and I understand OX's opinion, do you think this is normal that some regions of Scotland are undeveloped (see the map above) whereas they should benefit the most from oil extractions? Not surprising that half of the Scots are for independence.

Who cares if the world's warming up? I don't see the problem. Maybe Britain'll be a nicer, less miserable place with a climate similar to Gibraltar?

Well the parts of Britain that don't flood with rising sea waters will be great vacation zones I'm quite sure. However,places like Gibraltar will become pretty oven-like.

Not surprising that half of the Scots are for independence.

Yet they still voted to stay. Either the U.K doesn't treat them that bad or it's still better than being alone.

On a slightly off topic note, I love how the U.K lets its members freely vote on leaving. While if any U.S state even talks about the possibility everyone just laughs and the government refuses to consider it.

Even moreso, eklipse,because we are"states". By definition, we're independent. We're united by paper we agree to. We should be able to disagree if we don't benefit or if we disagree. Texas sure as hell doesn't need the United states. It's just another factor of the dumbed-down culture.

The main sources of income for the far north of Scotland are farming, fishing and tourism. The farming is restricted because it's not very flat in that part of Scotland. Their fishing industry is hurt by the EU's common fisheries policy. Then there's tourism, but the only people who go on holiday there go for either hill walking or salmon fishing and the weather isn't very good, so there's that dis-advantage as well.

That might explain why the north of Scotland is yellow.

Honestly, I think the Czech economy is bad, but not too bad for the Euro to do bad things to Czech in the short word.

Even moreso, eklipse,because we are"states". By definition, we're independent. We're united by paper we agree to. We should be able to disagree if we don't benefit or if we disagree. Texas sure as hell doesn't need the United states. It's just another factor of the dumbed-down culture.

From my knowledge, I don't believe the Constitution mentions anything about secession. Whether for or against. So the Supreme Court rulings stating that it's unconstitutional (Add that to the list of a hundred other things that aren't related to the Constitution but SCOTUS tries to make themselves an authority on anyways) is just the government saying, "It would be bad for us to lose you, so we're just going to say it's illegal so you won't think about doing it"

When I said "This is what happens with Tory government", I was not implying that the Tories managed to weaken our economy. I'd argue strongly that Labour destroyed the British economy, and Tories revived it, but at the lack of liberty, and strict austerity, which they continue to enforce today, threatening to cut even more benefits. What I was saying, is that the Tories are a very right-winged party "Get the rich richer, and the poor poorer" style. This is why a lot of the British wealth gets concentrated around London, and places like Cornwall, Wales, and the Highlands suffer. (Unsurprisingly, some of the least-English places of the country).

(Also, if you were interested - hardly any of the oil wealth gets given to the highlands, it is mainly concentrated around Aberdeen).

Edited 6/3/2015 17:25:40

^No one benefits from the oil wealth from anywhere the likes of BP, Shell, etc.

Edited 6/4/2015 06:25:47

*watches as the Europeans the "great friends" with all their hard work and cultural-ism, not understand that without standing together, they will crumble. Poland for instance, strong economy, still receiving aid, same with the Czechs. The damned Euro was a good idea in theory, but not for everyday use, The Lira, Pound Sterling, Franc, Deutchemark. All currencies that need to come back in order for their respective nations to keep strong( or in Italy's case, to become stable and strong again) This way the money circulates in the given country and not all over Europe. The Euro should only exist as a rock to base trade between currencies and international trade itself. like a ship from Milan to Rio, payment in Euros, easily converted to Brazilian Reals.

I disagree, julius. The sooner we can get the world on one currency, the better. The problem is, nobody agrees.

the issue is, we aren't advanced enough. A "world dollar" or pound or peso, or whatever, wont work until the world is mostly full of developed economies. I think maybe continental dollars would be helpful, like a Eurasian dollar, an Pan-Oceanic Dollar, a North American Dollar, South American dollar, would work better. It could help Africa a lot, and once their economies stabilize, then join them to the Eurasian dollar, the North American absorb the South American and then join the New and Old world dollars. Thus fixing it all onto one. however, the world is still mostly, not developed enough.

Economics gets really confusing sometimes. For instance,

Your bank balance is zero. The entire economy balance is zero.

You get a loan from the bank at any interest rate.

How do you pay it off? Other people will purchase your good/service you got a loan for, or whatever, but where did they get their money? From a job, but how did that business they work at start up? People need to make all these loans, but they can't actually pay it off. It's just a cycle of debt, from getting a loan to buying something then not being able to pay off the loan. Because, how do you pay it off when just about all the money you touch is your loan or someone else's? This is around where i (and most people) get confused. It just is a senseless system.

Factor in that it's all worthless paper. .. yikes...

*the basis of nothing is nothing*

A "world dollar" or pound or peso, or whatever, wont work until the world is mostly full of developed economies.

No, it will work, just the fat cats in the richest by head countries will whine.

Personally, I don't really see what a one world currency would solve. The same problems of greed and corruption would still be present, perhaps even more-so, under a unified coin.

I've long thought that the world would be much better off without money, where everyone worked for the good of everyone else and the government is able to provide for whatever needs. (For example of what I mean look at Star Trek)

However,I'm quite aware that what I stated above is a pipe dream and nothing more. It's unlikely we'll ever see the end of money and the greed which comes with it.

one currency, one government, one world order!

We require currency as a basis for trade. Without trade, the city dies. Nations just so happened to be built on cities.

Eklipse is a proud American communist...these things are rare.

Eklipse is a proud American communist...these things are rare.

Quite true. Socialist/Communist like economic ideas from the left plus religious values from the right means that I don't fit well with either party in my country. I can't say I've met many others that fit this demographic either.

the communist party is still forbidden in the US, right?