What does Brexit mean for the World?

This past summer on June 24, 2016, The UK was rocked by the vote of Brexit which refers to The UK leaving the EU or the European Union. The European Union is a financial and government agreement that involves 28 European countries. It started after World War I to promote economic needs that countries trade together without the need for war. This decision affects the U.S. economy and by doing so things such as Wall Street numbers drop dramatically and the trading relationship between the UK and the U.S. is impaired along with other nations as well.

First, many of you may be wondering what does a decision in a different country have to do with the U.S.? And why should we care?  I wondered the same thing until I realized how risky this vote could be towards our economy in the future. People who live in these countries during this time means shockwaves aren’t only being felt in the UK but also around the world especially in the global markets. Why should a political vote that could possibly damage the economy be put into place all because of a select few? I feel that this decision isn’t just about Great Britain but about all the rest of the people who could potentially lose their homes, have lower incomes, and cause people turmoil if plans aren’t in place. It leaves a great deal of uncertainty in the future of our economy and could threaten trust amongst other countries.

After thoroughly researching about this whole debate, I found that I do not support Great Britain’s decision to leave the EU. The people who voted for it obviously don’t realize the potential outcomes and hazards to something this groundbreaking but its decision and their opinion and they have every right to that. I don’t want to completely make it seem like the choice they made isn’t valued but it has a few pointers to it as well. Some supporters of the Brexit decision believe that they will be able to decide things like that in the long run because it gives them more freedom and could possibly better relationships and come up with new solutions between other European countries. I think that’s an important key when running a country because no one wants bad blood between countries when you might need their services to come together and make decisions like Brexit without inflicting any harm. Pro-Brexit Ukip (The leader of Britain’s independence party) Nigel Farage has stated that the Brexit vote will be “good news for exporters who have struggle with the high value of the pound”. That means they will not have to give billions dollars’ worth of pounds to the EU budgets which is beneficial to them because it will save them millions of dollars.

Roughly, the whole of Europe will be affected by this in one way or another. Poland which strongly voted for Brexit has more than 850,000 Poles living in the UK right now, and in the months to come thousands of people will probably have to leave in search of jobs similar to what will happen in the UK. It’s not right for millions of people to leave where they have homes, mortgages, and families where they have started to plant their roots. Immigration is a huge problem all across Europe because many fear that they will lose their jobs and their homes to outsiders who are coming in. Mostly every country in Europe will begin strengthening border controls and heighten security to remedy some of the issues that will pop up as the months go on into the New Year so solutions should be set in place now in case situations could get out of hand.

This vote has raised some questions into what is the government is going to do about all these sudden problems that might come up. The world was shocked by the outcome and many have asked even some political figures have called for a re-vote. A re-vote could help but at the same time with the way how the first vote numbers turned out, re-voting most likely end up will the same results if not higher. Petitions could be signed matter of fact, more than 1.6 million people have already signed. The petition if reached a high number could be proposed to the government to hold a second referendum. It’s more peaceful and could be reach farther than regular approaches if people show that they care about what happens in their country.