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| Europe - BEFORE the crisis! |
Just a quick illustration of the general dumbness of the number quoting that is rather rampant in all manner of media items these days: One of the most popular number quoted to illustrate that the end of western civilisation is nigh, is the fact that in the last 18 months no less than five elected governments in Europe have been swept aside. The common assertion being that this indicates that popular unrest is rampant across the continent and that the political elites which have hitherto driven the EU project seemingly no longer can keep a lid on their long suffering, disenfranchised and alienated populations. Now, that may well be the case. Nevertheless, those five governments tapping out really don't conclusively support the argument that this is the height of crisis. For the record: I totally agree, that the situation in Europe is a little dicey. But to be brutally honest, if one takes the 17 Euro countries with electoral cycles that typically are around 4-5 years then 5 changes of government are pretty much exactly the number I would expect to take place over an 18 month period. More, if you are widening your sample size to take in all (27) EU member states. Not saying that there isn't any turmoil and the causes for those government changes were not linked to the whole Euro/debt mess. But the numbers don't actually tell us that. Numbers don't automatically proof a point! Never mind...details...why would anybody care...
