It wold be nearly unheard of for anyone in Ireland to have winter / snow tires, as they might only be needed for a couple of days every few years. The normal adverse weather we have to contend with is rain, at any time of the year.
Sales taxes in the US are low by European standards, nearly all of which are in the 15% to 25% range.
However I find it much easier in Europe as the VAT is included in the price displayed, rather than added on at the till like US sales taxes.
Up to two ministers in the Irish government can be from the Senate.See Article 28.7.2 of the
constitution.
The only restriction on the type of bill which can be introduced in the senate is that they are not allowed to introduce a "money bill". Any other bill can be introduced in either house. See articles 20 and 21 of the
constitution.
The UK
cabinet currently has two ministers, Baroness Amos and Lord Falconer of Thoroton who are members of the house of Lords.
In Ireland and in the UK it is possible to have a minister apointed after loosing his/her seat in an election!
Because of this I find it very funny when some eurosceptics say Europe is undemocratic (and by implication their own country is a model of demoracy).
In Ireland the government can nominate anyone to the senate and then can become a minister.
Simalarly in the UK with the house of Lords (are still hereditary peers left?) the government can nomiate peers and they can then be made a minister.
So in Ireland and the UK you can have the very undemocratic situation where the people reject some one and they can still be made a minister.
This is why I said that the EU is at least, if not more democratic than some member stats.
I agree it could be better. However it isn't totaly true that the commision has sole rights of legislative initiative:
"Since the Maastricht Treaty, the EP has a limited right of legislative initiative in that it has the possibility of asking the Commission to put forward a proposal." Key players in the EU legislative process
In pratice for any major changes it seems to me, to be the council which has more power, as it determins the overall political direction of the EU. Also a lot of the horse trading between member states goes on here...
Which ever country holds the presedancy (currently the UK) sets the agenda........ just look at the slagging match going on between the UK and France... over the CAP.
The council is composed of the ministers of each member states. So to say it is undemocratic is the same as saying the elected governments in each state is undemocratic.
The commission is more like the civil service in member states, it's members are apointed by the member states governments. I do not know of any country where the civil service is elected. This is why the commission hasn't been given the powers to bring in laws on its own, with out the aproval of the council and the European parliment.
The EU is as (or more) democratic than it's member states. The bigest problem is some times goverments say one thing at home and vote the oposite in Europe and then try to say Europe is imposing something on them.
I would love to know what Europe "Coupland" is talking about because it is not the one I'm living in.
The jobs that are now tending to move to India, a few years ago moved to Europe from the US because it was so much cheaper to employ some one. When I was working for a big US company a few years a go, we could hire two engineers in Ireland for every one in the US because of the cost differeces.
Over 80% of what was in the EU constitution already exists in the current EU law.
Very few IT companies in Europe have unions. Anyway the only unions who tend to be unreasonable from time to time, tend to be in the state bodies and old heavy industry. I rember you had a port strike in 29 US west coast ports a few years ago. So I'm not sure if the US is better is on this count.
The EU growth potential varies from country to country just like in the US it varies from state to state. In some it is high in others it is low. However the media normaly love pointing out problems rather than successes.
My cousin took around six months to get broadband and that was only after ringing Eircom at least once a day for three weeks........
Eircom are out doing themselves with their latest trick. Anyone who wants to more to an local loop unbundled product (Smart Telecom) is forced to change their phone number because Eircom won't release it at the same time as the unbundling takes place!
The regulator then dared to try to do its job.... So Eircom has them in the High court to try to stop them....... So we wait......
The town my parents are living in was left off the broadband roll out for a long time because they miss read the census data!!!
I wish we had the situation in France, 20M/512k with free nationwide landline calls and TV for less than a 1M/128k ADSL only (was 512/128 until about a month ago). While not everything is perfect their either, it is better than Ireland.
They should treat software engineers like farmers. Which in the EU, have for years been paid to produce products no one wanted..... so come on intervention software....
And if we start to produce to much of the code.... they could always pay us to set-a-side our old machines and get paid if we promise not to plug them in.........
So lets campaing for grants, which we can farm....
I now spend a lot more on music, since itunes recently became available in Ireland, as I can now buy music at a reasonable price (half what it costs in the shops and more like the US prices). Combined with that, most of the music I have purchased is not available in this country anyway......
However, my problem is that the music I buy from itunes is unusable on my mp3 player unless it is cracked. So if I couldn't crack DRM and if CD were copy protected, I would be forced to stop purchasing music as I would be unable to listen to it.
At one stage I was thinking that as well as buying the music from the likes of itunes, I would also have to steal it using a p2p network it so that I could listen to it on my MP3 player. Which is crazy...
