What's going on in Poland? And why is it so important for Europe's future? After the Russian drone mishap across the borders of Poland, the Polish government decided to station 40,000 soldiers at their border with Ukraine. It sounds like a military advance, but it's really a retreat, for Ukraine has long lost its ability to retake the Eastern Donbass region that has been effectively conquered by the Russian military. And so, Western powers are now focusing on protecting Poland, implying that they can no longer defend Ukraine. We can't call it a Russian victory, either, because Western taxpayers need to keep believing that the Russians are still losing, so that we keep paying taxes to fund the war effort. Paradoxically, though, the more Europe spends on this war, the less likely we are to win, and that is because of basic economics. If Europe impoverishes itself by spending its wealth on war, then, even if we win, Europeans won't be able to afford American goods and services anymore, and our economies will become subservient to China. Chinese investors, for example, have been very busy building warehouses and buying factories, ports, land and other infrastructure in Europe, so that they can sell products made in China directly to European customers, thus circumventing American mercantilists. Europeans taxed into poverty to pay for NATO would no longer be able to afford to buy from Amazon, but would resort to buying the cheaper goods straight from Chinese e-commerce. Moreover, the recent Trump tariff fallout saw Chinese manufacturers expose on TikTok how they virtually produce most of so-called European brands, and that products designed in Milan, Italy, are really manufactured in China. The difference being a 1000% price markup. Chinese industry is working very hard to establish itself as both luxury and unbreakable, in response to European consumer accusations that goods from China are fake and flimsy. Regardless of quality, Europeans will expectedly switch to buying Chinese brand as soon as European consumers can no longer afford Western brands. Europe has no believable response to this, except by imposing tariffs. A wealthy Europe, on the contrary, must remain subservient to American interests, and that means continuous wars for Israel in the Middle East, and continuous wars against Russia, China, and Iran, and possibly against Pakistan and India, too, if not also against Turkey in case of a Turkish break-up with NATO. Is there no alternative way for Europe to quit being subservient to either East or West, to either China or America? Yes, there is a way, and I call the solution the Century of Austerity. You see, our problem is overconsumption. It is our economic consumption that has made us so dependent on foreign powers. If we developed ways to reduce our consumption to the minimum, we could figuratively starve off our excess fat, and we could turn to our own people's labor for survival. We might even bring back the gold standard. We would make ourselves autarkic to a large degree, and trade our labor and intelligence for what we cannot produce ourselves. A century of austerity should make Europe strongly independent of the world, but not isolated. Although American corporations in Europe would go bankrupt, they would be replaced by European family owned businesses, not by Chinese replacements. And that is my point, namely to keep Europe European, to end the suction effect that our wealth has on immigrants by making Europe a place of hardship but also a place of pride. Through hardship, then, we become stronger, more competent, and more confident men. Europeans hold their future in their own hands. If we had the leadership to drastically reduce our consumption, to turn away from consumption-based capitalism, from growth-based economics, to make Europe independent again, the world would witness a European revival not seen since the Renaissance. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jmk.info/subscribe
