What's the problem with living in Brussels? I'm not European, and very curious about that.

inglor_cz 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

They have their own neighbourhood and rarely mix with the rest of the population. Their Dunbar number (the max. amount of meaningful interpersonal connections that a person can maintain) is fully reached within that inner circle of European power.

Ironically, we managed to re-create a Forbidden City full of mandarins and eunuchs, or a new Versailles, only now they wear modern suits.

Scaling power institutions is always tricky, and this is the main risk.

	▲	Freak_NL 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Good point. At this point I would not be averse to mandating baroque fashion for everyone involved with the EU in that quarter. Also, the yearly trek to Strasbourg shall be made by horse drawn coach (that'll put an end to that wasteful travesty at least).

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port11 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

inglor_cz put it quite well.

Eventually it gets on your nerves how much worse the city has to be to cater to the Institutions.

There's something about non-taxed coddled elites eating oysters and drinking champagne at 9AM on a Sunday that makes you a bit of a cynic.

And then, of course, all your friends works for the research companies that get paid a fortune to provide advice to the Eurocrats. But well, your friend has a Bachelor's in Marketing and she's being considered an expert on Soil Research because… eh, the agency is getting paid.

The Bubble is there and you'll be exposed to it. It's not a good Bubble. It's mostly young MBAs and Political Science majors that think they know how to fix everything.

(And some very talented people, of course. It's not all bad.)