One average contributor.

You are even behind Italy, which is telling.

The most politically and economically aligned with USA country in the EU is UK.

UK even used several times its veto right - in matters it even didn't participate initially at all - because the regulations had threatened USA's business in EU (not even related to UK!).

It might seem different in the UK, but outside the bubble everyone knows that UK is the willing whore of the USA. You have established the fact with many actions over the past decades.

I wonder if UK has any friends at all. USA?

Otherwise, I have started that thread precisely because I think that removing people like you from the EU would make it a better place.

Thanks for the sane perspective.

Though part of the problem is that even if UK decides to leave the EU, it would still have to stay in the common market. It would give up the political power, while still forced - by market - to adhere to most regulations. At least if comments here have any truth to them.

Have you actually read past the headline?

Let me translate for you: about 40Bln€ of German tax payer's money didn't have to go into paying the interest on Germany's public debt.

IOW, Germany saved so much of tax payer's money over these years.

This are (in part) my money - not yours. Stop counting my money.

The Sun and The Daily Mail I have excused a long time ago. But I have been reading them just for the cheap thrill of batshit crazy tabloid "news". Anyway, occasional overload of "nazi" jokes made sure that I will not read much of them anyway.

But then my "trusty" Financial Times also slowly turned sour. And when FT goes bad... I do not even want to think about it anymore.

You do realize that Germany pays the biggest amount of money into the EU budget?

You do know that Germany gets very very little in return?

Please educate yourself before whining.

And how do you think one make a continent without wars?

...

Imagine what would happen to EU, when all of its members started acting like UK.

That's pretty much the recipe how you start a war. And that is why UK has to go, IMO.

P.S. Beginning of the EU.

Just as people from UK are ignorant of internal politics of other member states.

And that's one of the major reasons why I call for people of UK to vote for leaving the EU: you see EU as some monster across the channel. And it is not. It is a union of 28 countries - hopefully soon 26 - each with its own problems, interests and challenges.

UK is not special in EU. You are definitely in the top 10 members, but that's it. So why should you be treated specially? Why everybody should be involved in your politics, when you do not give a damn about the other's political state?

It makes no sense to me, unless you are planning to turn the "Brexit" into an annual scare exercise to blackmail the EU for kickbacks. I hope it would not work: but it just might, since there is still enough good will toward UK in the EU.

I agree with you. It is just that I have made up my mind already.

UK is an island nation. Geographical isolation leads to a strong culture of isolation, where it is always us, the island, versus the world. IMO, UK doesn't pretend. They simply can't grasp that it is not just some monotone news on the TV. They simply can't grasp that they are part of it - because it happens outside the island.

I also favor Greece exit.

It is very similar situation as with UK politically: EU is constantly used as a scapegoat to justify the crap they do internally. A point of time comes when population is simply way too alienated toward the EU.

IMO, Greece is long beyond the point and UK is just tipping over. Reading the UK newspapers, the amount of arrogant BS about EU is astounding. (I follow politics reluctantly, but even I know enough about EU organization to call BS literally 100% of what people say about EU in UK.) They are definitely on their way out of EU. It is not the question of "if" - it is the question of "when".

That is inevitable. (Compare to Amis complaining about the Feds.)

But that's the price of making out of many different pieces something bigger and hopefully better.

So far, personally, I hadn't experienced anything EU did to affect negatively my life. That while there are some positives (like for example cheaper imports) which affect my daily positively.

I want Germany to grow to be able to fill the role.

It might be at the moment strongest economy in EU, but it doesn't mean it is alone. Which is the whole point of having the EU.

I want EU to be strong.

UK is pretty arrogant toward EU and showed so far no desire to integrate fully in long-term.

Them waving often their veto right (even if they are not part of some negotiations) also doesn't instill much trust.

I do not see the point in a larger but weaker union.

I think UK should leave EU completely. Sooner better.

P.S. I live in Germany.

I haven't complained about imports.

I have complained that Java's standard library is dumb as fuck.

The point which you have missed completely. Probably because, I get the feeling, you have never used any other programming language and you simply can't imagine how it can be any different, least better.

You mean auto-complete in Eclipse can write programs for me? It would read my mind and output proper working Java code, with all the boilerplate, configuration and 3rd party libraries includes?? Would it also by chance deploy to customers too? and provide support and updates? What is the keyboard short-cut to all this magic?

The Eclipse seems have made an enormous leaps in functionality - and all that in the 6 hours since I left the office. ;)

You have completely missed the point.

When you program in Python (the language I btw actively hate; Perl guy here) it actually feels like you programming in a high level language. It gives you the tools you need to accomplish the task. Not every tool, not for every task - but the tools cover a lot of ground.

When you program in Java, it sometimes feels like you are programming in assembler: the same level of attention to details, the same microscopic impact of every line you write. And you too need to write a lot of lines to accomplish the same, other languages allow you to do in one or two lines.