These are the facts. No polemics.

Latvia gained its independence from under Soviet hegemony 21 August 1991. What happened next is instructive.

Restructuring their economy to reflect free market, flat tax principles, Latvia saw double digit growth between 2000 and 2007, with their economy beginning to slow around 2005. The Baltic Tiger is now close to dead on its feet. Books can, and have been written on the subject, but these are salient facts:

• Independence, 1991
• Privatization of economy
• Establishes free market, flat tax economy
• Double-digit growth, 2000- 2007
• Unemployment falls significantly below EU benchmark

Becomes member of the EU, 2004

• Signs the Lisbon Treaty, 2007
• By August 2009, Latvia's GDP had fallen by 20% year-on-year, with Standard & Poor's predicting a further 16% contraction to come.
• 2014 - Latvia adopts the euro
• 2015 - Radical depopulation
• 2015 - new economic plan, Latvia as the new Cyprus

To recap:

Free market, flat tax economy, then joins the European Union. Goes from Independent nation to a State within a much larger polity. Economic disaster follows.

The dots are there to follow. Draw your own conclusion.

Jesse Hand Conroy is the author of The Finale Trilogy