Comparing apples and oranges Joe and you know it.

1776 you had 13 "colonial" states with common language, common and very simple aims, common currency and a common understanding of what government was and code of law. Where on earth is the comparison to the EU.

The USA did NOT join such a single market in the 1780s it created it's own and right from the start it was created as a political entity. We here in Britain were lied to and conned twice into believing that we were joining a trading block and ended up having a political union forced upon us that required us to relinquish our own sovereign rights and make our own courts subservient to a foreign legal body.