As we stand today there are two possible outcomes for the EU. In the first scenario, a critical mass of member states enacts a sweeping range of thoughtful and clever reforms that allow them to transform themselves into sustainable economic systems, capable of creating livelihoods for the majority of the population without placing untenable costs on society. This will require convincing or forcing a large number of entrenched insiders - politicians, pensioners, workers in closed trades, criminals, subsidized farmers, and so on- to relinquish some or all of the benefits they have come to enjoy over many years to outsiders. By outsiders, I mean largely mean people under 30. And they must do so while not incurring adjustment costs so high as to break the fragile banking system and, by extension, the EU. This doesn't mean simply firing people and exposing uncompetitive enterprises, public or private, to economic realities, it means having a significant number of people consent to their lives being drastically changed so that others might have the opportunity to live productive, dignified lives.
It is that, or the EU continues to slowly deteriorate until it won't, at which point policy makers will find the decisions being made for them. It didn't always have to be this way. But this is what the EU's assembled political apparatus has left us with. In zen bhuddism, this is called 'small mind'. In markets, we call this disaster myopia, or perhaps simply collective incompetence.
