[captainmuon]

It's funny that the list includes both California and the US.

It would be interesting to compare economies of the same scale, regardless of legal status: If you are considering the US and China, maybe you should include the whole of the EU. And if you are looking at Germany, Japan, ... It makes sense to not only include California, but also to split up other countries. I'm curious how high up Guandong or Shanghai would be for example.

The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not "continents"/regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of "small" countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe.

[carlmr]

>The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not "continents"/regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of "small" countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe.

On the one hand, yes, you're right, the EU is more powerful economically as a whole than as individual states. But on the other hand the individual states are a bit less unified than the US or China. So they are a bit more individual in the first place.

[jillesvangurp]

The EU is still fairly new. It's only been around in its current form for a few decades or so.

EU countries still have:

- their own laws and constitutions

- their own foreign policy, embassies, intelligence services, armies, etc.

- their own taxation; there actually is no EU tax (though there is some pressure to create such a thing)

- their own policies for education, healthcare, social security, taxation, trade, etc.

- their own currency in some cases (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Poland and many other eastern European countries)

- border disputes like Cyprus, the Balkans (several former Yugoslav countries are members or aspiring to be). And though not part of it, you might count Greenland here as it is Danish with a special status.

As a trade block, the EU is pretty large. And the sphere of influence also includes former soviet states not part of the EU, Turkey, Northern Africa, etc. But it doesn't speak with one voice like the US and China tend to do. Also there is a lot of division on topics like e.g. the Ukraine war, energy, and a lot of other topics.

[Symbiote]

Each US state also has

- its own laws and constitution, search "Constitution of California"

- its own taxation (e.g. sales tax differs between states, just as VAT rates differ between EU countries; Americans pay income tax to their state as well as the federation)

- its own policies for education, healthcare (not sure about social security, and not for trade)

- some US states have border disputes with other states, e.g. Tennessee vs Georgia (Possibly the EU does not, they must be resolved before joining, though I can't find a good article on this).

- the USA as a whole has border disputes with Canada

The EU presents more division on more topics than the USA, but the USA isn't united on e.g. energy policy.

[Dagonfly]

> I'm curious how high up Guandong or Shanghai would be for example

Surprisingly far down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first-level_administra...

California, Texas, England, New York, Guangdong, Jiangsu. Both with slightly smaller GDP than Russia, the 11th largest economy.

More interesting is the PPP table where Guangdong is close to California.

[eGP9jDq_nw]

>The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not "continents"/regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of "small" countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe. is it? I've only ever seen USians push the "country of europe" thing

[standardUser]

The EU is very frequently included in data comparing nation states, along with it's individual members. It's the only supranational organization usually included on those kinds of lists, though sometimes you'll see groups like the G20.

[simonask]

The EU is also the only organization of its kind on the planet. It's not a federal state, but it's also way, way more integrated and unified than something like the G20, OECD, etc.

It's also the only thing that can work in Europe. Anything smaller would make Europe irrelevant on the global stage, and something much more invasive would erase Europe as we know it.

The current mood in smaller European countries is that even though many are skeptical of French and German influence, our interests align most of the time, especially now that the US has succumbed to fascism and stupidity.