Being a vassal to the US was beneficial, at least up until the not-so-distant past. Think about it. Without the US security umbrella, many of these countries would have been in constant confrontation with one another naturally as in history, and forced to allocate significantly higher military budgets which would crowd out their touted civil industry. Also, they benefited from the US handling global 'security' and spreading Western hegemony, which, for a long time, served their own image and interests as well.
Never forget the primal nature of Western civilization, its internal dog-eat-dog competition, and reliance on external conquest and dominance to sustain and expand their empires. And how the US solved both of these for them.
Not to mention that keeping the economically beneficial EU together without US mediation would be difficult, and without American influence, it would be strange if wars didn’t arise between them.
Yes, the US oligarchs took the biggest share, but they still had their piece of the pie. While America poured massive resources into its military, European nations maintained decent industries, real wages, and strong social policies (all going away now btw).
Meanwhile, the average American had to endure falling wages, civil industries, and low-tier jobs, and buy into the illusion of prosperity driven by GDP and stock market figures that didn’t reflect reality.
The problem now is that the US has shifted from being a hegemon that allowed them to profit to one that is cannibalizing them instead due to collapse. Not only do they no longer benefit from following Washington’s directives, but they are being squeezed dry, trapped by coercion and their own inability to adapt.
In the past, the US gained geopolitical hegemony in return, globalized dollars, a powerful military-industrial sector for oligarchs, and strong assets for the elite. But, ordinary citizens saw little benefit beyond maintaining the status quo.
Now, with imperial decline setting in, the American public has lost too much and is demanding change, fueling internal instability. Meanwhile, external geopolitical competition, particularly from China, has become too intense.
As a result, the US is now forced to squeeze the EU more than ever, stripping it of benefits while cannibalizing it to sustain its own position. But this is merely a prelude to the complete collapse of the so-called "Collective West."
