Europe didn't have the time, since the post-war period it found itself in unstable politics, it had economic booms but nothing compared to the USA which had become a colossus, most people had a good idea or wanted to do a start-up went to the USA there were more funds, not to mention the greatest scientists who emigrated to the USA after the war, when the communication era began, a large part of Europe was facing an enormous financial crisis, the largest companies were starting to relocate and Germany was the only one that could compete, in fact some of the most important companies in the world, the European ones mostly belong to Germany, furthermore creating software similar to Facebook Instagram Amazon eBay etc was quite useless, both because Europe it is quite small both because our main economic partners were and are the USA

I heard this happened because we are not allowed our own search engines because of US

🤔🤣🤣man the title of the video tells it all of how they have to try and keep usa at the top of everything.Please the usa and Europe is in the same boat declining the usa isn’t doing no better then Europe and Europe isn’t doing any better than the usa.This video is ridiculous it’s like trying to say the usa is ahead of Canada 🤔🤣there both fucked up both of them.

That's true. I worked with an Investment Fund. We wanted to invest in certain sectors and start-ups in Germany. But the German officials took so much time that by the time they approved everything, we had already changed our mind and left the country months back. They make you feel that they are doing a favor for you. They were not rude to you but they were least concerned about our time and schedule.

​@@asmirann3636 Yeah. German KfW bureaucrats refused to give written info to investors and delayed the process so much that it didn't happen. Fuckers. (But it read irrelevant info and nobody should have cared anyway)

@@jamalgreen3056 Talk of the decline and death of America are grossly overblown. Most people are doing fine, and America is positioned in an extremely advantageous part of the world with a weak neighbor down south (border crisis can be solved quickly if political will is there), and a friendly and equally weak neighbor in the north.

@@jamalgreen3056The US is ahead of Canada in respects to economic growth and resilience.

Yes, the British are doing worse, take Germany for comparison: Germans earn on average 8,000 euros more than Brits, have better health care (no waiting times, more doctors), more vacation, lower energy prices (better/more modern houses, good insulation, comfort), a lower one Unemployment rate, 52% of energy comes from renewable energies, and there are billions of investments from e.g. Tesla, Intel, TSMC.- There are no tuition fees for schools and universities. The national debt is at 69%, so here too the Germans are doing better than the British with 101% national debt.

@@nettcologne9186Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, Poland, the baltics all have severe demographic problems. The UK isn’t as bad as those countries in this regard. The EU as a whole is getting old and dying off.

But the UK is struggling even when compared to the European Union.

@@stephenconrathe7197 The mistake is that the UK compares itself to the EU. The EU's economic power is 16 billion euros (GDP), the UK's economic power is 3 billion euros (GDP). The UK can compare itself with countries with similar population sizes and economic power, for example France, but not with the US, EU or China.

@@welshedyes you are right, you take hundred of thousands of Africans and asians every year.... of course you dont have natality problems. Last time I visited England I was in London and Birmingham and it looks like an arabian countrie, I didnt see english people

what r u talking about dude.. France is the nuclear power of the world

WRONG!

Dude wake up some stranger tells you A and you believe in A like you've never heard anything else... meeeh!

agree, i think EU has too many countries and too many laws in order to be united. A country that doesn't matter can veto anything in order to move EU forward. Also they work less hours than US and Chinese on average. Not saying it's wrong to work less, but you have to sacrifice something in order to have more free time.

Idk why so many people talk without having a single idea about what they talk.. There are more laws in the UK than in the EU, just to make an idea.. Also, there's a bigger productivity in the working environment in the EU than the USA or China, what's sacrificed?@@eile4219

2:05 where do you see our uk?

🤣🤣 The EU are bankrupt, good luck Germany supporting the rest of the block but that was always their plan and not a drop of blood was spilt!

I wouldn't see it as so dramatic, Germans still earn on average 8,000 euros more than Brits, have better health care (no waiting times, more doctors), more vacation, lower energy prices (better/more modern houses, good insulation, comfort), a lower one Unemployment rate, 52% of energy comes from renewable energies, and there are billions of investments from e.g. Tesla, Intel, TSMC. There are no tuition fees for schools and universities. The national debt is at 69%, so here too the Germans are doing better than the British with 101% national debt

​@@andrewtaylor6737it isn't bankrupt... That's nonsense.

