You'd may become alot richer on paper.. But you'd have no say in anything at all..
If we get down to the basics.. Why do the smaller nations subject themselves to buying OUR debt doing OUR labor, while we reap the benefits..
Because as-is, IF WE HAD TO, all we would need to do is stage a small scale international incident, GO IN and TAKE THEIR STUFF... Call it freedom...
Whether we'd do that is besides the point, the fact that we COULD means everything..
Look at Germany, They're RICH.. ON PAPER.. but no bombs, no planes, no carriers... What is their bargain with the world..
YEA,, look at me, I make the best cars... America says, alrite cool, give us the cars.. here's this piece of paper with a number on it, it says you gave me these cars.. now fk off, /freedom.
Germany is the most powerful nation in Europe. It basically funds/runs/makes decisions for the EU/Eurozone/IMF by itself. People don't like them BECAUSE they have so much sway in things in Europe.
You cannot just invade people anymore. You can't realistically say "they will do what we want or we would invade them" because of the backlash any military intervention creates.
With the genocide in Rwanda, and the one in Yugoslavia, the UN did the bare minimum to intervene in the regions because the member nations knew that public opinion of wars was at an all time low (see the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Arab-Israeli War, and Iran-Iraq war) so the UN only sent a few thousand troops each time. They thought sending the minimum would keep them safe from backlash, but it bit them in the ass because their troops (especially the Dutch in Yugoslavia) witnessed some of the worst acts a human could do to another human and could do nothing to stop it because of a lack of manpower and the weight of bureaucracy.
War isn't something you can do lightly. There is no way a large power would just casually invade somewhere for no reason. Other than Russia, but then Russia has been pretty ****ed by economic sanctions recently anyway.
You mis-understand..
War is not something that NEEDS to be fought, it's something that CAN be fought..
WHEN it comes to the bottom line, YOU DO NOT provoke the guy who CAN kill you..
The most powerful military nation, can afford to be slightly more aggressive during each and every conflict of interest, IN totality, that advantage exponentially increases his wealth relative to others..
And that paper wealth is then Converted Back into military power which is the True Wealth.
Japan is hopeless because it's too small, and as long as China is there with them missles, Japan is fully contained...
Germany has a shot at becoming a world power, all it would need is the MiddleEast conflict to get BIG...
That way, they would have a legitimate reason to Thoroughly Militarize..
When that happens, No one can force them to DE-Militarize, because they will always have the excuse of Containment of the defeated middle-eastern nations..
I predict if WWIII does happen.. It will be Germany's Revenge...
