10 decisions shape your life, and a handful of treaties shape your destiny

The Strokes says in a song that 10 decisions shape your life

We worry a lot about our personal choices like what to study, who to marry, where to live, because they indeed shape our lives. But we rarely notice that our reality is already shaped also by international treaties. Invisible rules that decide things for you each day

If you live in Europe here is how it works:

1. The Constitution. This is the basic rulebook that stops people from fighting each other. It keeps the country running: it gives you public healthcare and the right to vote. But it also lets the government take a big chunk of your paycheck through taxes. That money builds the roads and pays the police. If you break the local rules, those same police will throw you in jail

2. EU Law. This runs your job and your money. It stops your boss from making you work over 48 hours a week, bans toxic chemicals in food and lets you travel to Paris or Berlin with just an ID card and some cash. The downside is that it strips your local government of real power. The biggest laws are written by bureaucrats far away, burying small local businesses under red tape meant for massive corporations

3. The WTO. This is the referee for global trade. It keeps the prices of your phone, clothes made in Asia, or imported fruit stable. It stops your cost of living from doubling overnight because two governments are mad at each other. But it leaves your local community unprotected. By removing trade taxes, it forces local farmers and factories to compete with countries where labor is dirt-cheap. This destroys local jobs and makes Europe depend on foreign factories to survive

4. Global Finance. This invisible layer controls how money moves. It is the reason a foreign company can buy buildings in your city and raise your rent. But it also lets you buy global stocks from your couch using a phone app. This free market runs with no brakes until the system crashes. When a crisis hits, the IMF steps in with emergency money to save banks. In return, they force your country to fire public workers, cut healthcare and raise everyday taxes

5. UN and Human Rights. This layer protects you from bad politicians. The UN Charter sets the rules for how countries deal with each other and the European Convention on Human Rights protects regular people. If your government censors speech or locks you up without a trial, you can bypass your country's courts and sue them in the Strasbourg Court. The problem? This system is super slow and has no teeth. Cases take years and there is no international police to force governments to listen

The idea is that we spend all our energy arguing about local politics and elections. But changing the government changes almost nothing. The main structures of your life are locked in place by global deals your local politicians cannot touch

Yes, we still control big personal choices (like who to marry). But the biggest ones are already decided for us and we should start thinking about them more