephant from a fly. The atrocities/crimes of West Germany itself are IMO more than 100-fold more than those of East Germany. But the Western propaganda knows how to successfully highlight the crimes of others and blend & hide own crimes. In reality East Germany was IMO the best Germany in history, a successful model state. Maybe not that successful like a turbo-capitalist West Germany, but it was one of the top leading countries of the Eastern block. They were at least honest.