@@Cofarl but it is look at the debt levels

And even then, Microsoft considered buying them.

Tbf every country will experience economic deterioration, it’s just a matter of where the country is on that curve. I reckon it’s to do with exponential population growth, and what happens in the post developed country.

Thanks for speaking honestly about the Economy crisis situation. Looking the the track estate, the industry has driven home prices too high for most families. The solution is for prices to align with family budgets, even if it means a market correction. The wisest thing that should be on everyone mind currently should be to invest in different streams of income that doesn't depend on the govt.

Especially with the current economic crisis around the word. This is still a good time to invest in Gold, silver and digital currencies ETH, XRP..).

What if you don't know how to trade any of these? I mean, see your point some people have the money and are willing to invest, the question is where to.

I agree, that's the more reason I prefer my day to day invt decisions being guided by a invt-coach, seeing that their entire skillset is built around going long and short at the same time both employing risk for its asymmetrical upside and laying off risk as a hedge against the inevitable downward turns, coupled with the exclusive information/analysis they have, it's near impossible to not out-perform, been using a invt-coach for over 2years+ and I've netted over 1.5million

It's at PPP, not nominal

Not sad, its days are numbered & not before time!

but when you are in US you don't feel a huge difference, do you?

Not exacly true. The IRA is just throwing money at the problem, while refusing to involve current leaders of industry. It comes at the expense of a MASSIVE deficit wich the US can afford because its the worlds reserve currency. Meanwhile the NZIA, will include carbon taxes (including on borders) AND will include industry leaders. This will help much more creating better ecossystems as well as atract skilled labour. The carbon taxes also mean you pay more for producing outside of the EU and transporting there, and help finance it, while also helping to increase demand for lower carbon steel, batteries etc, wich in tern reduces the need for high subsidies to stimulate demand. Furthermore, the IRA is helping european companies a lot more then the NZIA industry act helps chinese or american companies

You mean the US Inflation Rapid-increase Act? Because Bidenomics is working so well that 2/3 of the people give it failing grades. Who would have thought that increasing the money supply by printing TRILLIONS of dollars could cause inflation? Study Milton Friedman, NOT Paul Krugman.

​@@lostintashkent Yeah. The US living standard is significantly higher than that of Europe. Material consumption, living accommodations, comfort, and ease of life are totally different. European life is quite meager by American Standards.

" If not for America, Western Europe would not exist today & would have been destroyed by World War 2." You just wanted to tell us you don't know history?

@brb4903 After World War 2, western Europe was completely devastated. The bombing devastation literally destroyed more than 80% of Europe's cities & infrastructure. London had to be totally rebuilt after the massive blitzkrieg. There were complete German cities that were 100% destroyed & ravaged by both Soviet & western bombings. Berlin was totally unrecognizable. All of Europe's economy had completely & totally collapsed. The USA developed the Marshall Plan. They gave billions to Europe, especially Germany, to restart it's economy, rebuild it's cities, agriculture, infrastructure, & it's totally devastated manufacturing base. Not to mention, the German survivors were left totally demoralized. They had no industry, no food, no shelter, and were left with scraps of food because millions of Soviet troops had terrible vengeance towards the Germans & were frenzied with hate for Hitler & all of the German people. The Soviet Union lost between 20 to 80 million soldiers & civilians, fighting the invading nazis. Their anger and bloodlust were very hard to quench. Even after the war, Soviets were extremely brutal to Germans, including women & children. Millions of German women were raped & murdered. Unfortunately, millions of German women were raped & killed, leaving millions of German orphans with absolutely no means of support. They had to scavenge across war-torn Europe for scraps of food. The eastern front of Europe was severely bleak. The West really never knew the actual scale of destruction of the Soviet controlled east. Everyone certainly knew it was bleak & destructive. Even after The Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s and 1990s, there was still an extremely stark difference between post-war recovered west versus The Soviet controlled east. The West had recovered their technological advancements, their massive manufacturing booming industry, & had a much better quality of life compared to the depressing economically devastated eastern Europe. The Soviets finished the massive Berlin wall, & extensive iron curtain in 1950s & 1960's, to encompass all of the eastern blocks. This ensured Eastern Europeans were to be keept poor, indoctrinated, economically depressed, & under dictatorship. Eastern Europeans were trapped into the devastation of Soviet depots' ideology. The USA economy emerged in a much better economic position after World War 2, whilst all other advanced countries litterly faced national bankruptcy USA economyflourished. The war didn't touch mainland USA. The USA is still receiving repayments from our allies for our "Lendlease programs.""" Our isolation with 2 major ocean buffers, had left America with the ability to continually pump out food, weapons, & other resources our allies needed. If not for the USA, Hitler would have starved the people of the UK in order to obtain their unconstitutional surrender. We flew supplies through Alaska via Siberia to assist Stalin in the massive onslaught of Hitler's "Operation Barbarossa." With all due respect, I actually do know history. I'm a high school history teacher.

