The new common language
... or i$ it just the old, made new again? Twelve countrie$ in the
European Union have $witched to
the Euro, fir$t introduced in 2002. That'$ almost half of the EU'$ member$hip. Now Agence France-Presse has
moved a story noting that: "The United States has announced that it's ready to accept a common Asian currency" (my translation from the French). This is an about-face, as the U.S. has previously seen this as creating a rival to its almighty dollar. The one-Asia idea won't come to pass for a very long while, but it's on the radar. (And like it or not, the American opinion matters.)
How much longer before all of North America adopts the U.S. dollar? Or will there be enough crabbiness that the continent will adopt a new currency? I think that's the only way a common currency would work here. I do believe in common currency -- a global currency, in truth, though such will take time, to allow different economies to equalize (might also help encourage it?). But it's gotta be something new. If the US dollar goes continent-wide, I fear its culture will as well -- even more so than now, I mean.
Is this too utopian a vision? Can we have a global currency and maintain the glorious diversity of our many independent cultures?