[disgruntledphd2]

> What I don't understand is the concept of NATO or the EU: why would a group of countries willingly band together as "happy vassals

NATO: Russia is a threat to both Europe and the US, lets band together to make sure we can fight them.

EU: Europe keeps fighting wars, lets make our economies more inter-dependent so that doesn't happen as much.

For NATO, I can see the happy vassals thing (and that's what the Belgian PM was referring to), but can you explain who is the overlord in the EU example?

[mfru]

Germany, France and formerly the UK

[disgruntledphd2]

The EU would be very very different if that were the case. Like, since the UK left we'd have a common corporate taxation system. Prior to that, we'd have had a military since the 70s, and only one stock market (in London, obvs) and all data-collection would've been made illegal.

(This is mostly satire, even if I think 2 of the 3 second things were and are great ideas).