I mean, economics and being a rich place are great. I just think there's still quite a big divide throughout Europe on a cultural level. That's not going to disappear. And while lots of languages are super cool, especially to someone like me studying linguistics, it does offer a ton of logistical problems concerning those cultural aspects. The idea of representation is also super worrying, and the varying ways countries hold their elections. It's not a clean solution.
The idea's fun and all, but there's just too much in the way. It's going to take centuries before we somehow manage to make both Spaniards and Swedes feel like they live in the same Europe. America struggles with a concept of cultural unification, and that country had the benefit of not carrying with them thousands of years of culture embedded in their lands. And I see that that is not being far to the native tribes that lived there, but neither were the settlers.
At the core, fusing countries is a nightmare. More than two, especially. Just watch as that federation struggles to create a government, once it has even figured out what system of representation to use. And then there's the issue of education. Certain countries have better-educated people, on a per-field basis, and certain ex-countries will therefore run amock in those sectors. You have to straighten all that out. And good luck doing so, because the German school system is as alien to the French as the Dutch one is to the Germans. And the Spanish one is as different yet again. A problem in Europe already is converting those degrees and treating them as equal. It's going to be extremely frustrating.
And that's shit you get over after a while. Sure, it's not fun, it's going to piss people off, but in the end, you have one country, under one flag, with one reluctant culture that'll never really feel unified. But does it need to? No, not perse. So what are other issues?
Personally, I dislike big countries. I'm a small government kinda fellow. In inches, not in dollars. Ideally, Portugal's the world's biggest country and we kinda just left it at that size. Because a multitude of governments creates more opportunity. At least, that's what it currently seems like to me. I'm still reading up on the workings of international economics, so come back to me when that's at a braggable level in like fifty years. Military tensions also get bigger, and therefore scarier. The smaller a country, the less military it can sustain. And that's great, you know, as long as we're argueing from my previously proposed idealic world where no country is bigger than Portugal.
But I think we all know that international tension isn't the only tension. Political tension works great in just one country, and makes every person sick to their stomach just thinking about it. The bigger a government, the less room there is for variety of opinion, on a world scale. Countries have their own Overton window (communities smaller than countries, as well, but globalization is shifting that a step up). Thoughts extreme in America incite a whole 'nother feeling somewhere else. And yeah, it's great to think that a supercountry will be progressive and rule in the way that you hope it'll do, but most likely, that power is watered down by a variety of sides, as they try to appease enough voters to get them into office. It happens in two/three-party systems, it happens in systems with coalitions and tons of parties. The opinions are just going to be more extreme, or watered down, depending on the place. The bigger a governmental system, or rather, the amount of people in the constituency, the harder it is to be in tune with them. It's why the lower you go on the governmental ladder, the easier it is to find someone that does really represent you. And it's why most governments function like a pendulum. Blue, Red, Blue, Red. Or your local variety. Imagine that on a European scale. What is needed to make that function is an entirely new political systems. The American one will be rejected over here, the Dutch/German one will remain in a coalition limbo, and others will have watered down policy.
Although I do have to confess I see one big upside to giant countries. Making sure there are no tax loopholes. Because fuck unilever, and Nestle, and U2.
