This article is very hard to read without cringing painfully hard. I do appreciate the charts, but the article rapidly descends into incredibly poorly-consider

This article is very hard to read without cringing painfully hard. I do appreciate the charts, but the article rapidly descends into incredibly poorly-considered ramblings: "European nations have been so obsessed with their own glorious past, avoiding war, and pushing economic growth, that most of them—especially the big ones—haven’t realized they are small nations yet. Once they realize it, they will be ready to shed their baggage: their national identities. Only when they build a European identity stronger than the regional ones will Europe be ready to unite. Will they become a true nation." Why has Tomas uncritically assumed that national identity is "baggage" and that the only path is towards greater centralisation of power? Just so "the EU" can get the highest numbers in the "GDP" game? So that a centralised military can threaten other nations to gain more economic advantage? I can't think of many Europeans I know who would prefer to emulate US or China rather than maintain their current identity. I think Tomas Pueyo has written some superb articles, but this is absolutely not one of them. It sounds like an overzealous politics undergrad drunkenly boring someone at a college party.