Suppose the landmass known to you as the United States of America had been composed, since the nation's founding, of separate countries instead of separate states. Would you expect the standard of living of the people who inhabit this landmass to be higher, lower, or equal to what it is today

In my opinion, if the United States were not a set of unified states under a single national government but rather a set of independent nations without ties to each other, the quality of life of the inhabitants of each independent state would drop considerably. This is so because the economies of each state would be significantly less decisive than the American economy in general, and except for specific cases such as California, Texas or New York, the rest of the states would have a notable lack of resources that should be compensated through unfavorable trade treaties with other countries. In addition, the demographic and political weight of each state would be much smaller, which would not be able to obtain the same commercial benefits that are obtained today, which would generate a greater lack of jobs and a decrease in the quality of life of the citizens.