[nkkollaw]

> There EU is generally a force for good

It might have been, I don't think it is anymore. I think they're passed that, and their focus in now on moving power from sovereign nations into the EU.

In addition to that, they've become corrupt enough to favor record companies instead of the citizens of the countries that are part of the EU (another example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18501825).

[laumars]

Here in the UK, a great many deprived areas were completely ignored by our own government whereas the EU helped fund regeneration on those areas.

The EU has also funded flood prevention programs in the UK while our own government has done naff all aside appearing for rhetoric soundbites.

Much of what the EU does goes unsung. And a lot of stuff gets completely misreported too (eg the whole bent bananas meme). In fact this has become so common that there's a coined term for it: euromyth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromyth)

[nkkollaw]

I'm well aware of what the EU does. I live in Poland and I see the signs.

However, all they're good at is redistributing funds. It's not the EU that does it, it's the local governments that do it.

Next!

[laumars]

Do you honestly think our respective governments would make that same investment if it were not for the EU? I honestly don't. You only have to look how the Tories (UK elected party) have put ever greater squeezes on the National Health Service, schools (even starting a program on privatising them because they're too self-absorbed rich kids who went to private school to even understand the problems normal working class families have - and trust me I have first hand experience that the Tories "academy" program (outsourcing schools to businesses) are failing kids!)

Since Poland is also shifting ever more right-wing (as seems the global trend these days) you're only going to see less and less money invested in deprived areas and services by your own government as well. Because for some reason some people see that investment as the work of left-wing socialists.

My closing point would also be that this is a small planet - do we really want to waste our limited resources and short life spans arguing over arbitrary lines on a map? It makes so much more sense to work together. We even teach our kids that cooperation is better - yet we cannot follow our own advice as adults? It's madness.

edit: actually it's worse than madness; it's just people with egos and silos of power.