Yeah I agree. But saying that without America Western Europe wouldn't exist is a big fallacy since the opposite is true as well, without Europe USA wouldn't exist.@@nancypatterson2215

@@nancypatterson2215 You may know history, but you clearly don't accurately predict the future of conditional hypothetical situations that haven't happened. The "Everything would go to the pits forever and forever" is a well-known "The Sky is falling and won't get back up" fallacy. I personally think that if America didn't get involved, it would've been napoleon 2.0 and mr.mustache would've met his Waterloo.

No mention of Europe/ the UK's responsibility for making war on the Middle East.

Interesting for who? The two Portuguese who watch this channel?

No point, its been bankrupt for years! My extended Portuguese family want out of the EU, but won't have the luxury as we did in the UK. My 2 kids hold a both passports, but the Portuguese one is bloody worthless!!

Attract US tech digital nomads and millionaires with this one SIMPLE tax cut that locals who have to find housing HATE!! Would be Portugals recent economic policies dummarised

@@baratoplata7050 Don't worry, the property market will crash in Portugal / world. Hopefully the Português people will be able to afford property again, in the future 🤞

Actually its quite an interesting economy, its probably the most corrupt country in the EU, with corruption being speculated at 20% GDP a year, yet they market the country as this nomad haven, even though tax rates are around 23%-43%. They have a housing bubble but sell all the land to foreign investment funds, and the prime minister has been arrested. Whats not interesting about this?@@pollutingpenguin2146

He probably doesn't even know where is Croatia on World Map. Most of these You Tubers are quite stupid.

yet their allies are happily helping them to do that. when it collapses the US will take everyone down with them. I can't comprehend why europeans are happily subservient to their american masters

Well said!

Europe robs Peter to pay Paul. And it pays Peter with cheap or stolen resources from "the jungle"

It is. I didn’t expect decade and more after 2008, finally FED increased interest rate with QT within just a year. It’d still take years of QT to get to some “normal”.

@@rheung3 indeed and apparently 25% of USA companies are zombie companies that have only survived because credit has been pretty much free for the last 15 years. But now that interest rates are going up, it’ll be interesting to see how many US firms goes under.

This video refers specifically to the euro since it attempts to examine the reasons for economic under-performance in the EU. For purposes of comparison, the fall in the value of the euro against the USD since 2010 has been approximately 22.7%, whereas that of sterling has seen a lesser drop at approximately 19.8%.

He said he wanna move from Chelsea

Points well made.

African coutries too. Nigeria will pass all of Europe and by the end of 2100 europe will be overrun with Africans/arabs. Many African and Asian countries are experiencing massive economic growth that the west dosnt talk about. USA and Europe has aging infrastructure Asia and Africa has new infrastructure everyday

Hey thats whole of europe's GDP at PPP. Which is like 35T and china is supposed to surpass the whole contient by 2027. Europe and EU is different thing. In nominal terms The US has larger GDP than whole of europe.

Europe includes countries like Russia which normally aren’t factored in to the Eurozone, and the EU ofc isn’t all of Europe, so aggregate European GDP ends up being bigger.

​@@480darkshadoweven with Russia currently in nominal terms the US has a larger economy than the whole continent and this is 778 million vs. 335 million

Yes it is bigger USA 26 trillions EU 23 ( if we include the UK)

1978, the good old days of the Carter administration - double digit inflation, interest rates, and unemployment.

Germany can borrow at lower rates than the US, because it’s in far better fiscal shape and trusted to spend money more responsibly. But that’s the fatal problem for Europe: Its strongest economy refuses to borrow to invest or stimulate, out of deeply ingrained, economic illiterate superstitions about debt that will ultimately cost them more in bailouts and crisis responses than the cheap money they refuse to spend now.

