The Core

>culture and language differences meant it would never work.

Lots of deep thought in this thread, but it seems to me that the main problem with the Euro is that it is a common currency without a common government.

>common currency without a common government

there is a common government, but not every nation likes it. It sits in Brussels and has voted for representatives from every nation.

The French and German's love it. The newer Eastern European countries accept it more than the older member countries and overall it's despised at grass roots citizen level just as much as the freedom's it's given (and there are many to applaud) are loved.

Brad - I think my comments have run dry, but I do have to point out you keep naysaying and pointing at the problem with China, with India, with Bavarians distrusting Prussians, etc, and yet every one of those examples concerns a country that is still a union.

Sorry, but the convincing cases for me are going to be places like Ireland and the Soviet Union where there actual was a breakup, and then looking at the EU and seeing if the factors that caused actual breakups that have actually happened apply to the EU.

I think the elites are way to far ahead of the people on European unification.

Now that I think is a problem with the EU. Switzerland was the country where the elites failed to convince the people altogether. In the other countries, the votes passed, but it is questionable there was ever much buy in.

That is a difference between all the successful cases I mention - in those case the regular people mostly didn't care all that much.

Don't get me wrong - making the EU last for its first 100 years will be a major challenge (and I would only start counting from the Schengen Agreement of 1995). I think it's highly unlikely that it will survive, but not because of any single factor.

I think it will be torn apart for the same reason that most things are torn apart: because there are a million factors that are all one in a million, and so eventually one of them comes to pass. Nothing lasts forever, the question is how long will it last.

>Northern Europeans think Southern Europeans are slackers

That's the underlying truth (they are) that will pull it all apart.

SO TRUE

[ADDED]
"The euro is unraveling because commitments upon which its ultimate success depended—commitments that had to be credible if it was to work as intended—have instead proven to be perfectly or almost perfectly incredible. The euro, in other words, was built upon a set of promises that the authorities concerned were unable to keep."

http://www.alt-m.org/2015/07/02/alt-m-redux-incredible-commitments-euro-destroying-europe/

Anyway, it's been fun talking about it, so thanks everyone for putting up with my long posts.

Ditto... Definitely made me stretch my brain. I try to avoid that because I don't like it to get sore. But every once in a while it's worth the trouble.

I know that Iceland is a MUCH smaller economy than Greece, but defaulting seemed to be their best option.  The problem with austerity is that it seems to hit the common people very badly while it is the elite who benefit most from the fiscal irresponsibility.

The European union is flawed because it is more of a dictatorship than an elected Government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Commission  scroll to transparency.
They have not produced audited accounts for years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/11209248/EU-auditors-refuse-to-sign-off-more-than-100billion-of-its-own-spending.html
 They fudged the acceptance of Greece in the first place.

imho people are tribal, and it is harnessing that for the good of all and not the destruction off all that is key.  And I do think that was the goal of the Union.  I just think the ideal has gone south, and the cental govt has got to powerful.

Good luck to Greece, its going to be tough.

 Remember the Irish took a 20% drop in all govt pay, and we hardly heard a whisper of it in the UK. It would be strikes here if that happened.