> They really can't be compared
Sure they can. They show that a diverse set of "countries" with no trade barriers results in mutual prosperity. It's one of the great ideas of the United States.
Plenty of nations around the world are bullied. The US and the banana republics (which sounds a lot like arrogant victim blaming from the Americans!), Eastern Europe and Russia/the Soviets, Afghanistan and everyone, etc.
US states don't have that problem. When was the last time Idaho had to defend itself from foreign interference, invasion, trade embargoes, etc?
Regarding US states, and though I absolutely abhor playing devil's advocate on this one, the Northern states did force the Southern ones to give up their economic model at gun point.
Free trade, right? :-)
Your thesis was free trade turns countries into colonies. It clearly doesn't. It's other things that turn countries into colonies.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/trade-society/opinion/eu-fr...
Similarly to how Vietnams economy is hampered if it gets exposed to more mature parts and electronics industries from let's say Germany leaving only it's mature low skill industries sustainable trough low wages I can see the same in the west
I live in a western country and i enjoy relatively free trade with the US but I don't expect my country or surrounding ones to produce a software giant because I expect them to be stomped in the ground by existing duopolies or simply bought out. I don't expect something to join the competition between intel amd anywhere in a free trading world and potentially drive consumer prices down more because they'll perpetuate their copyrights and IP with well timed adjustments till the sun goes dark, etc
US states, despite what Americans tell themselves, are culturally/socially/economically a lot more homogeneous than random countries around the world are to each other.
And US states are all protected by the same federal government. None of them can really be abused by outside forces with little/no repercussion.
They really can't be compared (US states vs countries around the world).