
Could California Survive as a Separate Country? - electic
https://www.quora.com/Would-California-be-more-successful-as-an-independent-country-rather-than-as-a-state?share=1
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martythemaniak
That's kind of a silly question. Basically any reasonably-defined geographical
and cultural region with more than about 10 million residents can survive as a
separate country. California certainly qualifies.

The question with all separatist movements (Scottish, Quebecois, Catalan, etc)
is whether the costs of the act of separating are going to be worth the
immense hassle. Britain is trying to go through a something similar today and
they're finding that the nitty-gritty of it seem to be more challenging and
complex than the simple campaign promises.

Belgium may actually be, inadvertently, the model for how modern nation states
do separation. Continuously devolve more and more power to local governments
until the central government sort of atrophies and it hardly matters whether
you're in or out.

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didgeoridoo
Who knew California was so full of states-rights, local-over-central control,
small-r republicans??

Having a bit of trouble processing the dissonance though; the exact same
individuals calling for secession are those who consistently vote to
concentrate power in DC. Maybe instead of going to all the trouble to secede,
they could just seek a return to a limited federal government...

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dctoedt
Seems to me the question of secession was definitively settled in 1865.

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PhantomGremlin
That's a widely held opinion. A few years ago Antonin Scalia said, more or
less: "we settled that question 150 years ago". So yeah, this is silly.

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zw123456
Maybe California, Oregon and Washington could split off as an independent
country. I would have a large enough economy population and other things
needed to be viable. If it is put to a vote via initiative it is not out of
the realm of possibility.

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Justin_K
If we seceded and lost all of the benefits from being a part of the USA, we'd
be quickly absorbed as a colony of China or Russia. That and we'd need a lot
of desalination plants. And a fully loaded military.

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c3534l
If Oregon and Washington joined they'd control the west coast which would be
extremely valuable. Also, California pays more in taxes than it receives in
aid for things like building national highways, funding schools, military
bases, etc.

I'm just playing devil's advocate. None of that would justify having separate
currencies, adding border controls, and all that jazz. And without California
and it's massive amounts of liberal electoral votes, I shudder to think what
would happen American politics. I understand politics have become so divisive
that many people are feeling alienated from their own country. But this is a
childish idea.

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tropo
California already has separate border controls. Drive from Nevada into
California to see. California asks all sorts of questions about plants and
pests.

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Justin_K
I've done the drive many times and this doesn't exist, except when you leave
lakes and they're looking for mussels. Am I missing something?

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tropo
I last did that drive about 4 years ago, coming in just south of Lake Tahoe,
and they did stop me. They were too cheap/polite to tear the car apart looking
for stuff, as expected. Actually, they pretty much waved me through as soon as
they saw California plates and heard that I had only left California briefly.

Back in the day, they would dig through your stuff a bit. It was still pretty
symbolic though. They sure wouldn't find egg cases stuck to your shock
absorbers.

It's mostly to protect the agriculture industry from disease and pests. I
suppose it's also about other invasive species as well.

