We take our safety nets so much for granted that we no longer see they exist. It is gratifying to forget the occasional misstep and to remember our own success as a purely independent merit-fueled progress.
Help does not have to have been continuous... A single out-thrust hand that prevented us from stepping off the curb in front of a car that might have killed us, that single momentary gesture, made everything since possible.
The concept of 'too big to fail' in banking reminds us that any institution, any person, any state no matter how strong before or after, can pass through a moment when their very existence is at stake.
In our personal lives we understand there will be times when a friend needs to camp on your couch, or you on theirs.
The Canadian Federation is built on the understanding that the one-way flow of gift from today's 'have' to 'have-not' provinces is in everybody's long term interest. Maybe the flow has been one-way for decades, but for that one fleeting crucial moment when we most need it, the flow will come to us and make our own future possible.
Americans do not even see that they also catch each other when they fall. It just happens. It's just there.
George Soros writes:
"The authorities didn’t understand the nature of the euro crisis; they thought it is a fiscal problem while it is more of a banking problem and a problem of competitiveness. And they applied the wrong remedy: you cannot reduce the debt burden by shrinking the economy, only by growing your way out of it. The crisis is still growing because of a failure to understand the dynamics of social change; policy measures that could have worked at one point in time were no longer sufficient by the time they were applied."
Forming a European Federation means a commitment to being there for each other; It means accepting that we are ALL stronger when we stand together.
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This was originally written in June, when the EU had just rejected Euro-bonds (again) because the Germans failed to commit resources.
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