They have before the housing crisis

I had no Idea the Russian Invasion of Ukraine was sabotage lol.

US 2023 GDP is $27 Trillion. The EU+ UK is still larger than China’s $17.7 Trillion though

Add too much Green Energy Garbage to that list.

Exactly. Who's gonna learn German.

What part of the public sector is a luxury? Schools, hospitals, social care, health?

@@stephenconrathe7197 Study Margaret Thatcher's reforms to see how cutting the public sector revitalizes an economy.

Ah yes. The "luxury" bit of the public sector for you is the bit that you happen not to use. Fine to cut that (who cares about other people after all) but if cuts were proposed for the things you depended on you would be raging about that. People are so dishonest with themselves.

@person.X. we have to grasp the notion of what can be afforded, what should be afforded, and the opportunity cost the public sector imposes on the economy. Government is the worst possible provider of anything - trains, education, health, gender equality, wealth creation: it sucks at absolutely everything and shouldn't be allowed to get involved. People who win a popularity contest every 4 or 5 years are not the ones to be given powers to borrow money. Let them spend what they raise in tax, and when it's gone they either have to raise taxes, or stop spending. That would bring focus and priorities to the fore, instead of the moral outrage of dumping de t on our unborn children.

@stephenconrathe7197 all of it. Nothing outside defence and policing that couldn't be better provided by others.

What data do you have to support these claims?

Another weird European fantasy about America collapsing. What you don’t mention is that 75% of our debt is owed domestically not to mention that if the US collapses the EU will also collapse. Italy also makes a lot of luxury goods yet their economy is in the toilet.

I wouldn't say Europe's future is good. First of all, where are you get the minerals and natural resources to produce those goods? Europe has next to none unlike USA and China, and in small pockets where they do, they can't mine them as it would quite literally destroy their strategy for meeting their climate targets. Also, the low fertility and aging populations would quite literally make the welfare models of European countries unsustainable which would inevitably collapse.

@@inbb510 We are talking about luxury goods - almost nothing on earth uses fewer raw materials. A $10,000 Saville Row suit used 3m of fabric... Europe's future is good if it wants it to be

Less . Europe needs more manpower not the refugee one but skilled manpower.

you can't start any discussion concerning a comparison between US and Europe without mentioning the gigantic differences in land and natural resources which clearly favours the US. Also, not letting the old continent being run by billionaires like in the US was a rational political choice in most european countries, especially the most advanced one.

@@MarcusLangbart Yes you’re right but USA land mass was same for atleast 150 years but they became relevant force after WW2 before that it’s just a country with civil wars, discrimination and economic hardship. But American actions in terms of sanctioning countries, monopolizing global bodies, weaponizing dollar against other currencies including not allowing Euro for crude oil trade against petro dollar to leading NATO countries into self interested wars all are quite evident. Europe which was a force in itself went more socialist in terms of welfare against a competition driven capitalist economy which is becoming more difficult to handle because welfare model works on taxes which a government can collect and with reducing birth rates, unskilled immigrants claiming asylums to acquiring European Skilled workers and industries by USA is all contributed to European downside of economic growth. It’s bad economic policy and too liberal approaches to immigration which is bringing added burden to European nations as these immigrants are adding burden of social welfare may it be in housing, healthcare or education and contributing less on contrary to US Canada Australia where skilled workers who generate higher taxes due to high skilled jobs they work in contributing taxes and higher economic growth to the respective countries. Only France is a nation which is some way independent in strategic and national security issues in Europe

​@kamaljeetsingh1467 before WW2 the US was just a country with civil wars, discrimination and economic hardship? What? There was one Civil War. Highlighting war or even discrimination in the US when comparing Europe is a little ironic. Theres been no shortage of wars all over Europe for all of history. The US overtook the British Empire as the most productive economy by 1890. Obviously US power and influence really took off post WW2, but the notion that the US only became relevant post WW2 is laughable.

