The Dubious 'What Has The EU Ever Done For Us?' Meme

 

For obvious reasons, this meme above has been doing the rounds recently - purporting to offer a Monty Python-esque rhetorical look at how we've benefitted so greatly from being in the EU. It's a remarkable creation, because pretty much none of the proclamations on the list actually do offer a net benefit to our being in the EU, and the few that do point towards being benefits that would require a lot more unpacking before a robust conclusion is reached, making the list almost entirely superfluous.

To show why, I've grouped them into my perceived categories of error, and highlighted them in the following way:

Category 1 Yellow - Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy: in these cases: Since Y (outcome) followed event X (the formation of the EU), Y must have been caused by X. It almost certainly would have happened anyway, especially with the technological advances we’ve made.

Category 2 Red  - Irrelevant, this is one for markets to solve in accordance with their own domestic political legislation, not the EU.

Category 3 Blue - Not a benefit at all because it’s a bad policy, or at the very least one that falls under number Category 1, and probably would have been introduced domestically if good.

Category 4 Green - Too vague to be meaningful, and/or no attempt to justify net benefits in a cost-benefit analysis to determine which aspects of the policy are good and which are not.  

(Some have two colours where both apply)

The ones un-highlighted, I've left for comment – they are:

• The right to work in the EU

My comment: Sorry, no, that’s slippery. You can’t create something like the EU, tell us we have a right to work in it, and then claim it as a benefit. People should have the right to work wherever they want

• 3 million jobs

My comment: No, this fails to understand the basics of economics. Jobs are a cost, not a benefit. Plus if you create the EU and it's a net bad institution, then the jobs are providing less value than if the workers would doing more productive things. The opportunity cost of EU jobs is probably through the roof, like it is with green jobs.

• Single market, with no export charges or red tape

My comment: Indeed, but the whole world should be a single market with no export changes and as little bureaucracy as possible.

Final comment: I think the best things about the EU involve connectivity and collaboration for the mutual benefit of EU citizens – things like mutually established healthcare across Europe, visa-free travel across Europe, co-operation on counter terrorism intelligence, the European arrest warrant, and investment and collaboration in science – where we make ourselves stronger by working together and cooperating for shared progress. 

Alas, most of the so-called benefits listed on the viral document are embarrassingly weak - and the creator needs to think a bit harder.