In their conclusions, the authors recommend Northern Ireland – which remains relatively poor and heavily reliant on public sector spending and employment – embark on major reforms to improve its residents’ standard of living.
“Even though Ireland has a much higher national income, funding the needs of the people of Northern Ireland in a united Ireland would put huge financial pressure on the people of Ireland, resulting in an immediate major reduction in their living standards,” the report says.
But the reunification of Germany was literally ‘alternativlos’ (without alternatives).
This does not say, it was implemented perfectly or even okay. But in the moment of time it happened, I think the great majority of actors really tried to do the right things.
disagree. Gregor Gysi sums it up very nicely at Jung & Naiv: https://youtu.be/lnjqyDnSk4o
It wasn’t so much a reunification, but rather a takeover. East Germany was more or less plundered by West Germans with a lot of capital after the reunification, leading to a stark divide: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1ark1p5/eastwest_germany_divide/