@@chickenfishhybrid44 You slightly misunderstood the statement the economic hardship was referring to Great Depression and US acquired colonies of Pueto Rico, Philippines, Guam, Cuba etc with mainland. Discrimination was referencing to no women’s voting rights until 1920, income imbalance among blacks and whites, natives getting wiped out for commercial exploitation and colonies were used for medical experiments!! USA staying out of WW’s was more about congress and President Wilson limiting no foreign adventures, US banks lending loans to European borrowers for funding WW’s, American subsidies on arms exports during WW1 & 2, capturing of German scientists and engineers and shifting them to US mainland for R&D were all planned to exploit wealth and influence for USA. These all frameworks later turned into UNSC, IMF, WB, NSG etc which US uses till date to leverage influence and sanctions on other nations!! The Europe once a colonial states who fight against Russia, other European nations, USA went from being industrial societies to more socialist/welfare driven countries on contrary US became more capitalist and hegemonic with time as there’s no one else to challenge them ✌️

And then the time will come when the US owns europe via tech corp. You barely have any tech giants. Asia has a lot. It's like a different form of colonialism, but this time you dont even know you're being colonized.

30 years after the Treaty of Maastricht, Europe is more reliant than ever on the US for technology, security, energy and capital. So much for the French fetish for a “sovereign Europe”.

​​​​@@wafercrackerjack880There is a Chinese idiom called "boiling a frog in warm water", it used to describe a person who is in a gradually worsening situation without any realization of the peril until it is too late. Right now the Europeans are the frogs enjoying longer holidays in a pot of lukewarm water gradually heated by their competitors, especially the United States. Even though the water has become dangerously hot, many still fail to see or choose to ignore the coming danger, just like the comment in here.

Enjoy those longer holidays while you can. At the rate Europe is falling behind, those benefits won't be available in the years ahead.

The US can theoretically vote to implement more of those policies if they become popular/demanded enough. Europe I suspect will have a harder time voting themselves economic growth, a decent birthrate, natural resources etc.

I tend to agree but, for as long as the rich are never satisfied it will never happen. Automation will but it will only benefit the few.

Because socialism worked so well in the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, and everywhere else it has been tried.

That’s an odd idea. If you’re automating production, you’re destroying jobs. Ok you’re producing goods in higher numbers but who are you going to sell it to if you have more poor people? And even if you establish a universal income, the money have to come from somewhere so either you’re selling the goods overseas (in which case they will want to protect their market too, and produce locally since you can do so with automation) or the universal income you distribute will be contributing to inflation (we’ve just been through such a phase to remember how this works) and the consumption won’t be near the sufficient level to sustain this economic model. And next thing you know if you don’t have the population to support the model, then you’re creating more and more poverty.

&#163 should give the pound sign ;-(

No there is alot of reasons and eu Exploits to

And if that low growth continues in the EU, you can kiss that social safety net good bye. Either the EU somehow magically triples growth for the next decade, or it accepts much more young immigrants to pay the Tax burden of an aging Europe. If it does neither of those the quality of life declines.

@@teamtoken Europe has imported 20 million military aged Muslim men. Also no mention of the fact that US taxpayers subsidized Euro 'Solical Safety Nets' via funding NATO so Euro countries could divert money to them instead of the military spending.

Very bitter comment, most of which is false. The American standard of living is significantly higher. It's so much higher that the average European is considered lower class in comparison to the average American. I know you don't like to hear this fact but it's backed up by the data. The vast majority of Americans have affordable health insurance and access to higher quality medical care than Europeans. They also have access to the best schools and universities in the world. There's nothing wrong with loving Europe and preferring the European lifestyle. But don't spread false information to make yourself feel better about your life.

US stocks are doing well, the S&P 500 is up 18% this year.

I wouldn't see it as so dramatic, Germans still earn on average 8,000 euros more than Brits, have better health care (no waiting times, more doctors), more vacation, lower energy prices (better/more modern houses, good insulation, comfort), a lower one Unemployment rate, 52% of energy comes from renewable energies, and there are billions of investments from e.g. Tesla, Intel, TSMC. There are no tuition fees for schools and universities. The national debt is at 69%, so here too the Germans are doing better than the British with 101% national debt

So why is the UK economy doing worse than the eu?

@@stephenconrathe7197 Its not Germany is in recession. The UK is not doing to bad, we have just taken over France to become the 8th biggest manufacturing Country in the World. Last week alone South Korea are investing £21billion in the UK. Microsoft are investing £2.5billion, Nissan £2billion, plus £ 11billion on the Dogger Bank wind Farm. Thats all in one week and pretty soon you will be talking about real money !

