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Originally posted by St_Andrew make that 1 a 2, i am also a supporter of a "united states of europe"

make it 3

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Originally posted by BadBadNeil Do you get to then have blue and red states?

Somehow I have a feeling Croatia will wind up as a red one...

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1+1=10

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Originally posted by St_Andrew How is it not totally free travel?

well originally it was planned that you could travel from EU country with no passport. They seemed to have scraped that one though.

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Originally posted by drizzt81 make that no one - 1. I would certainly be a supporter of a EU that is totally integrated. I do get your point however, that differentiated states might have an advantage. From a finance perspective, a differentiated portfolio, which the EU is atm, is usually preferable to any single part. Anyway, I am glad that I was able to pay for my Guiness and Beemish (which I prefer) in Euros when I worked in Ireland for a couple of weeks back in 2003.

i think the same currency was a great idea, very handy.

But i just can see it being a united states of europe. Too many complications. Like language for one. Also, it would be very difficult voting for a president like americans do. I wouldnt like a french or german person decding on major polices for my country.

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Originally posted by Yoepus I'm paying attention..... but what should I being paying attention too Anyhoo from my recent trip to Swissland (not an EU country) I uncovered that the EU indeed does squelche entreprenuership. To start a limited liability company, or any limited corporation you need about $20,000-40,000 that you have to put up and will never see ever again to sit in bank somewhere deriving interest for the government which holds it as a 'liability' against your company. In addition you have your huge license fees, etc, and complicated legal fees always needed when dealing with a lot of money. In Texas you pay up to $200 once and you have a corporation.

in sweden it costs about a $100. Must be some swizz thing to pay so much

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Now if I were to add and say that in this European nation that 10-50% of your corporations income goes staight to government, in addition to have social security, employment protection insurances, etc levied on you, and then personal income tax later. Where as in Texas you pay a limited franchise tax (not more than 5%) for running a corporation, and your American social security and protection, etc, with no income tax. Where would you start your business?

I am not sure here, but i have been told that companys pays very litle tax in sweden, however income tax and sales taxes are huge.

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Originally posted by Michael19 well originally it was planned that you could travel from EU country with no passport. They seemed to have scraped that one though.

well, i traveled trhough like 10 countries this summer, and for the "western countries" we droved through the borders in over 100km/h with a sign "welcome to insert-country-here"... You dont need a passport! for the eastern countries you usually had to slow down but they did never really check our passports...

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Originally posted by Yoepus I'm paying attention..... but what should I being paying attention too

I know that there is nothing of substance in the paragraph - that was why I added the smiley. The description "confident-sounding things that you hear Americans say about the EU" just matched some of your posts exactly. I think it was in the Iran-EU thread, where you called the EU a "pussy-state" - totally ignoring that the EU is not a state at all.

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Originally posted by Yoepus Anyhoo from my recent trip to Swissland (not an EU country) I uncovered that the EU indeed does squelche entreprenuership. To start a limited liability company, or any limited corporation you need about $20,000-40,000 that you have to put up and will never see ever again to sit in bank somewhere deriving interest for the government which holds it as a 'liability' against your company. In addition you have your huge license fees, etc, and complicated legal fees always needed when dealing with a lot of money.

In Denmark you can start a company with no monetary reserve at all. If you want to get limited responsibility (meaning that you can delve into more risky transactions without risking your own private wealth) you have three possibilities, which varies in the amount of money you must set aside and the direct control of your company that you need to give up. The extreme is becoming a limited company registered at the stock exchange: You have to set aside a little less than $20000 for paying unpaid taxes in the event that your company goes bust, and have to demonstrate that your company is worth at least $20000. To me that seems hardly insurmountable as you only need to go limited if you already have a pretty solid buiness I think.

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Originally posted by Yoepus In Texas you pay up to $200 once and you have a corporation. Now if I were to add and say that in this European nation that 10-50% of your corporations income goes staight to government, in addition to have social security, employment protection insurances, etc levied on you, and then personal income tax later. Where as in Texas you pay a limited franchise tax (not more than 5%) for running a corporation, and your American social security and protection, etc, with no income tax. Where would you start your business?

If I were a robot, only living in order to accumulate wealth in relation to my company, then Texas. If I wanted to live in the surrounding community, then I would pick Switzerland.

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Originally posted by St_Andrew well, i traveled trhough like 10 countries this summer, and for the "western countries" we droved through the borders in over 100km/h with a sign "welcome to insert-country-here"... You dont need a passport! for the eastern countries you usually had to slow down but they did never really check our passports...

I tried doing this trick from France into Switzerland this summer, but the border patrolman got fairly agitated. Shouting "the war IS over" at my driving friend.
But inside the EU I would say that free travel is more or less feasible. When travelling by plane you can pretty much get out of the destination airport without showing your passport. I have only been asked for my passport in the Praque airport, but that was only a couple of weeks after Czech had got accepted into the EU, so things might have changed there too. However, in a lot of countries in the EU you are required by law to carry your passport with you all the time - for identification purposes. So even though we may travel freely without a passport, we can't actually stay everywhere.

I travelled all over EU and the only time someone asked me for my passport was when I was leaving or enering EU. Switzerland is not a member of the EU, so they do ask for passports.

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Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Somehow I have a feeling Croatia will wind up as a red one...

either way...

as far as i'm concerned, last thing i wanna see is a bunch of fellow Croatians wearing raggedy clothes, smelling foul, and twisting their hair in dreadlocks.

a nice conservative atmosphere is always the best.

>JM<

i always get asked for a passport when i travel by plane within the EU

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quote:

Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 I travelled all over EU and the only time someone asked me for my passport was when I was leaving or enering EU. Switzerland is not a member of the EU, so they do ask for passports.

I wonder why Switzerland isn't a memebr of the EU...

Hasn't switzerland typically been a neutral country througout history? They also have their own money system like England, if that makes any difference.

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