The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

Surprised Corwall is so poor. Always thought that was a rich area. Loads of rich folk with homes there at least.

And surprised that bit of Greece is (was rather) doing so well.

[The Larch]

What's so puzzling about it? The disproportionate effect of capitals in many countries? The distribution of wealth in Europe?

Europeans have NUTS 2 regions?    News to me.

And even NUTS 3 regions!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUTS_3#Levels

[The Larch]

Yeah, France outside of Paris is the biggest shocker, it seems to be on par with Spain. 

The French countryside has never been too rich. Agriculture is still huge in many areas, there's a reason why France is such a staunt supporter of PAC.

Curiously enough, the three English tits sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean are the poorest regions.  Must be something in the water. 

You're lucky that we don't have any Welsh or Cornish posters or you'd be up for a beating for calling them English. 

[The Larch]

Heh.  Marty is poor.

He's in the only yellow part of Eastern Europe.

The regions of Budapest and Bucharest are richer, but the region of Warsaw is much bigger than those two, which only seem to consist of the capital itself.

[The Larch]

Before  I met the Portuguese ambassador I would have been surprised by how poor the country is.

Rural Portugal is pretty fucking poor, even before the current crisis. It's funny how Spain and Portugal, having joined the EU together in '86 and receiving since then quite a lot of development funds used for more or less the same things (mostly infrastructure), have had completely different results.

[The Larch]

I'm consistently surprised by the relative poverty of Germany and the relative wealth of Ireland.

Those still don't make any sense to me.

Comparative poverty of Germany? Besides the former GDR almost every region is above the average, with some regions in the west and south in the top bracket. And Ireland did a bit of cheating in their organization, dividing the whole country in two regions and putting the two biggest cities (Dublin and Cork), where most of the industry and big companies they atracted with their low corporate taxes settled, in the same area.

[Admiral Yi]

Comparative poverty of Germany? Besides the former GDR almost every region is above the average, with some regions in the west and south in the top bracket. And Ireland did a bit of cheating in their organization, dividing the whole country in two regions and putting the two biggest cities (Dublin and Cork), where most of the industry and big companies they atracted with their low corporate taxes settled, in the same area.

I see quite a bit of yellow in Germany, not just in the former GDR.  Doesn't really jibe with the image of Germany as Europe's economic powerhouse and sugar daddy.

Ireland got it's start in the globalization game as a English speaking (sort of) low cost assembly platform for companies wanting to beat EU tarrifs.  Countries that play the low wage game don't usually win dark green incomes.

[Josquius]

Yellow doesn't equal bad.  Its more 'pretty average'.
Poor choice of colours I think.

Wonder how the US and elsewhere would look with the same scale.

[The Larch]

Comparative poverty of Germany? Besides the former GDR almost every region is above the average, with some regions in the west and south in the top bracket. And Ireland did a bit of cheating in their organization, dividing the whole country in two regions and putting the two biggest cities (Dublin and Cork), where most of the industry and big companies they atracted with their low corporate taxes settled, in the same area.

I see quite a bit of yellow in Germany, not just in the former GDR.  Doesn't really jibe with the image of Germany as Europe's economic powerhouse and sugar daddy.

Ireland got it's start in the globalization game as a English speaking (sort of) low cost assembly platform for companies wanting to beat EU tarrifs.  Countries that play the low wage game don't usually win dark green incomes.

Even if there are a few yellow areas that only means they're slightly below EU average, that's not poor. And most of the western part of the country is still in the greens.

Ireland's gig was not based on low salaries, but on low corporate taxes.

[Admiral Yi]

Even if there are a few yellow areas that only means they're slightly below EU average, that's not poor. And most of the western part of the country is still in the greens.

I understand that.  But it paints a different picture when the rest of Europe is suckiing at the teat of an average country, instead of a filthy rich on.

[The Larch]

Surprised Corwall is so poor. Always thought that was a rich area. Loads of rich folk with homes there at least.

Are you fucking kidding me? Cornwall is amongst the poorest regions in Britain, if not the poorest. Any place that has an economy based on farming, fishing and remnants of mining is going to be poor. They now have tourism because of being a quaint and unspoiled location, the fact that rich people have a summer house there doesn't make the region rich.

And surprised that bit of Greece is (was rather) doing so well.

That's where Athens is, capitals always do well (except Berlin).

[The Larch]

Yellow doesn't equal bad.  Its more 'pretty average'.
Poor choice of colours I think.

It's an EU map for regional aid purposes. The point is locating which regions need development aid (defined as less than 75% of EU average), not to make an academic study of wealth distribution in Europe.

[Sahib]

Why is Navarra/Basque Country so rich?
My stereotypical image would be that of hardy and proud but poor mountain folks 

[The Larch]

Even if there are a few yellow areas that only means they're slightly below EU average, that's not poor. And most of the western part of the country is still in the greens.

I understand that.  But it paints a different picture when the rest of Europe is suckiing at the teat of an average country, instead of a filthy rich on.

Average country? Give me a fucking break.

[garbon]

Are you fucking kidding me? Cornwall is amongst the poorest regions in Britain, if not the poorest. Any place that has an economy based on farming, fishing and remnants of mining is going to be poor. They now have tourism because of bing a quaint and unspoiled location, the fact that rich people have a summer house there doesn't make the region rich.

It's Jos, so no.