Quote Originally Posted by Plowright View Post
In some tiny-small way do you see the USA similar to the EU in any way? Wealthy states sending all their money to poorer ones etc? On a smaller scale obviously... In the long run the EU is trying to become one big country... Similar to how Yugoslavia was, it wants several federal republic states and the EU can act as the central committee
not at all. the states do not pay for each other. all citizens pay taxes to the federal government and that gets doled out to the states based on population mostly.

the states are autonomous in our system (much to the shagrin of the imperial fed folks), they grant power to the fed for certain things like national defense but they ultimately have the power to function as their own countries (see 10th amendment, or what's left of it). the eu is more like an over arching fed that rules everything.

in america, power and authority starts with the individual and works up. in europe it starts with the government (collective) and works down. that is why most europeans absolutely do not understand americans super strong sense of individuality and personal liberty even when it is against the collective. this is strictly my opinion, but i think it stems from the monarchical system of being "ruled". we just don't get that here and i think europeans and the rest of the world always want a certain aspect of that in their lives.