Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Native Son on November 15, 2012 at 9:54am

"The Late Difficulty"

Permalink Reply by Paul_of_TX on November 14, 2012 at 5:13pm

What I find telling is if this were to happen I think the conservative states would use the Constitution of the Unites States as their guiding foundation. The liberal states would scrap the Constitution seeing as how it is a "flawed document". Those first two amendments would be the first ones thrown out.

Permalink Reply by Titus Techera on November 14, 2012 at 5:28pm

I don't think anybody doubts this anymore, at least the part about liberals wanting their own kind of rules. I have some doubts that conservatives are serious enough about the constitution, but at least they know it is a constitution. That's a start.

Permalink Reply by Nick H on November 14, 2012 at 5:58pm

China would probably just roll in with its huge, still unified, army and demand that the States of the once USE pay them what they own them,

Permalink Reply by Shane on November 14, 2012 at 6:05pm

Excuse my while I laugh at the thought.

Permalink Reply by Nick H on November 14, 2012 at 6:28pm

How about the Toronto Blue Jays once again dominates the World Series?

Permalink Reply by J. R. Manard on November 14, 2012 at 6:26pm

Lol! If they actually had the naval projection. China can't even expect to invade Taiwan successfully, let alone get here. I will admit that this thought was very amusing. And it brings up the completely valid issue of currency. Who prints the money? Would each state print its own?

Permalink Reply by Shane on November 14, 2012 at 6:40pm

That was my thought.  When a billion screaming Chinamen reach the Strait of Formosa with fists raised in anger, what then?

Permalink Reply by Native Son on November 15, 2012 at 3:41pm

It could get even better than that.  EACH bank (and some private companies) issued their own currency notes at one point or another during the 19th century.

No central bank, no central currency, only specie.

Permalink Reply by Nick H on November 14, 2012 at 6:17pm

Positive: Will never have to hear from ignorant fools in the news again thinking how great they'll be once they get away from the liberals/conservatives, gays/evangelicals, etc/etc. Once the country is done tearing itself apart there won't be much left but a few indebted fiefdoms. As Shane mentioned, most of the individual states are very wealthy when compared to other world nations, but would they still be if they no longer shared a currency, powergrid, and freedom of trade, travel, and everything from water to warplanes with their other 49 neighbours. I doubt it. Heck, the USA has been one nation for 2 centuries. Can any one state provide for all its own needs? Would they even know how? Food, materials, energy. Not to mention the human capital to make it all work.

Negative: Same thing Shane said, Rome. The world likes to bitch about the US but I think we live in sort of a Pax America era (despite the odd war here and there). Whether its Chinese banks storing US dollars or Russian expansionists weighing their foreign policy against how Uncle Sam will respond I think if the US collapsed the world would tear itself apart and then after a few centuries when things started to come together again, historians would call it the dark ages.

Permalink Reply by Shane on November 14, 2012 at 6:34pm

Texas has it's own power grid, and of all the lower 48 would be able to make it on it's own as a modern state.  Alaska, I think, would likely remake its economy on a Scandinavian model.  Hawaii would carry on and probably be bought out by the Japanese eventually. 

I'm pretty sure California would almost immediately collapse with North California seceding from them and Silicon Valley industry fleeing. 

Take Oregon and Washington and North California; and combine them into the Western geography going east to the mid-west above the Mason Dixon and I'd imagine a loose confederation of city-states with vast outland territories between them.

The South would make a go at it, but I think would only marginally be successful.  The North East would faction.  Florida would be shit out of luck on all fronts.

Canada would be f ucked as Russia comes over the pole looking for oil.  Maybe you could push southward into the new unincorporated territories like a real life game of Risk.  Might be nice for you guys to warm up a bit.

Permalink Reply by Nick H on November 14, 2012 at 6:57pm

Canada is always on the verge of splitting anyway. I'm sure if the US fell our economy would as well since it is so tied to it. heck, Alberta is working like crazy trying to convince the other provinces to let it build pipelines to ship it bitumen since at the moment its only customer is the US. I would guess that the Russians would find easier targets in the middle east (sans US protection) than try to invade a country as sparse as Canada.

Who would own the military? The nukes? Last time Quebec tried to separate I heard that all Canadian CF-18s based in Quebec took off that night for other bases.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• Next ›
• Page