The average Hungarian worker on a normal job has a monthly net of under € 400. If they work for a large EU Co. like Audi or Mercedes then the net can climb to € 1500 monthly. My brother-in-law has a retirement of less than €300. With his garden, animals and welding shop, he is happy. All eastern EU countries get more than they pay, BUT they are used by the wealthy EU countries as a cheaper production possibility. Many there, including some of my wifes family, only get paid hourly wages, get no paid vacation, have no health insurance and if they get sick and cannot work,,,no pay. One of our nieces in Serbia pays €35 per month rent on her house. She only makes about
€ 150 a month. Where I live in Hungary, as town with 3000 population, over half are farmers, 20-30% are working in small factories and the rest are retired. We have several neighbors with UK, German, French and Dutch backgrounds. A small house with land costs under €10,000. We buy all our veggies and meat from locals. Wine from the neighbor costs € 1.00 per liter. We can legally make our own moonshine and have up to 50 liters in the house. WE can survive. Neighbors there still help each other, what I cannot say for Germany. My motorcycle fell over in a storm one night, was leaking petrol on the sidewalk. When I came out and found it and was standing it back up, the "neighbor" was watching me and said, "oh, I saw that happen last night"...I asked why didn't he ring the doorbell and tell me, petrol is running out!! -The answer:
"oh, I didn't want to bother you..."
You can imagine how he reacted to my answer: "well then, I won't ring your doorbell and bother you if your house starts burning..."
The eastern states were voted into the EU for some reason or the other, someone is profiting from it. All in a big plan to make more money from cheap workers and being able to buy cheap into the economy in each land.
Not sure if the UK will suffer in the Brexit. Not sure if the rest of the EU will either. I still think, each land has its own language, money, culture and possibilities. It worked before the EU for 1000 years. Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria and other EU lands, burned and shredded their each monetary bills when the EU and the Euro came.
FRANCE did not, they put their Francs into bunkers. If the Euro fails, it would cost billions to re-produce the needed paper money again. So much to how the French Gov't supports, believes and hopes the Euro will survive. Gary