can the EU afford to reduce its reliance on American defense? like, seriously - they'd have to increase taxes and reduce a lot of the socialism. cant imagine that'd go over well
To push back on this a little, the US did intentionally create an international division of labor after WW2, where europe and the countries it just defeated (Germany, Japan, Italy) would let the US handle the war industry / being the world's cop / capitalist enforcers, so they could focus on consumer products, and serve as anti-communist bulwarks with high standards of living.
European countries do save value by letting the US handle most of their defense, that they can then allocate to social services.
Of course the majority of value, and their social welfare programs, still come from unequal exchange / a tax on imports on goods produced by super-exploited global south proles.
can the EU afford to reduce its reliance on American defense? like, seriously - they'd have to increase taxes and reduce a lot of the socialism. cant imagine that'd go over well
Socialism is not "when the government does stuff"
To push back on this a little, the US did intentionally create an international division of labor after WW2, where europe and the countries it just defeated (Germany, Japan, Italy) would let the US handle the war industry / being the world's cop / capitalist enforcers, so they could focus on consumer products, and serve as anti-communist bulwarks with high standards of living.
European countries do save value by letting the US handle most of their defense, that they can then allocate to social services.
Of course the majority of value, and their social welfare programs, still come from unequal exchange / a tax on imports on goods produced by super-exploited global south proles.