The benefit of having "shit" called countries is that there are differences between them, so you get to choose in which one do you want to live. If you've got a whole federation where all the laws are the same and all the economy is centrally guided, you have nowhere to go (and the tendency to form large federations is supposedly appearing in the Americas too, so escape to the USA will not change much).
Anyway, the collapsing social systems of France (starting with the police was a really dumb thing to do) and Germany (already considering the increase of retirement age) shows that euro-socialism is NOT a price worth paying.
Eh? There are no plans to fully centralize all countries, remove national languages from schools or make a centralized law&penal system. As much as I dislike proverbial EU bureaucracy, I certainly don't think local goverments are being in any way supressed.
Besides, I wouldn't mind if it really happened. Although national identity, language, history and cultural heritage are to preserved, when it comes to economy, global politics or military forces, federation is the pragmatic way to go.
As for the costs - well, EU is a club. It has benefits, but it also has costs. It ain't charity. Other countries are putting cash into our development now, and logic dictates they're doing it in their own best interest, not because they're nice or because we 'deserve' anything from them...
I totally agree with your statement about stupid social politics in Germany and France (by that I mean everything - helthcare, retirement policies, immigrant policies etc) - it bit them in the ass BIG TIME. Same will happen, or is happening now, in Sweden for example.
This is an lesson we should learn well, so that we don't shoot ourselves in the foot like they did. We must cut costs, streamline and optimize this mess of a country and start investing those zlotys rather than wasting them.
Anyway, WTF? How did a perfectly good talk about beer and hos turn in this pointless direction?