Lol, yes they do. Look at Ireland and Croatia. Ireland has gone from being one of the poorest to wealthiest. Croatia is moving that way.

Wealthy countries all continue to grow also, obviously. So it’s the rate that matters, so gaps close and people are better off on average.

Lol, no. It’s to help them catch up so they can purchase products the wealthier countries sell. It’s mutually beneficial.

In what way? I thought unemployment was down significantly, which is a big help for a lot of people.

You do know that these wealthier countries pay more into the EU and the poorer countries get structural funding for infrastructure etc to help them catch up to the wealthier?

Which worked. It also worked for Portugal and Ireland. Greece may or may not have been able to correct their issues on their own. However, there were lots of structural issues, including cultural issues around taxation.

Ask Croatia, Ireland, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia andSlovenia if they are? Hint, they absolutely are.

Any union with such a variety of policies will have winners and losers for every project and legislation. Sometimes that will be individuals, sometimes countries. The point is that most are better off in general and that every country is better off from the sum of policies.

Countries have less control of their individual exchange rate. That was problematic for Greece, who underwent austerity, successfully I might add as access to the EU wide economy and trade, including (over)tourism is what’s taken them back from the brink.

In terms of larger countries, it has been beneficial for France and Germany, less so for Italy, but also less of a problem and less of the fluctuations the lira used to suffer.

The currency is only one aspect and a quite recent aspect. Many other aspects of sovereignty are ceded as a condition of joining. However, the pros outweigh the cons.

The point of the increased cooperation is that everyone is better off, with less risk of war and better protections. The EU sets many minimum standards for goods, services, interoperability and budgets, legislation, courts etc that countries cannot override.

Death to the US is reductive and inflammatory.

So, abandon the EU? Abandon the concept of the USA? My comment was tongue in cheek but deep cooperation can be a good thing. It’s part of the reason for the EU. Mutual dependency reduces the risk of war. Isolationism, like the USA is tending towards leads to more war.

Well, you can safely store it with trusted allies….