Unlikely..... ASEAN had shown times & times again how they can't even get along with each other.
Originally posted by hloc:Unlikely..... ASEAN had shown times & times again how they can't even get along with each other.
EU members fought wars against each other
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I don't see it that way at all. We must remember that we are looking at a symptom, not the cause.
Think of it in an economic context. In a community, you own a business that utilizes labor from the neighborhood. As your business grew, you have to bid for labor to take them away from competing use and your cost of labor rises. Imagine it rises sufficiently that people from other neighborhood find it worthwhile to travel to your neighborhood to work. As your business increases and you increase wages to pull in more labor, the labor may opt to live where they work and starts to bid for living areas in your neighborhood so prices of property rises. Other businesses also find there is more demand for their goods so they start expanding their business to provide for the increase in demand. In the short term we may see prices in the neighborhood increase as there is a demand for goods that is higher then supply. If wages don't increase, the labor may move back to their own neighborhoods, preferring instead to commute. However if wages are high enough to pay for these higher prices, labor continues to stay in the neighborhood and the new higher prices become standard. Because of higher profit margins for these businesses, we see other companies springing up. The foreigners integrate into the neighborhood. We start to see a variety of good tailored to specific groups and tastes. We see the neighborhood economy improve and residents becoming relatively affluent compared to other neighborhoods.
When governments step in, they anticipate the stages. So to ease the flow of labor, they remove boundaries between countries, removing the need for visas, work permits etc. To ensure that a strong currency doesn't keep people from moving into the neighborhood and preferring to live away where the exchange rate is in their favor, they create a common currency. Laws become common to facilitate easier understanding and enforcement of contract agreements.
Firstly, an economic model’s only concerns are economic in nature. Culture, religion, tradition, family values, patriotism, moral values, the arts etc are not economic in nature. Economic policy does not address any other issue and more properly seeks to wipe these out in favor of a more homogeneous economic outlook.
So one may argue what the new values are, ie the impact of non-economic values on traditional ones towards a new homogenous economic based standard. But it is pointless to argue about maintaining those values when the entire environment has changed so drastically from the one that originally bred those values.
The reason for taking such a drastic step in the first place was to create an entity similar to the United States with States and a Federal Government. I assume because that geopolitical make up was viewed as the appropriate economic model. All the answers to the questions you raise may be found by examining the American analogy.
The most interesting of which is who will wear the one ring to rule them all?
Edited: I think America's founding fathers were mainly Aetheists or Agnostic but now the country is predominantly Christian. You'll find your answer in that bit of history.
Asean will never develop into a EU type institution.
South east asian isn't europe.
The mentality is different. The outlook on life is different.
The historical experience is different.
ASEAN will never be like EU.
There is also no reason for Asean to be like EU.