I love to see people working together towards a goal like this. But I’m also kind of worried.
There are things that stop war, like military alliances or a strength disparity but a lot of the peace dividend is that by being economically conjoined makes war a lot less likely.
Now the US is threatening allies with any leverage they have from tariffs to pulling troops to just stopping aid - removing economic codependency might just be playing into Putin’s hands. He’d love to see the US become isolated and gradually turn on everyone, and without any trade that becomes easier.
Obviously it’s slightly longer term, and I’m not saying codependency is good but war would be worse, and this shit show has only just begun.
it’s the best explanation for why Trump is doing any of this
But Canadian as well, it might help save us from the beast below.
Unrelated but routine reminder that Substack is profiting from nazi content and is funded by A16Z: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/
The idea that consumer boycott is going to impede that unfolding political apocalypse of a regime is wishful thinking. However, even if somehow the US might return any soon to half-normal (any reasonable person should doubt it at this point), that half-normal should imply severe punishments for the complicity of big American corporations with DT’s regime, such as breaking these corporations apart. That alone should tell you EU can’t depend anymore on US big tech anymore.
Given that the regime is corrupt billionaires, crashing the economy to punish them is not that terrible of an idea. It won’t take much to push the U.S. into a depression. Everything is setup for one: Massive wealth inequality, deregulation, corruption at the highest levels, government agencies losing functions, international trade wars, etc.
The political changes that made America the power it is was in response to the 1929 depression. Massive government restructuring, creation and expansion of social programs, unionization, infrastructure construction, high taxes on extreme wealth, antitrust regulation and enforcement etc. historians often quote that WW2 was what brought America out of the depression, but it’s really not true. It sped up the processes that had been building for 10 years under FDR.
weakening the corporations is the only hope the American people have of regaining political power
That would already be huge if the idea that depending on a foreign nation, no matter how “friendly” it claims to be, only really makes if incentives for the two nations align naturally became more wide-spread among EU governments and organizations.
