Too Late To Join the E.U.?

Do you think the European Union would entertain an application from the U.S. without responding with peals of laughter? It might not be too late. Someone really ought to make this suggestion to the presidential candidates. I knew things were bad, having read stories before we left about Bolivian banks encouraging customers to save in euros, not dollars. But the situation didn´t hit home until we tried to use dollars to pay for dinner in Cuzco our first night, and the waitress refused to take singles. She only took five-dollar bills and higher denominations. And just six months ago, this same restaurant had happily accepted Will´s credit card and U.S. currency on a previous visit. Now we´re in Bolivia, where our dollars buy 7.3 bolivianos to the European travelers´ 11. 3 (which is also much closer to a nice round 10, rendering calculations much easier for them). This has been a long time coming, and is our just desserts after globalization, but really, isn´t there still time? Where do we apply?