Indeed it does. Those of us unfortunate enough to have been landed with this characterless currency now have no other choice, no coin to pull out of a drawer and entertain a child with, musing about how you got it as well as the old geezer who threw it at you. Another example of the way in which our society is being standardised in order to make us all wear the school uniform. And that’s not all. The responsibility of retailers all over Europe to refrain from taking the piss was also flouted, and has been ignored by virtually every European government. So why aren’t the public so arsed that they are being taken for a ride?
It seems a lot of them have hit the comfort zone anyway. The apathy that has ensued is staggering. People are now just prepared to have it thrown at them and bite the bullet when they feel the pinch. The idea that a lot of them are fearful of change is perhaps true, but if the change means standardisation to something ‘safe’ which they can all feel secure with, then they will jump at the chance. But somebody somewhere has to be doing very well out of all this, and I think I know who this somebody is. A banal theory perhaps, but European governments and European retailers would surely benefit from a little mutual back rubbing, wouldn’t they? Retailers do well, the economy does well. The economy does well, the government does well. The government offers favourable improvement grants to shop owners to appease them. But remember, this is all allegedly and a theory in my fecund mind, a mind which is able to tell the difference between two Euros sixty cents and three Euros ten cents. It isn’t that hard, even for somebody like me who is not the most observant at times and who basically lives in a fog. They even tried to simplify matters by stating the price in old currency next to the price in new in January of 2002, a month after introducing significant price rises. Shite though it is, the supermarket was the last place I thought I’d be stiffed, given that we need food to survive. I’m sure the powers that be in the business world are also feeling it though, bless.
So the idea of standardisation seems to appeal to the public, which doesn’t bode well for the future. And all the governments of Europe now know this. I did try and see the benefits of the new school uniform, collecting all foreign Euro coins and saving them. But because they look the same as the shite I have in my pocket every day, they soon lost their appeal. So even that small pleasure was quickly dispensed with once I discovered that a loaf of bread was now costing me the equivalent of various limbs. My local baker may well be wondering where all the Greek and Finnish Euro coins came from. Hmmm, could that be the same pocket that paid for his new shop front?
Fuck standardisation.
