You really should update your sources, CW. Communist? We? With Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders´ ideas spread along? (BTW which I decline.) Universal healthcare? The basic insurance covers less and less each day and the extra insurance packages are incredibly expensive (mine, miles away from the ´covering-all´ costs 120 Euros per month!!!! For only 1 person, so imagine what such an insurance costs for a family of 4!) And that teacher´s salary is, if my sources are right, less than a teacher´s salary in the US. 

So I´m hardly anything like a millionaire. (Reason why I still search for that rich, single and 85+ dudu..... )

The communist comment was a joke, Trudy! Alright, I don´t know much about your healthcare system, but it sounded like a reasonable one! And maybe you´re exaggerating that it´s so bad.

And.. if your salary was less then a teacher´s salary here, then you wouldn´t be able to afford your food, let alone all those vacations!

I used to be a teacher in Holland, but also had some tight contact with teachers in the U.S. so I´m able to compare. The thing is, in the U.S. not all teachers are paid on the same basis. In Holland you are paid on a certain scale, depending on the level of your teacher job (lower school or high school, and which level of high school) and depending on the qualifications you have. Then there´s also steps on the scale, with each step meaning more pay. Every year you work in education, you go up a step.

In the U.S., you can make more then a Dutch teacher working for a private school. However, as a teacher in the U.S. who works for a public school in a bad innercity area, the pay you make compared to a Dutch teacher is peanuts. I know about a hard working teacher working in a lower school, who had to get a second job to make ends meet. This would never happen in Holland. However, when you look at the stress level, working in education isn´t something you do for the money or the holidays. You really have to have a passion for it in Holland, to make it worth it.

The same goes for Polish teachers, they get paid peanuts so at the end of the day, it´s either an option for somebody with passion or with a well-earning spouse Polish teachers are paid less than Turkish ones. Still, everybody who hasn´t been a teacher believes they make too much. People seem to think teachers do nothing but kill time in between holidays. Yeah right!

Hasn´t EU membership helped with the economy a little bit?

When I was in Greece, all the people I met were complaining of the negative consequences of EU membership almost all of them advising us the neighbors to stay away fron it.

With all that red tape of regulations, compliance steps, economic aid schemes etc one would expect better results from EU integration.

Some of the inevitable results of the membership appear to be heavier taxes, a gradual drop in purchasing power, stagnancy and loss of political control over domestic and internal affairs.

The EU seems to be designed for the benefit of the powers that be within Europe. With Germany at the helm and France poking its nose in every affair. That must be why the UK has been so reluctant about an integration in the sense conceived by Germany.

The UK was right from the beginning, I think this union will not last more than a few decades. It will begin to collapse when those smaller nations have sorted out their economic problems after making all sorts of concessions to the big powers.

I´m sure it did help a bit. Being in the EU small business stand more chance of growing international and big companies operate easier without having to deal with double VAT issues. An average Pole hasn´t gained much in the country. But although he doesn´t benefit from duty-free EU flights he´s now free to work in almost all EU countries where having a normal job means being able to provide for his family, and this is the greatest advantage of getting into EU. Thus it´s not surprising over 2 mln Poles have left the country since the accession. It´s hard to blame people for wanting to live normally...

Damn headacheeeeeeeeeeeeee arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! :S

Drink more juice I have a headache too now, because I didn´t sleep enough... I was talking untill late last night with SOMEBODY, and woke up early...

much better after my lemon tea this morning..

 Are you putting catnip in your tea again?

these days I´m putting lemon, against your advice