The music industry should consider that if your customers cannot listen to the music they will not buy it and the only choice will be to steal it.
Willie
Slashdot Mirror
It wold be nearly unheard of for anyone in Ireland to have winter / snow tires, as they might only be needed for a couple of days every few years. The normal adverse weather we have to contend with is rain, at any time of the year.
Sales taxes in the US are low by European standards, nearly all of which are in the 15% to 25% range. However I find it much easier in Europe as the VAT is included in the price displayed, rather than added on at the till like US sales taxes.
The only restriction on the type of bill which can be introduced in the senate is that they are not allowed to introduce a "money bill". Any other bill can be introduced in either house. See articles 20 and 21 of the constitution.
The UK cabinet currently has two ministers, Baroness Amos and Lord Falconer of Thoroton who are members of the house of Lords.
For more details look at Charlie Falconer
Because of this I find it very funny when some eurosceptics say Europe is undemocratic (and by implication their own country is a model of demoracy).
In Ireland the government can nominate anyone to the senate and then can become a minister. Simalarly in the UK with the house of Lords (are still hereditary peers left?) the government can nomiate peers and they can then be made a minister.
So in Ireland and the UK you can have the very undemocratic situation where the people reject some one and they can still be made a minister.
This is why I said that the EU is at least, if not more democratic than some member stats.
"Since the Maastricht Treaty, the EP has a limited right of legislative initiative in that it has the possibility of asking the Commission to put forward a proposal." Key players in the EU legislative process
In pratice for any major changes it seems to me, to be the council which has more power, as it determins the overall political direction of the EU. Also a lot of the horse trading between member states goes on here...
Which ever country holds the presedancy (currently the UK) sets the agenda........ just look at the slagging match going on between the UK and France... over the CAP.
The council is composed of the ministers of each member states. So to say it is undemocratic is the same as saying the elected governments in each state is undemocratic.
The commission is more like the civil service in member states, it's members are apointed by the member states governments. I do not know of any country where the civil service is elected. This is why the commission hasn't been given the powers to bring in laws on its own, with out the aproval of the council and the European parliment.
The EU is as (or more) democratic than it's member states. The bigest problem is some times goverments say one thing at home and vote the oposite in Europe and then try to say Europe is imposing something on them.
The jobs that are now tending to move to India, a few years ago moved to Europe from the US because it was so much cheaper to employ some one. When I was working for a big US company a few years a go, we could hire two engineers in Ireland for every one in the US because of the cost differeces.
Over 80% of what was in the EU constitution already exists in the current EU law.
Very few IT companies in Europe have unions. Anyway the only unions who tend to be unreasonable from time to time, tend to be in the state bodies and old heavy industry. I rember you had a port strike in 29 US west coast ports a few years ago. So I'm not sure if the US is better is on this count.
The EU growth potential varies from country to country just like in the US it varies from state to state. In some it is high in others it is low. However the media normaly love pointing out problems rather than successes.
My cousin took around six months to get broadband and that was only after ringing Eircom at least once a day for three weeks........ Eircom are out doing themselves with their latest trick. Anyone who wants to more to an local loop unbundled product (Smart Telecom) is forced to change their phone number because Eircom won't release it at the same time as the unbundling takes place! The regulator then dared to try to do its job.... So Eircom has them in the High court to try to stop them....... So we wait...... The town my parents are living in was left off the broadband roll out for a long time because they miss read the census data!!! I wish we had the situation in France, 20M/512k with free nationwide landline calls and TV for less than a 1M/128k ADSL only (was 512/128 until about a month ago). While not everything is perfect their either, it is better than Ireland.
They should treat software engineers like farmers. Which in the EU, have for years been paid to produce products no one wanted..... so come on intervention software.... And if we start to produce to much of the code.... they could always pay us to set-a-side our old machines and get paid if we promise not to plug them in......... So lets campaing for grants, which we can farm....
I now spend a lot more on music, since itunes recently became available in Ireland, as I can now buy music at a reasonable price (half what it costs in the shops and more like the US prices). Combined with that, most of the music I have purchased is not available in this country anyway...... However, my problem is that the music I buy from itunes is unusable on my mp3 player unless it is cracked. So if I couldn't crack DRM and if CD were copy protected, I would be forced to stop purchasing music as I would be unable to listen to it. At one stage I was thinking that as well as buying the music from the likes of itunes, I would also have to steal it using a p2p network it so that I could listen to it on my MP3 player. Which is crazy... The music industry should consider that if your customers cannot listen to the music they will not buy it and the only choice will be to steal it. Willie