Re: TL; DR
>Have you seen the state of the Eurozone? Not to mention the growing extremism across the continent? The EU's a stagnant, mediocre polity, run by people who can't see past their own egos, and when it finally crashes and burns it will be advisable to be as far away as possible.
"A stagnant, mediocre polity", that is being copied in South America (MERCOSUR), the Caribbean (CARICOM) and Africa (African Union), all of which are working towards closer political and economic union and the four pillars. Other similar blocs are also forming as countries band together as "There is power in a Union" (B Bragg 1986).