The Unexpected Benefits of Brexit
In the wake of Brexit, the governments of the European Union and Britain will both work hard to be right and the people will prosper.
“There are only two tragedies in life; not getting what you want and getting it.” — Oscar Wilde
Not that Brexit will be good for the politicians and legislators of Britain or the European Union, mind you.
But Brexit may have some unexpected benefits for the people of both Britain and the European union- which will be utterly unsurprising to any student of human nature. And politicians and legislators are, after all, only human.
The shake-up of Brexit will be good for the people, of Europe and of each individual country- however they view the world and their place in it. Because whatever their views, every single person living and working in France, Germany or anywhere else in the EU deserves better than the middling economic growth rate of the last decade.
As do the people living in newly-independent Britain.
Worse than the current sluggish economic growth and high unemployment, some economic experts have predicted even rockier financial straits ahead for the European Union. It is understood that the onus of these predicted global market retractions will fall on the wealthier nations.
Wealthier nations like Germany will have to tap into already sluggish growth that might stall its own economy. This was one of the reasons that motivated proponents of Brexit in the first place.
This wouldn’t normally be a problem, at least it hasn’t been until now. Economic growth in the EU has been lackluster for a decade or more. It wasn’t popular, but it wasn’t a huge problem.
It wasn’t a problem, that is, until the U.S. economy started performing so dynamically and growing at rates dismissed by President Barack Obama in 2016 as needing a “magic wand” to achieve.
Across the EU, and in Britain, it must be getting more and more difficult for the financial managers and lawmakers to explain why other nations can’t follow suit.
The European Union, and more specifically, the people who are responsible for managing it and thus are blamed if things go wrong, will not want the exit of Britain to prove the EU’s undoing.
They will not want the forecasted EU economic gloom to come to pass.
At the same time, the newly independent government of Britain- and the people responsible for it- will now move heaven and earth to do whatever it takes to prove that the anti-Brexiteers, who called them everything from xenophobes to Nazis, were wrong.
The worst possibility anti-Brexiteers on both sides of the Atlantic must now face is: “What if Brexit Works?”, as the New York Times, puts it.
It is likely to work, at least in the short term. But not for the reasons Brexit proponents may think.
And the idea that it is likely to work in the favor of nations still participating in the EU is something Brexit detractors haven’t yet seized on.
For legislators in Britain and in the European Union Brexit is a beautiful and terrible thing. Metals at the center of the planet are under less pressure than British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government at this moment. The pressure to make Brexit a success, the driving need to be proven right about the country’s right and responsibility to self-governance, has created a feet-to-the-fire situation in government that is very good for the people.
Above all, Johnson’s government and all those responsible for perpetrating Brexit and seeing it through to the bitter end against the many objections of their fellow countrymen, will not want to be wrong.
For Johnson, failure is not an option. He and his faithful lieutenants will do whatever it takes now to forge new trade friendships, improve economic outlooks and lower unemployment.
At the same time, the European Union government in Brussels will be under an equal amount of internal and external pressure to manage the EU into greater prosperity and security.
Boris Johnson and his Brexiteers cannot be proven right by a complete economic meltdown across the countries of the EU; for the European Union, failure is not an option.
If Brexit proves a success for Britain, and the EU doesn’t perform as well or better, other countries will follow suit.
This do-or-die situation in the government of the European Union is also very good for the people.
Even if their reasons are less-than-altruistic, even if the motivations of these officials is pure self-interest and spite for the opposition.
It is about time the officials of Great Britain and European Union felt a sense of urgency to deliver economic prosperity for the people they serve.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)