Fairness Pays

Outlyers: Greece and Italy relative to the rest of Europe

In this figure the countries of Europe are shown as circles with an area proportional to population showing Greece and Italy even more clearly as outlyers. The circles are coloured according to their status in the European Union:

• The full members are shown a solid dark blue.
• Members of the Euro currency zone have gold centres.
• Countries which are candidates or potential candidates are shown with a dark blue ring.
• The two countries that are coupled with the Union but are not members, Switzerland and Norway, are shown with black circles.
• Countries in Eastern Europe who are not involved are shown as grey circles.

 Greece and Italy have higher average incomes than is indicated for their level of corruption/inequality. The Euro bailout is in effect supporting these higher incomes; or, putting it bluntly, the very rich in these countries are maintaining their lifestyle at the expense of the rest of EU. The UK should not support this.

Confronting corruption is a necessary, difficult and never ending process. This applies to the UK, which recent reports suggest, is getting more corrupt. If the EU helps member counties to overcome corruption, then we should support it, even though it is sometimes us being corrected.

The new and potential countries need to reduce corruption in order to become fully restored Europeans. I suggest that the EU can help this process. This is a worthwhile aim which the UK should support.

The other major issue is of migration within the EU. What this figure clarifies is the extent to which this process may be driven by differences in GDP as well as unfairness.

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