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Comment by TimPC | Hacker News Reader

Yeah most of the states opposed to the federal government would never lead because they get a large amount of equalization type payments due to various measures on which they perform worse than successful states.

It's nearly impossible to leave a government you don't really approve of if they are transferring a large amount of money into your local economy.

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I wouldn't bet against dumb in the short run: see brexit.

It's a different sort of dumb. Britain didn't get more from the EU than it paid in, it was one of the wealthier countries in the EU.

Britain was wealthy when it left. When it joined the EU it was the poorest member joining.

Are you sure of that characterization that the UK was the poorest member when it joined? That seems incorrect. The UK has always been one of the stronger economies in the European zone.

In 1972 the UK still hadn't recovered economically from WWII, and the other members of the EU at the time were France, West Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. With the possible exception of Italy, all those are (per capita) economic powerhouses.

At the point of the UK joining Italy had a higher GDP per capita than the UK.

Thanks, I'm never sure about when Italy seemed to have declined (relative to some of the more wealthy neighbors). Or maybe tourism and partially remembered facts aren't a reliable source and their economy is still doing well.

Italy's GDP stopped growing when they joined the Euro.

That makes sense. The Euro was kind of a disaster for all the southern European countries, as far as I can tell.

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