Its not as simple as low taxes, although that helps. You should also consider how half of Ireland's GDP doesn't get to Irish people

"Ireland is booming" tell that to the people that actually live here

How far have the standard of livings fall? Consider for 2023 the US ranked happier than every major country in Europe

We got problems no doubt, but we do have many luxuries Europeans don't.

@@Solitas777 Thanks and that might be very well true. But at a huge cost to quality of life, is my point.

​@@Solitas777High end luxury for the top 10% ? Fancy restaurants and Holiday destinations?

Huge middle class in US; increasingly black too. Depends on where you are. Many US cities you go five blocks and you are in different world.

Yes

The whole world wants to be in America including Europeans. Stop consoling yourself with delusions and look at immigration stats. Only Switzerland and Australia have positive immigration with America.

That's your choice, but I understand that, thanks to your massive immigration problem, crime is skyrocketing in Europe, too. The difference is that, rather than using guns, Europeans prefer to stab and hack at each other. Also, the problem with stagnation is that its negative effects accumulate over time. You might be willing to live with it for now, but it will be tougher and tougher to live with it in the future.

Most gunshot wounds in the US are suffered by people who live in the most economically deprived areas of US cities. How do they afford healthcare?

While gun violence in the US is obviously much higher than Europe, if you're not involved in criminal activity especially, being worried about being shot is like worrying about being struck by lightning. Very far from "inevitable". Medical costs in the US are too high, but again Europeans and others hear stories of the worst cases and assume it's a norm. Generally speaking health insurances in the US have "have max out of pocket" amounts. They vary in amount but they're a whole lot less than $150k. Say something like $5,000, meaning the most you'll have to pay for yourself in a given year is that amount.

​@@aleph8888do you guys actually think that everyone is expected to pay cash for Healthcare in the US? Contrary to popular belief there is government funded health insurance in the US, it's called Medicaid. Depending on your family size and household income you may qualify for Medicaid in which you generally pay absolutely nothing out if pocket for Healthcare. Mediciad I covers something like 80 million people I believe.

It's still comparing the same metric to each other even if your don't like GDP.

@@chickenfishhybrid44 You have a metric on the depreciation of durable consumer goods? There is not even a variable for that in the Net Domestic Product equation. You really must stop being content with shallow thinking.

Which ones! Liberals?

And how many Europeans are leaving Europe for the US ?

@@sachaketchummaitredegalar I’ve been to Florida. There are lots of Europeans down there. More than at anytime before in recent memory.

@@lisaroberts8556 It is all clickbait so does one youtuber claim europe is dying and the other claims american is dying, well let me tell you one thing. The gass price is at its all time high but we are doing better than we ever have done. Europe

Lol...no.

Eastern Europe never had it.

Italy, France, Greece and Spain have similar above 100% debt to gdp ratios.

wow Greece, what an economic powerhouse..@@inbb510

yet nice video

I like the US too, so....good for 'em

At face value yes, but the US government also owns a large portion of the debt, a good 21% of it. At net, the USA's debt is comparable to that of the UK, however, more than a quarter of the UK debt is index-linked therefore as a tax burden, the UK pays more in interest than the US.

@@elifuentes7070most US debt also goes to USA companies as well

@@elifuentes7070 we could do what they have now that we are out of the EU. Article 102 of the Lisbon treaty prevents a cental Bank lending to its own Government. Irrespective of who owns debt it's still sitting on a balance sheet and in the case of the US the repayments are quite staggering.

@@garybird8646 Quite staggering? Maybe so but how can you not grasp the fact that a huge portion of that repayment goes to the federal government itself? Besides, the level of debt of the US is not that shocking compared to Japan, or China, and in fact, the US has a better balance sheet than the UK, Spain, or Italy. The last 3 are indeed economic basket cases that have dim economic futures.

@@beasley1232 Exactly. Just under 20% of the total US debt is owed to foreign investors, including foreign governments.

The US didn’t tel europe to do that. 😂

Not even close

I never heard of this. Are you saying that it was an American idea to create the European common currency? Based on what?

Blaming the USA again?😂

​@@zurielsssDesperate straw grab. Next blame the CIA for everything. They made us throw away our power plants. They made us jack up our taxes etc..