Turkey and the End of the Butter Mountain Dream
There's a sad, revealing comment buried in this piece about the junking of Turkey's EU aspirations. Volkan Bozhir, the former Turkish ambassador to the EU, supposedly "has a dig" at the EU:
The EU dream has come to an end for the world. There is a paradigm shift. The EU is no longer the same Union that provided comfort, prosperity and wealth to its citizens as in the past. It no longer generates visionary ideas such as Schengen [the EU's passport free zone], or the Common Agricultural Policy.
Roll that around on your tongue a bit. "Visionary idea: the Common Agricultural Policy." Visionary, indeed. Protectionism, price controls, food mountains, export dumping, massive taxation, complete loss of competitiveness, a corrupt and bloated bureaucracy, and famine in Africa.
The saddest part is that this, for the Turkish ambassador, was the visionary apogee.
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Oct '10
Re: Turkey and the End of the Butter Mountain Dream
But Claire, food mountains no longer exist. Just look at this official EU graph (I kid you not):
(source: The Common Agricultural Policy Explained, EC document KF-81-08-237-EN-C)
I guess these are just 'food foothills' or something.
Edited on Nov 24, 2011 at 7:19amOct '10
Re: Turkey and the End of the Butter Mountain Dream
And it's not as if shoveling vast sums of money towards farmers is a uniquely European idea. Where the EU spends about EUR 40 million on direct subsidies to farmers, the US spends about USD 20 million.
Essentially the West has socialized agriculture with all the corrupting effects that could be expected from such an arrangement.
Re: Turkey and the End of the Butter Mountain Dream
I agree, Genferei, but at least I don't think that's our most visionary idea.